Line Mountain rallies for win with 4 runs in 6th

SAINT CLAIR - Patience is a virtue learned through experience and maturity.

With that in mind, it's safe to say the Line Mountain All-Stars are light years ahead of their peers when it comes to patience.

Line Mountain trailed 6-0 in its District 24 Little League Tournament game against Saint Clair/New Philadelphia/Port Carbon but used a total of 12 walks, some timely base hits and a shutdown relief pitching performance to steal its second win in the tournament 7-6.

It was one of those 12 walks with the bases loaded that pushed across the tying and winning runs for Line Mountain.

Ryan Reed, son of manager Willard Reed, scored the tying run and as easy as crossing the plate can be, still had orders from his coaches.

"The coaches were yelling at me to go down, down, down," Reed said, and added, "We're psyched. They beat Railway and we beat them, so we're the top team."

Still to get out of the pool into the playoffs, Line Mountain, which didn't field an 11-and-12 year old team last year, needs to beat Cressona and Railway Park.

"We've been telling them all year they have to believe," Line Mountain manager Willard Reed said. "We don't get to choose from a lot of teams for our All-Stars. We choose from three teams (Dalmatia, Rebuck and Trevorton), where these other groups get to choose from a lot, so our motto this year is to believe. That's what this group of boys did, they believed.

"If you look at our team and see our roster, we're mostly 11-year-olds. We came in last year in 9 and 10 and got some respect. We just don't have the numbers, and it's hard to put that older group together when you don't have the numbers to do it."

There was a lot of believing to do after the way Saint Clair started the game.

Saint Clair saw, and hit, the ball early with consistency, racking up six singles in the first two innings and scoring all its runs in those innings off Line Mountain's starting pitcher, Ryan Reed.

Reed was replaced with one out in the second inning by Brady Michael, and after giving up three quick runs after a Line Mountain fielding error and a clean single, Michael settled into a rhythm.

Saint Clair only had three more hits over the final four innings, and its pitching, which held Line Mountain to only six hits, just couldn't find the strike zone.

"I think we were too anxious at the plate, and we didn't hit," Saint Clair manager Marty Melochick said. "We didn't hit and we didn't throw strikes. Simple as that.

"It was very hard on the kids... a tough one to swallow, that's for sure. They'll be down, but we still have two games to go yet. We'll come back to practice tomorrow."

Reed pitched the final 4 2/3 innings for Line Mountain, and worked back-to-back 1-2-3 innings in the fourth and fifth innings with a total of 18 pitches, an important stat when a pitcher only gets 85 tosses.

For his part on offense, Michael was 1-for-2 with a double and two RBIs to make Saint Clair pay for a couple walks issued ahead of him in the fourth inning.

"He's a tough kid," Reed said. "Our plan was to pitch my son, Ryan, the first 20 pitches. That way we were hoping it would give Brady enough to get through the rest of the game. He throws it where it needs to be thrown."

"I was glad I didn't allow any more runs after the first inning I came in," Michael added.

Game Summary

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