Keystone Majors Edge Montoursville, 5-4, in Nail-Biter

MONTOURSVILLE — The Keystone and Montoursville Little League teams have waged some great District 12 playoff games over the years and tonight’s was right up there with the best of them.

The game went right to the final pitch delivered by Keystone reliever Kaden Falls, a called strike three to Montour’s Rian Glunk, sealing Keystone’s hard-earned 5-4 win over the defending district champions. All Glunk had done in his previous two times at bat was hit an RBI double and a 2-run homer. But Falls was overpowering in relief, striking out five of the six batters he faced to earn the save for starting and winning pitcher Cy Probst.

The game was scoreless into the third inning when visiting Keystone used their only four hits of the game, along with a couple Montour errors to put up four runs. Nate Helms opened with a single, moved up on a passed ball and scored on an RBI single from Blade Myers. Myers then advanced on a groundout and scored on an infield hit from Falls. Probst followed with a single, Falls scoring and then another Montour error off the bat of Ryan Thompson allowed Probst to score.

Montoursville answered with a run in the bottom of the third, Glunk’s RBI double plating Ethan Stahl who had singled. The game remained 4-1 Keystone into the fifth when Keystone would manufacture what proved to be the decisive run. Myers led off with the only walk Montour would surrender; he advanced to second on a passed ball, stole third when he caught the home team defense napping and scored Keystone’s run number five on a sacrifice fly from Falls.

Montour responded with three runs in the bottom of the fifth, powered by Glunk’s 2-run home and a solo dinger from Maddix Dalena. Probst left on the pitch count rule with one on and one out in that inning. Falls came in from shortstop and got two strikeouts to end the threat with a Montour runner on third.

In the sixth Falls gave up a leadoff walk but responded with three straight strikeouts to secure the win and send Keystone to Saturday’s 11 a.m. winners’ bracket semifinal, the game to be played at the Hepburn Field, the opponent to be determined.

Probst and Falls combined to pitch a 7-hitter, totaling 13 strikeouts. For the second game in a row Keystone did not commit an error in the field.

Next up, Keystone will travel to Hepburn to face Muncy the 15-4 winner over Jersey Shore/GSV 11 a.m. Saturday, July 2.