Blue Mountain’s 10-11-year-old Little League stars kept it simple: Put the ball in play and make the other team make the plays.

The Eagles did exactly that, pounding out 10 hits and needing just 3 2/3 innings to rout Tamaqua 11-1 in the Section 6 tournament semifinals at Billy Angst Baseball Stadium.

Blue Mountain advances to tonight’s championship game against Southern Lehigh at 6 p.m. The winner earns a trip to next weekend’s state tournament.

“Our approach is to hit the ball somewhere, our coaching staff has done a great job of getting the kids to swing the bats,” Blue Mountain manager CJ Stack said.

“We were smashing the ball tonight (early) but we didn’t get that big hit when we needed it. We were smashing the ball right at them.”

Blue Mountain scored twice in the first inning without a hit, taking advantage of two errors and a wild pitch. The Eagles then went quiet while Tamaqua cut the lead to 2-1 in the second.

The Blue Raiders threatened to do even more after Owen Hope singled and Evan Green crushed a ball to left-center field. But the Eagles turned in a picture-perfect relay.

Left fielder Connor Wolfe fielded the ball near the fence and hit cutoff man Ben Fugitti, whose throw to catcher Nathan Marks nailed Hope at the plate. Green advanced to third and later scored on Lucas Letkowski’s sacrifice fly to right.

“We had a tough two games,” Tamaqua manager Matt Steigerwalt said. “We didn’t have a district playoff, while the other teams played games, I thought that hurt us more than anything else.”

The free passes proved costly for the Blue Raiders, who allowed 25 runs in the tournament while scoring just two.

Blue Mountain’s offense came alive over the next two innings. The Eagles collected three hits in the third, and a Tamaqua error helped fuel a two-run rally.

Back-to-back singles by Brandt Eisenhower and Caleb Stack brought Fugitti to the plate. He delivered an RBI single, the first of his two hits and three RBIs on the night. Another Tamaqua error helped Blue Mountain extend its lead to 4-1.

The Eagles carried that momentum into the fourth, erupting for seven two-out runs to end the game by the mercy rule.

Tamaqua recorded the first two outs quickly as shortstop Parker Steigerwalt handled a hard grounder by Maddox Bonner, and third baseman Green made a diving stop on Connor Bierman’s ground ball.

After that, Blue Mountain couldn’t be stopped.

Wolfe singled, Adam Gonzalez ripped an RBI double, and a Tamaqua error allowed Gonzalez to score.

Cal Sterner kept the rally going before two more errors brought home two additional runs. Eisenhower followed with an RBI single, and Stack helped end the game with a run-scoring single.

“Tamaqua did a really good job, their energy was a bit better than ours (at the beginning),” manager Stack said. “(Getting) that energy early is something we have to work on as a team.”

That was evident early.

But once the Eagles settled in, they looked every bit like the favorite to advance heading into tonight’s championship against Southern Lehigh.

“I can’t say enough how we battled,” Tamaqua manager Steigersaid. “We played much better than the last game (against) Southern Lehigh … but Blue Mountain kids can swing the bats. They hit it hard.”

AT THE PLATE ... Three Blue Mountain hitters finished with multiple hits: Fugitti, Sterner and Eisenhower. Gonzalez had the Eagles’ lone extra-base hit with an RBI double, while Wolfe, Adams and Stack each added singles. Green doubled and Hope singled for Tamaqua.

CHECKMATE ... Blue Mountain used two pitchers to keep fresh arms available for tonight’s championship game. Eisenhower worked 1 2/3 innings before Nagle finished the final 2 1/3 innings.

WEB GEMS ... In addition to Tamaqua’s defensive highlights, Blue Mountain left fielder Wolfe made a standout play on a line drive off the bat of Parker Steigerwalt.

Tamaqua 001 00 - 1 2 7

Blue Mountain 202 7x - 11 10 0

Eisenhower, Nagle (2) and Marks and Bonner (3); Eltringham, Keich (4) and Parker Steigerwalt. W - Nagle. L - Eltringham.