DISTRICT 15 LITTLE LEAGUE (MINORS): ATHENS FENDS OFF RTL, 8-5; ADVANCES TO DISTRICT TITLE GAME (24 PHOTOS) (2024-06-30)
Valley Sports ReportATHENS - Athens scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning, then held off RTL in an 8-5 win to advance to the championship game of the District 15 Little League Minors Division baseball playoffs.
Athens will now face the winner of Tuesday’s consolation bracket finals between RTL and Tunkhannock on July 6 at Sayre.
RTL got on the board first with a run in the top of the first, but Athens responded quickly.
With one out, Wyatt Raupers tripled over the left fielder’s head, then scored on a wild pitch that moved Athens runners to second and third.
After an error put Athens ahead 2-1, Parker Collum drove home a run with a fielder’s choice grounder, and another RTL error allowed two more runs to score to make it 5-1.
Athens scored runs in the third and fourth innings to take its biggest lead of the game, at 7-2.
RTL closed the gap to 7-5 with three runs in the top of the fifth inning, but Athens added an insurance run on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Carter Johnson in the bottom of the fifth.
Athens reliever Easton Hubbard struck out the side in order in the top of the sixth inning to register the save.
Raupers earned the win, allowing two runs — one earned — on two hits, while striking out nine and walking three in 3 2/3 innings.
Landon Briggs singled, scored one run, and drove in one run, while Raupers tripled and scored one run, and Hubbard singled, and scored two runs to pace Athens’ five-hit attack.
Lincoln Miller doubled and scored a run in the win, while Klase Bardo added a single, Collum had an RBI and a run scored, Johnson and Mosher each had an RBI, and Jase Blair and Connor Robinson each scored one run.
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IN PHOTO 1: Athens’ Wyatt Raupers. IN TOP PHOTO: Athens’ Landon Briggs. … PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY.
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