LOCAL SPORTS: Kittanning 11/12 All-Star Team Moves on to the Championship

by Jake DeLuca

The Kittanning 11/12 year old All-Star team made it all the way to the Championship in the All-Star Tournament, and they repeated that success last night to earn a spot in the Tournament of Champions Championship round.

It was a scorching hot night for baseball last night, but that didn’t seem to affect the players on either side in the slightest.

Kittanning took on West Shamokin at Ding Field in Rural Valley in what turned out to be an offensive showdown.

After the coin flip to determine the team that leads off batting, the game was underway. West Shamokin was able to jump out to an early lead, scoring three runs in the first inning.

Zane Lasher got the hitting started for Kittanning in the game, as he lead off the inning with a double. The Kittanning All-Stars would go on to bat the whole way through the rotation in the first inning to jump out to a 6-3 lead over West Shamokin.

This game was back and forth, the two teams were trading runs, and eventually something was going to have to give for one of these two teams.

Both teams were facing elimination, as this game was set to determine who would go up against New Bethlehem in the championship.

The fourth inning ended up being the turning point for Kittanning, as they were able to put it all together. In the top of the inning, Pitcher Josh Cicero was able to prevent West Shamokin from scoring and kept the score at 12-11 in favor of West Shamokin. On the other side of the ball, Kittanning was able to string together five runs, including three home runs. To lead off the inning Peyton Harter hit a first pitch homerun, and if that wasn’t enough, his teammates Connor Paul and Eli Wiles hit homeruns as well.

At the end of the fourth inning, Kittanning had the lead 16-12 and that would end up being enough to walk out of Ding Field with a win. West Shamokin would go on to score one run in the sixth inning, but that wasn’t enough as the final score was 16-13 Kittanning.

Both the Kittanning 9/10 year old team and the Kittanning 11/12 year old team will have the opportunity to avenge their All-Star Championship losses to Indiana and New Bethlehem today (Wednesday) at Montebell Field. The 9/10 year old team will start things off at 6:00 PM against Indiana and the 11/12 year old team will follow at around 8:00 PM.