Keystone Majors are State Champs!
Next Stop Bristol
ROSTRAVER TWP. – As Keystone assistant coach Cole Hanley posted early Saturday night, “Holy crap…we just won a state title…way to battle boys.”
He was right; win they did, the Keystone Little League team taking the Pennsylvania State crown by the score of 11-8 over Warwick Township. In doing show they shocked Warwick, the state 11-year-old champions a year ago, defeating the suburban Philadelphia team for a second consecutive day to draw deafening cheers from a large contingent of blue-clad fans
The title earns Keystone a berth at the Mid-Atlantic regional tournament in Bristol, Conn. starting Sunday, Aug 7 at 10 a.m. against the Maryland state champion.
As so often in the past it was a Keystone team victory, a point made afterwards by head coach Ben Falls who again applauded the grit and spirit of his team.
The boys in blue brought their bats, pounding out 15 hits including home runs from Cayde McCloskey and Brady Bendik. Keystone scored in all five innings, led by Aiden Major with a double, two singles and an RBI. McCloskey contributed his 3-run homer in the second inning, regaining the lead for Keystone at 5-4, a lead they would not relinquish. He also added a run scoring single in Keystone’s three run fourth sparked by Bendik’s dinger, Bendik also stroking a single.
Winning pitcher Kaden Falls had a single and double; Cy Probst a single, double and an RBI; Blade Myers a single and RBI; Aaron Miller two singles and an RBI; and Ryan Thompson with a single.
Meanwhile Falls kept a potent Warwick lineup in check for much of the game before reaching his pitch count limit in the fifth inning, surrendering five hits and six runs. Bendik followed to end the fifth, the score at that point 11-6 Keystone. But Warwick would answer with two early runs in the top of the sixth, the lone out at that point a bullet handled by first baseman Cayde McCloskey.
Aiden Major was called in from his centerfield position with one runner on and one out, the score 11-8. He then leaped and speared a hard hit bouncer and went to first for out number two and ended the game with a strike out and jubilation erupted.
The state title game five years to the day that the Keystone Little League team took the state title at State College, July 30, 2011. That team went on to win the Mid-Atlantic championship and place third in the United States bracket at the Little League World Series.
Keystone League administrator Rich Lyons said after the game that plans are being made to recognize the squad with a parade and a possible appearance at the City of Lock Haven’s Sunday evening summer concert at the Corman Amphitheater. Details are to be announced later today. (Please check therecord-online for updates).
| July 30, 2016 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | H | E |
| WARWICK | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 1 |
| KEYSTONE | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | – | 11 | 15 | 2 |
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