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Back Mountain National outlasts American to win D31 Little League crown

Nuangola to investigate spraying for gypsy moths

RICE TWP. &#8212; Last year, Nanticoke won the Wyoming Valley American Legion League Tournament.The tournament win came with a bit of an asterisk though because the team technically wasn&#8217;t the league champion due to unbeaten Swoyersville finishing the season undefeated and receiving a bye in the event, advancing straight to regionals.This year, it&#8217;s a sure thing.Nanticoke clobbered its three opponents over as many days, outscoring them by by 23 runs. It was capped off with Tuesday&#8217;s 11-1 win in five innings in the title game against Greater Pittston.Led by a number of post-grads that could nearly fill out a lineup, Nanticoke had no trouble at all to breeze to its second straight appearance in the Region 5 Tournament, which will start Saturday at Central Columbia High School in Bloomsburg. The tournament begins at 8:30 a.m. with Nanticoke facing South Scranton, the District 11 (Lackawanna County) champion.&#8220;These kids worked hard all year and they really came around, played great defense and timely hitting all year,&#8221; said Nanticoke manager Joe Yudichak, whose team scored 25 runs in three games and only allowed two. &#8220;We put it all together in this tournament to lead us into regionals.&#8221;One of the players on Nanticoke&#8217;s roster currently coming off a season of collegiate ball, Mike Sulcoski, was one of the hitting stars for the team in the title game, going 3 for 4 while scoring a pair of runs and driving in two. He also hit a tournament-ending home run &#8212; a solo shot in the bottom of the fifth that pushed the margin to 10 runs to end the contest early and earned him the tournament&#8217;s Most Valuable Player honors.&#8220;Being our last year playing together as a team, we just want to have fun and make it a good year,&#8221; said Sulcoski, who went 6 for 11 in his team&#8217;s three games with two doubles and the longball. &#8220;That&#8217;s my first walk-off type hit, so it&#8217;s pretty special.&#8221;Greater Pittston, which eliminated defending state champ Swoyersville on Tuesday, rested some starters in the day&#8217;s second game because a regional berth had already been secured. GP manager Jerry Ranieli had also exhausted all of his pitching and used a few arms, who hadn&#8217;t pitched for most of, if not all season.Nanticoke pounced on the inexperienced pitchers with a seven-run first inning, doing so on just two hits, a two-run single by winning pitcher Mike Blazaskie (2 for 3) and a two-run double by Steve Kreitzer (3 for 3), who also scored three runs.Stephen Homza singled in a run for Greater Pittston in the third, but Nanticoke answered with two more in the bottom half, and a single run in the fourth before Sulcoski&#8217;s homer to lead off the fifth.It wasn&#8217;t just the pitching that was exhausted for Greater Pittston on Tuesday. The team needed some rest after a tiring win over the Swoyersville team that has been used to winning for more than a year, including a run to the PIAA Class 4A Championship game with Wyoming Valley West last month.Greater Pittston and Swoyersville met two days earlier with GP taking an early lead but couldn&#8217;t hold it as Swoyersville rallied for the win. Swoyersville entered Tuesday winning all but one game in the series over the last three seasons.&#8220;It was a feeling of relief to finally beat them because they&#8217;ve had our number,&#8221; Ranieli said. &#8220;Just to beat the state champs, it&#8217;s an honor to knock them out because they&#8217;ve been playing a lot of good baseball from their run last year to high school.