Franklin Township 8-10 year-old head coach J.C. Dietz let it up to his players to decide what word they would use to break the huddle this tournament season.

The word they chose was simple, yet very powerful. That word was family.On Tuesday night, Franklin Township showed just how strong of a family they are when they defeated Valley East 10-0 in five innings. It was the rubber match between the two in a best-of-three series for the District 18 Little League championship.It took two innings for the Franklin Township bats to wake up, but from the start, it established a dominant pitching performance.The young man responsible for that was Dylan Greene. Greene pounded the strike zone early and often, keeping Valley East off balance throughout the game. He finished the night tossing five shutout innings of no-hit baseball, striking out six, and allowing just three base runners."Greene pitched a wonderful game today, all the credit goes to him. He really controlled the tempo and kept us off-balance," said Valley East head coach Doug Palmieri. "We could just never get our bats going. All the credit goes to Coach Dietz and his kids, they beat us Saturday and they beat us today."The momentum from Greene's stellar pitching and Franklin Township's defensive play, ignited its offense into what started as a spark, but by the end of the evening was a full fledged bonfire.Franklin got things started in the third, scoring three runs on three hits,. It followed that up with the dagger inning, putting Valley East away with a six-run, six-hit fourth to extend its lead to 9-0.Nine different Franklin Township players had a hit on the day.Greene was just as impressive from the plate as he was from the mound, knocking in three runs on two hits. Mike Gelatko also added multiple RBIs on the day with two hits, including a double. John Light, Cole Dietz, Jake Lewis, and Carter Bellis all added a hit and an RBI."Bunts have started all of our big innings. That's what is exciting about this team, and the next thing you know we score nine runs," said Dietz, after a leadoff bunt single by Aiden Solt got the offense going for Franklin Township in the third. "This was honestly a true team effort. Every kid that got up to the plate today did something good. We also wouldn't be here without my five assistant coaches, they do a lot, and that showed today. This was truly a team victory."For Franklin, after an 8-2 loss on Sunday to Valley East when it managed just six hits, it was easy to see the tension building after it couldn't bring any runs across in the first two innings of play. However, after the three-run third, Franklin's confidence began to build, which certainly carried into the big fourth inning."I could feel that tension myself in the early part of the game, and honestly up to this point things came relatively easy to our kids," said Dietz. "Our kids just responded to the challenge today, I'm proud of that. Their pitcher the last game kept us off-balance, but today we hit the ball hard and in play, and we found the holes. That was the difference."After Greene pitched a scoreless fifth, Franklin wasted no time finishing off Valley East. Bellis was hit by a pitch to start the inning and Cole Dietz delivered an RBI single to bring the game to an end via the 10-run mercy rule ."I've been coaching for 18 years, mostly basketball, but this is by far my favorite win as a coach. I will never forget this moment and these kids for as long as I live," said Dietz.HELPING OUT... Jayse Lawrence, Keyden Ahner, and Aiden Solt all added a hit for Franklin Township, helping it score 10 runs on 11 hits.NEXT UP... Franklin will take on Lower Nazareth on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Lower Nazareth in the opening game of the Section 6 double elimination tournament.Valley East 000 00 - 0 0 2Franklin Twp. 003 61 - 10 11 1W- Greene L - Higgins.