LL teams advance in consolation tourney

BY COREY GESFORD

Correspondent

Not only was the weather hot leading up to the July 4th holiday, but all the Susquehanna County Little League baseball and softball all-star teams heated up and advanced to the championship of their respective consolation tournaments.

The Little League baseball team rebounded from an opening round loss to NeBall to advance to the championship game of the Daniel Aquilio Memorial Tournament.

Plagued by errors Susquehanna County fell 8-2 to NeBall, a team comprised of players from the Northeast Bradford School District.

This dropped the locals into the loser’s bracket where they had to make the nearly two-hour trip to face Allegheny Mountain. The team was able to regroup and win the game 9-2 and advance to the tournament’s semifinal.

In the semifinal Susquehanna County avenged it’s opening round loss by defeating NeBall 9-5 and earn a trip to the championship game against Canton Little League.

In the championship game Susquehanna County rallied from an early 3-0 deficit, but a Canton grandslam homerun in the bottom of the fifth extinguished the team’s momentum and Canton prevailed 8-4.

“We gained some confidence after the Allegheny win,” said Susquehanna County Manager Brett Flynn. “We started to hit and began to play well together.”

After an opening round 7-0 win over Wellsboro, the Susquehanna County Majors Softball team played a series of games versus Towanda with a game against Canton All Stars thrown in for good measure.

In the second round of the Jackie West Memorial, Susquehanna County lost to Towanda 9-3 sending the team into the elimination bracket where they traveled to Wellsboro to face Canton. Susquehanna County brought the bats out in that game jumping all over Canton for a 16-4 victory.

The victory over Canton set up a rematch in the finals versus the winner’s bracket winner Towanda. Susquehanna County was able to avenge the earlier loss with an 8-6 victory and force a deciding game against Towanda two nights later.

In the final game, also held in Wellsboro, Towanda jumped out early against Susquehanna County and prevailed 11-3 to claim the championship.  

The Susquehanna County Minors baseball team advanced to the championship game of the Joe Shaw Memorial Tournament by winning three games. The locals defeated Sullivan County 15-5, Towanda 11-3, and Southern Tioga 10-9. They were scheduled to play the winner of the Towanda/Southern Tioga game in the championship Monday night in Athens.