By Brian Holtzapple
For The Daily Item
July 21, 2008 04:00 am
—
MIFFLINBURG -- Shikellamy 10-11 Division All-Stars manager Don Leitzel has been involved with Little League baseball for a lot of years, and over those years he's won a lot of thrilling games.
However, very few of Leitzel's wins were more exciting than Sunday's.
Shikellamy needed to put together a late-inning comeback, then fend off a comeback attempt by South Columbia, to escape with a 10-9 victory in game two of the District 13 best-of-three championship series played at 5th Street Field.
"I've been doing this for a long time, and it doesn't get any better than this," Leitzel said. "Win or lose, both teams played tremendously. This game has to rank up there with one of the top two or three that I've ever been involved with in Little League baseball. That's for sure."
Aside from the win, what made Leitzel the happiest was the way his team rebounded from Saturday's 9-1 loss to South Columbia in the first game of the series.
"I'm just glad we proved we can play with them," Leitzel said. "I knew we had a good team. The 9-1 score doesn't indicate that, but I was hoping we could play with (South Columbia)."
The two teams will battle it out again today in the third and final game of the series. The game will be played at Bloomsburg's Town Park at 5:30 p.m.
"You have a team (South Columbia) that finished fourth or fifth in the state last year. (The win) was a good measuring stick for where we are right now," Leitzel said. "(Monday) will be an even more immense challenge. The kids gave a tremendous effort and they showed how well they can play.
"Now it's just a matter of seeing if they can gut another (win) out."
Shikellamy looked strong early against South Columbia. It scored five runs through the first two innings, and carried a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning.
Nick Dunn and Matt Snyder each hit RBI singles in the second after the team scored three unearned runs in the first.
The complexion of the game changed in a heartbeat in the fifth, as South Columbia took a 6-5 lead on an RBI single by Cody Bowman and a three-run home run by Lewis Williams.
Shikellamy's All-Stars responded by scoring five runs in the top of the sixth to go back in front, 10-6.
After South Columbia got leadoff batter Colby Lahr to ground out for the first out, the next three batters reached base. Kyle Leitzel drew a walk and Nick Dunn and Brandon Kashuba both singled to load the bases.
Matt Snyder and Seth Burk plated the first two runs in the inning with RBI singles to left before Hayden Pope drove a two-run double down the third-base line.
The final run for Shikellamy in the sixth scored on an error.
"We talked a lot about battling adversity, and the kids started to hang their heads a bit when they came up (to bat) in the sixth," manager Leitzel said. "I said, Listen guys. We talked about handling adversity and here's your chance to show what kind of team you are.' "They certainly did that."
South Columbia did not go quietly in the bottom of the sixth as it loaded the bases off Shikellamy relief pitchers Dunn and Pope.
South Columbia pushed three runs across in the sixth and had the winning run on second with two outs, but Pope got Kent Lane to ground into a fielder's choice at second to end the game. Kyle Leitzel had to drop to his knees to field the grounder before crawling to tag the base for the forceout.
"It didn't matter what the score was or how late it was, I knew South Columbia wasn't going to lay down," manager Leitzel said. "Even there at the end with a 10-6 lead, I knew they would put some people on. It was a gutsy effort by Pope to throw strikes under that kind of pressure.
"It was an incredible team effort."
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.