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By Paul Chasko

The Little League Baseball Pennsylvania championship was decided in Rostraver Township last month at the conclusion of a week-long double elimination tournament pitting the best little league baseball teams from throughout Pennsylvania against each other.

The Keystone Team - Pennsylvania Champions

For little league baseball, Pennsylvania is divided into 32 districts which are grouped into 8 sections. The champions of each district are decided at the end of the regular season and further tournament play decided the best team in each of the 8 sections.

This year, the tournament deciding the state champion team was hosted by the Rostraver Youth Baseball Association under the direction of President Scott Bryer and a host of volunteers. All games in the tournament were played at the little league field at the John DiVirglio Sports Complex in Rostraver Township. Participating team players, parents and team managers were very vocal in their praise of the facilities and the professional organization of the entire event – even in the face of a few torrential downpours that occurred during the week. The playing field was covered when needed and the 16 games played were completed pretty much on schedule with only one significant rain delay. Rostraver could not have been a better host.

The teams representing the eight little league sections of Pennsylvania were:

Section 1 Harbor Creek
Section 2 Norwin
Section 3 Keystone
Section 4 Mechanicsburg
Section 5 Nanticoke
Section 6 Warwick
Section 7 West Side
Section 8 Morrisville

Brady Bendik is mobbed by teammates after another home run

Norwin, being the Championship team from our area (District 2), was beaten 10-2 by Keystone in the first round and was relegated to the loser’s bracket but managed to win one more game against Morrisville 6-3 before being eliminated by West Side. Keystone also fell into the loser’s bracket losing to Warwick 11-9 but they met Warwick once again in the semi-finals and played them again in the championship game winning both of those games 8-5 and 11-8. Keystone was crowned Pennsylvania Little League Champion at the end of tournament play and the Warwick Bulldog team was runner-up. Home for the Keystone team is north of State College, PA.

Winning the State championship placed Keystone (representing PA) in the World Series leading to the finals in Williamsport, PA. Their first challenge in mid-August was tough competition in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament – also a double-elimination tournament held in Bristol, Connecticut.

W - Pennsylvania 10 - Maryland 7
L - Washington DC 7 - Pennsylvania 2
W - Pennsylvania 5 - New Jersey 1
W - Pennsylvania 9 - Delaware 5
W - Pennsylvania 11 - Washington DC 3
L - New York 6-Pennsylvania 2

The final loss to New York kept Keystone Little League from the Little League World Series finals, but nevertheless, a great season for Keystone – the PA Champions.

Click on "gallery" for more photos of this event by Paul Chasko

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