Little League Baseball: Blue Mountain stumbles to East Side, sets up state championship matchup Tuesday
PITTSTON — Blue Mountain stumbled out of the gate and couldn’t muster a rally when they lost 8-2 to Eastside in the championship opener of the Little League Baseball Pennsylvania State Tournament on Monday afternoon.
The Eagles are now set for the winner-take-all state championship against Eastside on Tuesday from Pittston’s Jenkins Township Little League Field at 5 p.m.
“We’ve got another shot tomorrow so we have to come out ready to play tomorrow and give a better effort,” Blue Mountain coach Cory Porrino said. “We’ll be ready to go.”
East Side struck for three runs in the first two innings and five more runs across the fourth and fifth innings off Blue Mountain’s Anthony Grimminger. The Eagles posted two runs in the fifth but it wasn’t enough to stage any sort of comeback for the road team on the scoreboard.
“We made mistakes all around today and it’s hard to pinpoint one thing and we’ve got to come with a better effort tomorrow,” Porrino said. “We’ll have another day of baseball and hopefully the kids can hit a little more.”
Darren Molineux, Cole Warmer and Ryan Donnelly each led East Side’s lineup with two hits while Dillon DiGiulio drove in two runs. Donnelly held down the Eagles bats while starting on the mound and tossing 4.2 innings, allowing two runs on three hits with four strikeouts. DiGiulo closed it by tossing the final 1.2 innings of shutout ball and allowed just one hit.
Blue Mountain went down in order in the top of the first before East Side struck with a two-run bottom of the first inning.
Donnelly led off the bottom of the first with a fly ball double to center field before Cole Warner delivered with an RBI groundball single to third base for the 1-0 lead. Warner then came around to score on a Grimminger wild pitch for the 2-0 lead.
“We should have some more favorable matchups tomorrow and hopefully we get it done,” Porrino said. “It was tough with their number one pitcher going today.”
DiGiuolio retired Blue Mountain 1-2-3 in the top of the second for the second consecutive time, including a strikeout, before recording one more strikeout in the top of the third inning.
DiGrazio started East Side’s charge at the plate in the bottom of the second with a groundball single to shortstop before Mike Nolan flew out to right field to score James Martin for the 3-0 lead.
East Side got three consecutive base hits to lead off the bottom of the fourth before DiGrazio grounded into a fielders choice to second base to score Paul Cowperthwait for the 4-0 lead. Adam Gazonas came through with a pop out to the pitcher to score Jack Cassidy for the 5-0 lead at the end of four innings.
Blue Mountain struck with their only two runs in the top of the fifth when Jayse Callaghan shot a groundball double to left field to score Ben Ciccone for the 5-1 difference. Joe Minnick then doubled on a fly ball to right field to score Callaghan for the 5-2 score.
East Side put the game away for good in the bottom of the fifth when Darren Molineux singled on a groundball to right field to score Pat Corliss for the 6-2 score. Two batters later, DiGiulo reached on a groundball error to third base to score two runs for the 8-2 final score.
The Eagles were sat down in order in the top of the sixth, including a Machamer swinging strikeout, by DiGiulo to seal the 8-2 win for East Side.
Anthony Grimminger started for Blue Mountain and worked four innings, allowing six runs on 10 hits, before Minnick tossed the last inning and allowed two runs on two hits.
Blue Mountain 2 — Porrino 2B 2 0 0 0, Ritter C 2 0 1 0, Goodman 2 0 0 0, Ciccone LF 1 1 0 0, Grimminger P 2 0 0 0, Callaghan RF 2 1 1 0, Minnick 3B 2 0 1 1, Borger CF 2 0 0 0, Schneider 1B 2 0 1 0, Marx 1 0 0 0, Machamer 2 0 0 0, Gombar 2 0 0 0. 22 2 4 1.
East Side 8 — Donnelly P 3 1 2 0, Molineux 2B 3 1 2 1, Warner CF 2 2 2 1, DiGiulo 1B 3 0 1 2, Hennesey RF 3 0 0 0, Cowperthwait 3 1 1 0, Cassidy 2 1 1 0, Martin 3B 2 1 1 0, DiGrazio C 2 0 1 1, Nolan 2 0 0 1, Gazonas 2 0 0 0, Corliss SS 2 1 1 0. 29 8 12 6.
BM;0;0;0;0;2;0;—2
ES;2;1;0;2;3;X;—8
Blue Mountain
IP H R ER BB K
Grimminger 4 10 6 5 1 1
Minnick 1 2 2 0 0 0
East Side
Donnelly 4.1 3 2 2 2 4
DiGiulo 1.2 1 0 0 0 3
