MILLERSBURG - It's only fitting that Upper Dauphin County will play for this year's District 24 11-12-year-old Little League Tournament championship.
The tournament's only unbeaten team earned the right to play for the trophy after defeating Millersburg 6-5 in the semifinals Sunday.
Upper Dauphin County will take on the winner of today's Cressona at Tri-Valley semifinal. The championship game will be played at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday as Upper Dauphin County looks to win its first District 24 championship since 2009.
Reliever Dylan Lower saved the win for starter Blake Miller, holding off several Millersburg comeback attempts late in the game.
Upper Dauphin County took advantage of timely hits and poor Millersburg fielding to jump out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning. However, Millersburg chipped away at the deficit, slicing it to 6-5 in the top of the fourth.
Millersburg had the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the top of the sixth when Lower got the final out on a grounder to short.
"That team gave us everything we could handle," Upper Dauphin County manager James "Lefty" Lower said. "They played us harder than any other team played us in this tournament."
Millersburg did not play well in the top of the first inning as Upper Dauphin County took advantage of three errors to build its lead.
Upper Dauphin County loaded the bases with its first three batters as Carson Barge was hit by a pitch and both
Mason Wiest and Levi Engle drew walks.
Nick Savage drove in Upper Dauphin's first run on a fielder's choice. However, an error at shortstop on a grounder off the bat of Lower allowed the second run to score.
A single by Miller single went through the legs of the left-fielder and to the fence, allowing another run to score, making it 3-0.
A dropped ball in right field off the bat of Blake Miller scored Upper Dauphin's fourth run, while J.T. Girard sent a fly ball to left that was dropped, bring home the fifth run of the inning.
"Its tough to spot a team five runs up front and expect us to overcome it," Millersburg manager Craig Zimmerman said. "But we battled back almost."
Millersburg began chipping away and made the score 5-1 in the top of the second when Andrew English singled home Garrett Fox, who reached on a two-out single and advanced to second on an error.
Upper Dauphin upped its lead to 6-1 in the bottom of the second when Savage singled home Wiest, who reached on a one-out single and advanced to second base on a wild pitch.
Millersburg answered with two runs in the top of the third on an RBI ground out by Ryley Novinger and an RBI double by Fox.
Millersburg cut the lead to 6-5 in the fourth on a pair of RBI singles by Connor Zimmerman and Logan Troutman.
The bleeding stopped when Lower came on into the game to pitch for Upper Dauphin in the fourth.
He shut Millersburg out the rest of the way, leaving the tying run at third in the fifth and the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the sixth.
James Lower went out to talk to his son after he got the first out in the sixth while nursing the one-run lead. He decided to let him finish the game.
"I just told home to bare down. We had to win this game to get to the next game," Lower said. "I had thoughts of replacing him, but I was confident he could do it."
The game started 20 minutes late because of rain. There was also an hour rain delay during the bottom of the second inning. Game Summary