STATE COLLEGE — The State College 12U Little League team jumped out to a 13-0 lead after the first two innings against Penns Valley on Monday, June 30, at home and rode those runs to a 13-4 victory in the District 5 Little League Playoffs.
SC opened the game with a six-run first inning and then added another seven runs in the second inning.
Penns Valley did creep back with a four-run outburst in the top of the fourth inning, but State College held them scoreless the rest of the way to take the victory.
In the SC first inning, Joseph Trego led off with a single and that was followed by two walks, an error, a hit batsman and then a three-run double by Gabe Pozniak that gave SC a 4-0 lead.
Andrew Maynard made it 5-0 with a fielder’s choice ground ball, and the sixth run scored on PV’s third error in the inning.
In the bottom of the second inning, after the first two batters failed to reach, triples by Bryce Black and Eric Goldstein, along with another hit batsman, were followed with a home run by Brighton Bean that suddenly put the lead at 10-0.
But SC wasn’t finished yet.
After three consecutive hits, Pozniak ripped an RBI double that scored three runs and increased the SC lead to 13-0.
In the PV fourth, three hits, two walks and three SC errors led to four Penns Valley runs and drew the team to within nine runs, 13-9 with two innings still to play.
But State College tightened its defense, and two relief pitchers kept PV off the board the rest of the way.
State College collected 12 hits in the game and was led by Pozniak with three hits and four RBIs, while Bean had a home run and three RBIs.
Black and Goldstein each hit triples in the second inning.
Nolan Schenck was the winning pitcher with two perfect innings and two strikeouts.
The SC team will move on now in the D5 Playoffs with its next opponent to be announced.
