COOPERSBURG - Franklin Township has been an offensive juggernaut during the postseason.

But Friday night in the opening game of the Section 6 8-10-year-old Little League Tournament, Southern Lehigh found a way to do what no District 18 team was able to do.

The Spartans silenced the powerful Franklin Township bats.

Behind the combined one-hit pitching of Sammy Moscato, Declan Walsh and Braylon Showalter, Southern Lehigh edged Franklin, 2-0.

“All three of their pitchers threw the ball pretty hard, “ said Franklin Township coach Ben Moyer. “We’ve been pretty good offensively throughout the postseason, but we struggled a little tonight.”

Franklin’s offense has actually been more than pretty good. In its six District 18 games, Franklin scored a total of 70 runs. The 11.7 runs per game average included four games in double digits and no game lower than six runs.

Although it failed to produce that same offensive firepower last night, Franklin was never out of the game thanks to some outstanding pitching and defense of its own.

Starting pitcher Ethan Laible along with relievers Alex Kish and Jake Albert combined to allow just five hits and two runs. The Franklin defense backed its pitching with several outstanding plays to keep Southern Lehigh from ever getting a comfortable advantage.

“I thought our pitching was outstanding,” Moyer said. “All three kids we used did a really nice job of keeping us in the game.

“I also thought our defense was fantastic. I definitely think it was our best defensive game of the postseason. We made all the routine plays and we made some outstanding plays as well.”

The game’s only runs game in the third inning when Southern Lehigh used two-out RBI doubles from Showalter and Moscato to plate a pair of runs.

“They hit a couple of balls pretty hard in that third inning, but other than that, we shut them down,” Moyer said. “On the other hand, we had runners in scoring position on a couple of occasions, but couldn’t get the big hit.”

Franklin had just two innings the entire game when runners reached base, but both times they mounted serious threats.

In the bottom of the first, Brock Atwood produced Franklin’s only hit of the game when he singled to center with two out. Brian Mriss then walked. Wild pitches allowed the runners to move up to second and third, but Moscato got a strike out to end threat.

Franklin also threatened in the fourth when Mriss and Kish drew back-to-back walks to open the inning. A strikeout and an infield pop up produced two outs, before Jaxson Markell was hit by a pitch to load the bases. The Spartans escaped, however, when reliever Walsh got a pop out to shortstop.

“These kids have battled throughout the postseason. They did that tonight and I expect them to come back tomorrow (Saturday) and do that again,” Moyer said. “This was a great baseball game and a tough one to lose. But we have to put it behind us.

“We just need to keep doing what we’ve done throughout this run. This is a double-elimination tournament so we have a lot of baseball left.”

WEB GEMS ... Albert had an outstanding defensive game at shortstop, making a sliding stop and tagging the bag for an inning-ending force play in the third; and then picking a one-hop throw and making a quick tag on a runner attempting to steal second base in the sixth inning. He then moved to pitcher later in the inning and fielded a bunt attempt barehanded and made a strong throw to first to get the runner by a step.

WEB GEMS II ... Franklin rightfielder Garrett Utrata had the play of the game as he went hard into the right-center field gap and made a diving catch on a ball hit by Walsh in the third inning.

NEXT UP ... Franklin will return to Coopersburg to meet East Stroudsburg in a loser’s bracket game today at 11 a.m.

So. Lehigh 002 000 - 2 5 0

Franklin Twp. 000 000 - 0 1 1

Moscato, Walsh (4), Showalter (5) and Roth; Laible, Kish (4), Albert (6) and Atwood. W-Moscato. L-Laible.