McADOO - Last season, the Anthracite Little League's 9-10-year-old All-Star team enjoyed a fun run to a District 18 championship and an appearance in the Section 6 finals.

A year later, most members of that team are now part of Anthracite's 11-12-year-old All-Star team - and they are once again finding postseason success.Monday night, Anthracite showed that it still has some of the tournament magic it displayed a year ago.With their backs to the wall against Tri-County, the torrid hitting Cody Orsulak saved the day for the Coal Barons.Orsulak blasted a towering shot to dead center field for a two-run, walk-off home run that gave Anthracite a 9-8 victory.The victory sends Anthracite into the winner's bracket semifinals of the District 18 11-12 tournament where it will face pre-tournament favorite Valley West, an 18-0 winner over Hazle Township on Monday."I told our kids this wasn't going to be easy," said Ron Hood, the veteran coach who piloted last season's 9-10 stars during their successful run. "Our players know most of their players. They're gamers and gave us all we could handle. We're lucky to get this one."Orsulak drilled his two-run dinger with one out in the home sixth. It was his third hit of the evening. He had previously singled twice and walked. He finished the game with three RBIs and scored four of his team's nine runs hitting in the two hole."I have him on my Little League team during the regular season," said Hood. "He's just having a great year."It didn't feel like a Coal Baron rally was going to be necessary after they jumped out to 5-1 lead after two innings of play and stretched the margin to 7-1 after four innings.A pair of walks and a key two-out, two-run single by Stephen Hood got Anthracite on the board in the first inning.In the second, Anthracite scored three more times, getting hits from Andrew Rohrbach, Hayden Goida, Matt Maholick, Orsulak and Michale Pascoe.The Coal Barons' lead grew to 7-1 when Pascoe belted a two-run homer in the fourth.But Tri-County battled back, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring seven runs on six hits in the top of the fifth. Triples from Joe Walko and Chase Petrilyak and singles off the bats of Dylan Zulo, Jason Lazar, Noah Billig and Andy Baran combined to do the damage.The outburst gave Tri-County the lead, but it was only temporary thanks to Orsulak's heroics.UPS AND DOWNS ... The Coal Barons seem to have a knack of making things happen when the chips are on the line. It was a trait that came in handy a year ago and it's continuing on a different level this season.DEFENSIVE STANDOUTS ... Tri-County's second baseman Noah Billig had his share of chances and was smooth with the leather. Ditto for Anthracite's counterpart Derw Kokinda. In addition, Orsulak made some standout stops at catcher.NEXT UP ... Anthracite and Valley West will meet on Friday at 6 p.m. in Summit Hill.Tri-County 100 070 - 8 10 2Anthracite 230 202 - 9 9 1Walko, Billig (3) and Petrilyak; S. Hood, Pascoe (5) and Orsulak. W - Pascoe. L - Billig.