CRESSONA — Years from now, a player or coach on the Cressona 10-11-year-old all-star team — or fans who witnessed it — will bring up the Railway Park game.
They’ll have lots of fun reminiscing about “The Rally’’ and a Little League memory for life.
Trailing Railway by five and down to its last three outs, Cressona’s hopes seemed bleak during Wednesday’s District 24 Little League 10-11-year-old semifinal.
Then the Cressona stars started hitting, hitting some more and running the bases aggressively.
When the top of the sixth inning finally ended, Cressona had sent 16 batters to the plate, scored 11 runs and went on to defeat Railway Park 17-11 as darkness began to descend on southern Schuylkill County.
“It’s surreal,’’ Cressona manager John Carroll said. “I can’t believe we came back. ... I’m speechless.
“Both teams played their hearts out. ... This was a battle,’’ he added. “This Little League, it’s fun stuff.’’
With the win, Cressona (5-0) advanced to Saturday’s
championship game against Upper Dauphin County (5-0), which edged Ashland 4-3 in seven innings in the other semifinal. Game time is 5:30 p.m. in Cressona.
During the early part of the 2-hour, 20-minute battle of attrition, Cressona had lots of fun. Chris Moyer’s two-run single helped it jump out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning.
Cressona still held a 6-3 advantage heading to the bottom of the fourth.
But Railway Park, which had fought from behind all night, didn’t go away quietly.
Logan Eckley rapped an RBI single as the Pottsville stars tied the game at 6 in the fourth inning.
Railway Park batted around plus one in the fifth to take what looked like a secure 11-6 advantage. Jazce Snowell hit an RBI single and Eckley smacked a ringing, run-scoring double off the fence in left-center.
So Railway Park, which had to dig out of a hole just to make the semifinals, found itself just three outs from the championship game.
“We started out this tournament 0-2, so to come back and put ourselves in (this) situation really showed the character and the heart that these kids have,’’ Railway Park manager Chuck Bauers said.
“We put ourselves in position to have a chance to win, fought hard and came up a little short.’’
After managing just five hits through the first five innings, Cressona bunched seven hits and five walks to produce its double-digit inning.
Logan Koch led off and started the comeback by scorching a triple to deep right field.
“We have a pulse,’’ John Carroll said.
Branson Devitt followed with an RBI groundout, but at that point, Railway Park was happy to trade a run for an out.
The problem was that the next five Cressona batters reached base, and one of those was a two-run double off the bat of Adam Carroll.
Cressona kept walking and hitting as Devitt and Carroll added two-run singles later in the inning.
In the sixth inning alone, Carroll doubled, singled and drove in four runs. Devitt had three of his four RBIs in the sixth inning.
Koch had a big day out of the No. 2 hole, going 2-for-3 with two walks, four runs scored and one RBI.
For the game, all 10 Cressona players had at least one hit, one run scored or one RBI.
“The whole all-star season they did that,’’ John Carroll said of the comeback. “I never thought in a million years they would do that.
“Before that half of the inning I sat down on the bench, looked at them and said, ‘I don’t care what happens. I’m proud of you guys, no matter what the outcome of this game is because you played awesome all year. Win or lose, I’m proud of you.’
“And they came out like a ball of fire.’’
Game Summary
District 24 Little League
10-11-year-old Semifinal
At Cressona
Cressona (5-0) 040 20(11) — 17 12 2
Railway (2-3) 021 3 5 0— 11 6 3
Heydt, Devitt (2), Moyer (5) and Guers; Schreffler, Dunn (2), Bauers (6) and Eckley, Snowell (3). W — Moyer. L — Dunn.
HITS: Cressona — Moyer, Koch 2, Devitt 2, Guers 2, Carroll 2, Hine, Kline 2. Railway Park — Schreffler, Snowell, Eckley 2, Bauers 2.
2B — Carroll, Eckley. 3B — Koch.