McADOO – Franklin Township’s All-Stars took no prisoners Wednesday evening.

Township crushed a very good Valley West team, 18-1, in the opening game of a best-of-three series to decide the District 18 Little League 8-10 year-old championship.

There were extra base hits galore by the Maroon Marauders as they cracked an inside-the-park home run, a pair of triples, and two doubles among their 14 hits.

“Our kids stayed focused, hit the ball hard, and did everything we asked them to do. It was a great job on their part,” said Marauders manager Ben Moyer.

Not to be overlooked was the way Franklin’s two pitchers worked the contest. Ethan Laible tossed the first four innings, allowing four hits, one run and striking out eight. He then gave way to Owen Moyer who finished off the contest, striking out two over the final two innings.

“We have some good pitching, and we have some good pitching depth,” Moyer said. “It’s very important not to give away too many free passes, and our two pitchers did an excellent job of throwing strikes and making Valley West hit its way on base.”

Laible was not just impressive on the mound, but also enjoyed a banner day at the plate as well. He was on base five times, with a home run, a triple and three RBIs at the dish.

Also in the thick of the hit parade was Carter Spotts, who cranked out a double, two singles, scored three times and drove in three runs.

Township also got big games from Moyer (two hits, two RBIs, three runs scored) Jakoby Andrews (two hits) and Roman White (two hits).

While Franklin Township manager Moyer said he thought his team had some nerves about them before the start, it was Valley West that appeared to have the jitters with five errors in the first inning. Laible, White and Moyer crossed the dish in zipping to a 3-0 lead.

The lone answer for Valley came in the third inning when with two outs, Jevion Lisbie doubled and scored his team’s only run when Bryce Fancher followed with a single.

From there, it was the Maroon Marauders who lit it up as they put together both a six-run inning, and a nine-run inning to close it out.

In the six-run fourth, Spotts blasted a triple while Andrews, Myles Meek and Colby Solt all singled as Township opened a commanding 9-1 lead.

Franklin Township had more firepower to unload in the fifth, getting five hits and taking advantage of three errors and four walks. Moyer had the big belt with a bases-clearing triple. Spotts singled twice in the nine-run outburst.

FIRING AWAY

… Franklin pitchers rarely got themselves in trouble. Save for the third and fifth innings when Liable tossed 26 pitches and Moyer tossed 26, respectively.

NICE EXECUTION

… Franklin made a big-time play in the fourth-inning, using a textbook 7-6-5 relay to record an out. Left fielder Brody Hunsicker chased down a ball that was tagged by West’s Ben Nika to the left field fence, and then relayed the ball to the shortstop, who fired a strike to third baseman Jake Kistner who applied the tag.

NEXT OUTING

… Game 2 of the best-of-three series will take place Friday at 6 p.m. back at McAdoo with the Marauders needing one more win to capture the District 18 title and advance to Section 6 play for the second consecutive year.

Franklin Twp. 300 609 – 18 14 0

Valley West 001 000 – 1 4 8

Laible, Moyer (5) and Spotts; Morelli, Kalce (5) Gasper (6) and Mummy. W – Liable L – Morelli