Meadville/Vernon concludes season with loss to F.L.A.G.
Jul. 19—The Meadville/Vernon 10U Little League baseball team battled F.L.A.G. until the last out but fell short in an 11-5 loss on Tuesday at the Meadville Fairgrounds.
The loss, in the loser's bracket of the Section 1 tournament, means Meadville/Vernon's season has ended. Meadville/Vernon lost to Franklin 12-3 on Monday.
"We had a good district season. Everyone in the section tournament won their district tournament so there are no gimme games, no easy games," Meadville head coach Larry Roberts said. "The past two games we did not show up and play our brand of baseball, but we are not going to hang our heads. We will learn from these games and move on."
F.L.A.G. opened the game with a 4-0 lead in the first inning and an 8-1 lead after two innings of action. F.L.A.G. scored on a walk, an error, a fly out and a wild pitch in the first inning. In the second, runs came in off of two singles and three walks.
From there, Meadville/Vernon settled into the game and played with them. Two runs were plated in the bottom of the third with RBI groundouts from Emmett Redden and Leo DeSantis-Biggs that allowed Cash Brown to score and Luke Roberts to steal home.
F.L.A.G. added three more runs in the fourth inning to push ahead 11-3. An untimely error and a timely single allowed the runs to score.
Not going down without a fight, Meadville/Vernon's Ryan Feleppa scored off a Blake Siverd single to get things going in the bottom of the sixth inning. Vinnie Streyle brought Siverd home on an RBI single and Sebastian Koltar singled as well. There wasn't enough gas in the tank, though, as a strikeout and groundout ended the rally.
"Monday we came out a bit flat and nervous. Today for six innings I feel we played hard. We just didn't get those game-changing breaks that we needed to put more numbers on the board," Roberts said. "We settled in and I thought our pitching was strong. The beginning of the game was a little shaky, but we settled in.
"We just couldn't get that timely hit when we needed it and they did. Hats off to them. They got the plays when they needed to and that's the result on the scoreboard."
F.L.A.G. will play the loser of St. Marys and Franklin today in the loser's bracket.
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FLAG (11)
(AB-R-H-BI) Allen 1-2-1-1, Bowen 3-1-1-1, Frawley 1-1-0-0, Ploss 2-1-0-0, Jewell 3-1-0-1, Marsh 2-0-0-0, Moore 3-0-1-1, Sundberg 3-1-1-0, Skrbin 2-0-0-0, St. Julien 0-2-0-0, Young 2-1-0-0, Maher 2-1-1-2. Totals 24-11-5-6.
Meadville/Vernon (5)
(AB-R-H-BI) Brown 3-1-1-0, Redden 2-1-0-0, DeSantis-Biggs 2-0-0-1, Howe 3-0-1-1, Feleppa 3-1-2-0, Widger 3-0-0-0, Siverd 3-1-2-1, Streyle 2 3-0-2-1, Kotlar 2-0-1-0, Richards 3-0-0-0, Roberts 2-1-0-0. Totals 29-5-9-4.
FLAG 440 300 — 11 5 2
Meadville/Vernon 1-2 002 — 5 9 2
BATTING
2B: F — Drew M.
PITCHING
(IP-H-R-ER-SO-BB) F — Frawley 2-3-1-1-0-1, Young 2-2-2-2-0-2, Moore 1.1-4-2-2-1-1, St. Julien 0.2-0-0-0-1-0; M — Redden 2-2-8-6-5-6, Brown 4-3-3-0-6-1.
Alex Topor can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at atopor@meadvilletribune.com.
