Crissinger hurls Selinsgrove past Lewisburg

By Brian Holtzapple
For The Daily Item

July 05, 2008 04:00 am

— SELINSGROVE -- The two things that the Selinsgrove Major Division All-Stars needed to do coming into Friday's conclusion of their elimination bracket game with Lewisburg were to keep their heads together and to play defense.
With Colby Crissinger pitching dominantly on both days for Selinsgrove, that wasn't a difficult thing to do.
Crissinger picked up right where he left off on Thursday as he made his team's 3-0 lead stand up as Selinsgrove held off Lewisburg for the win on an overcast and muggy July 4th afternoon at Rotary Field.
Selinsgrove survives to face Snyder County in today's elimination bracket game at 3:30 p.m. Lewisburg is eliminated from the tournament.
"We needed that win, didn't we? The rains didn't get us today," said Selinsgrove manager Dean Rice.
"We came back (today) and I told the guys, Hey, we need to keep our heads together and just play defense. We got three runs, and (Lewisburg) has to score to come back and win it.'"
Selinsgrove took its 3-0 lead in Thursday's third inning on a wild pitch and Tyler Cook's two-run double.
And thanks to Crissinger, Lewisburg didn't have much of a chance to come back and score the tying or go-ahead runs during the three remaining innings Friday.
Despite allowing an infield single to Joey Gardner and a walk to Jonny Miller, Crissinger struck out the side in the fourth inning.
Then in the fifth, Crissinger struck out the side once again, although he did give up a single to Jordan Massoud that was lined up the middle.
Finally in the sixth, with only three outs to go and eight pitches left to reach the Little League-mandated 85-pitch count rule for Major Division pitchers, Crissinger struck out Tanner Host for the inning's first out.
Joey Gardner, however, followed with an infield single hit to deep short. With the pitch count eclipsed, Crissinger was taken out for reliever Tyler Krebs.
Krebs didn't fool around when he stepped on the mound, as he struck out Gabe Byrd and Miller to quickly end the game.
Crissinger finished with a four-hitter. He struck out 10, walked two, and he hit a batter.
"I can't say enough about Colby's tremendous performance on the mound," Rice said. "He got into the sixth inning with the pitch count again. Ty came in and he threw the ball in there (for strikes) to close it."
Lewisburg manager Andrew Host admitted that it was tough for his team to come back and try to finish the game on a holiday, but he also said that his team's struggles were largely due to Crissinger's pitching.
"We just didn't hit today. Crissinger had better stuff today than (Thursday). We knew we were going to see fastballs to hit, and we didn't hit them," Host said.
"You only get that one good opportunity to get a good fastball and we just missed it. We had runners on base, but we couldn't get them in.
"Compliments to Selinsgrove, they played a good game. Good luck to them in the future," Host added.

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