P/T stays alive

Every facet of play came together perfectly for Palmerton/Towamensing in its matchup with Lansford on Saturday.

The result was a 25-0 mercy rule victory in the loser's bracket of the District 18 11-12 year old Little League Tournament.

The victory keeps Palmerton/Towamensing alive in the tournament as it will now travel to Tri-County this evening at 6 p.m. The loss eliminates Lansford.

Palmerton/Towamensing pitchers Tanner Burnett and Jake Taschler, who combined for the shutout, couldn't have asked for a better support system behind them.

"Every player in that dugout was on tonight," said Palmerton/Towamensing coach Brian Taschler said. "They were all hitting the ball and in the field everyone was making the plays when they needed to. I don't think we had any errors, which is a big part of the game.

"You make no errors, you back the pitcher up with your gloves and you go hit the ball. And, that's what we do and that's what we practice."

Obviously, practice made perfect for Palmerton/Towamensing on Saturday.

After allowing singles to Lansford's Bradley Buzzard and Wyatt Zimmerman in the top of the first inning, Burnett retired eight of the last nine hitters he faced before being pulled in the third inning. The only other hit he allowed was a single to Zack Kindt in the second. After Taschler took over with two outs in the third, he only surrendered a fourth-inning single to Tristan Blasko.

"We did put our bats on the ball," Lansford manager Tim Goida said. "I think we only struck out one or two times, but we hit it right at them. They made plays and we didn't. Unfortunately, we couldn't push any runs across or stop them when they were hitting."

Palmerton/Towamensing had no problem finding empty spaces when it was atbat, banging out 24 hits in the game.

Cody Wallace finished the night hitting for the cycle (a single, double, triple, homerun, three runs scored and five RBIs). Owen Reis (three singles, five run scored, RBI), Ryan Yacone (three singles, two runs scored, three RBIs), Monte Baez (two singles, double, two runs scored, RBI) and Eric Baumgardt (three singles, three runs scored, RBI) also had huge games. Eleven of the 12 players on Palmerton/Towamensing team finished with at least one hit that evening.

"That's a great hitting lineup they have there," stressed Goida.

Lansford 000 0 - 0 3 4

P/T 49(12) x - 25 24 0

Conre, Buzzard (2), Zimmerman (2) and Jungbaer; Burnett, Taschler (3) and Reis. W - Burnett. L - Conre. HR: P/T - Wallace (3rd, three on).