&#8221;In the opener, Greater Pittston took a 3-0 lead in the top of the second highlighted by a two-run single from Tyler Dougherty. Swoyersville answered with two in the bottom of the frame to trim the lead to one.But unlike the previous game, GP extended the lead to 8-3 thanks to a five-run third when 10 batters came to the plate and three different batters had run-scoring hits.&#8220;We easily could have scored eight, nine runs on Sunday, and today we actually got the big hit and made the big plays,&#8221; Ranieli said.Zach Lopatka, who had a two-run single in the third, entered in relief for the final three innings and didn&#8217;t allow a run until Ryan Hogan&#8217;s long solo home run in the bottom of the seventh.Greater Pittston returns to the regional tournament for the first time since winning the title over Swoyersville in 2013, and will play at noon on Saturday against the West Branch/Susquehanna Valley No. 2 seed, which appears to be Milton.&#8220;We&#8217;re gonna fight again, and we&#8217;re gonna battle like we did two years ago when we ran out of pitching then, and somehow, some way we beat Swoyersville,&#8221; Ranieli said. &#8220;They&#8217;re gonna fight, and they&#8217;re gonna battle, and they showed that today.&#8221;American Legion PlayoffsChampionshipNanticoke 11, Greater Pittston 1Gr. Pittston`AB`R`H`BICirelli p/lf`2`0`1`0Malampy rf`3`1`1`0Gushka ss`3`0`1`0Dougherty 3b/p`3`0`3`0Mitchell 1b`1`0`0`0Lescavage 1b`1`0`0`0Homza cf`2`0`1`1Lee c`1`0`1`0Wychock lf/p`2`0`0`0Jackson rf`2`0`0`0Totals`19`1`8`1Nanticoke`AB`R`H`BIMyers 2b`3`2`2`1Pack ss`3`1`0`0Sulcoski c`4`2`3`2Bugonowicz 1b`1`1`0`1Blazaskie p`3`1`2`2Wickiser cf`3`0`0`0Reno 3b`2`1`0`0Kreitzer rf`3`3`3`2Morgan lf`2`0`0`0Totals`24`11`10`8Gr. Pittston` `001`00`&#8212;`1Nanticoke` `702`11`&#8212;`112B: Sulcoski, Kreitzer 2. HR: SulcoskiGr. Pittston`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOCirelli (L)`0.0`0`2`2`2`0Wychock`3.0`7`7`5`3`1Dougherty`1.0`3`2`2`1`1Nanticoke`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOBlazaskie (W)`5.0`8`1`1`2`6Greater Pittston 8, Swoyersville 4Gr.Pittston`AB`R`H`BILopatka cf`4`0`1`2Homza rf`4`0`1`0Lescavage ss`4`1`2`0Jackson p`0`0`0`0Gavenonis dh`3`1`0`0Zezza lf`4`2`2`0Musto c`4`2`2`1Mitchell 1b`3`2`2`1Gushka 3b`4`0`1`1Dougherty 2b`3`0`1`2Totals`33`8`12`7Swoyersville`AB`R`H`BIMontalvo cf`2`1`0`0Baron lf`4`0`1`0Hogan c`3`1`1`1Yankosky 1b`4`1`2`0Worlinsky p`4`0`2`0Zavada 1b`1`0`0`0Gregory cf`3`0`1`1Lupole ss`0`0`0`0Flanley dh`3`0`1`1Raitter lf`2`0`0`0Popson lf`1`0`0`0Totals`27`4`8`3Gr. Pittston`035`000`0&#8212;`8Swoyersville`021`000`1`&#8212;`42B: Yankosky, Lescavage. HR: HoganGr. Pittston`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOJackson`2+`4`3`3`1`0Charney (W)`2.0`1`0`0`2`1Lopatka (S)`3.0`3`1`1`0`2Swoyersville`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOYankosky (L)`2.1`8`8`8`2`1Zavada`4.2`4`0`0`0`1<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Greater Pittston shortstop Nick Gushka fields a bouncing ball before getting the out at first in Tuesday&#8217;s Legion title game against Nanticoke. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gp_na1_faa.jpg</photo0><caption0>Greater Pittston shortstop Nick Gushka fields a bouncing ball before getting the out at first in Tuesday&#8217;s Legion title game against Nanticoke. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gp_na2_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Nanticoke&#8217;s Christian Pack gets under a pop-up for an out during Tuesday&#8217;s Wyoming Valley American Legion League championship game. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_gp_na2_faa.jpg</photo1><caption1>Nanticoke&#8217;s Christian Pack gets under a pop-up for an out during Tuesday&#8217;s Wyoming Valley American Legion League championship game. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Dave Rosengrantdrosengrant@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Dave Rosengrant at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @tldrosengrant</shirttailMeta></div>

Nanticoke cruises to Legion title