LIMEPORT — Franklin Township and Chestnut Hill opened the Connie Mack State Championship Tournament on Thursday.

The game started more like the first game of the season, as strikes were hard to throw, ground balls were tough to field, and outs were hard to come by.

The first inning-and-a-half took an hour and a half to play. It was just that type of game.

Things did settle down, as Franklin Township eventually downed Chestnut Hill 15-3 to put itself into the winner’s bracket.

Cash White finished the day with three RBIs and scored twice, and also gave his team 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief work to finish out the game.

Ironically, among White’s offensive achievements for the day, there weren’t any hits.

Instead, White hit a hard ground ball to short in the first inning that was misplayed for an error and drove in a run. Later in the inning, he stole home on a delayed steal for one of his runs scored. He was also hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and later scored on a ground ball to second in the second inning, and picked up his third RBI one inning later with a sacrifice fly to left.

“You just take advantage of everything you can and stay focused, be sure to run out ground balls, and stay focused on the game,” said White about the unusual offensive line he put together.

“It was just one of those games, but we all did what we needed to do to get the win today. We came in knowing we can compete with anybody, so we felt great and came out expecting to get the win.”

Pierce Goida and Brayden Ulshafer both had two hits and combined to score three runs and drive in three runs for Franklin.

Goida provided a two-run double during a seven-run second inning, driving in Grant Birnbaum and Ulshafer, who had both driven in runs earlier in the inning. Franklin sent 11 hitters to the plate in the second inning that put the team up 12-2.

Ulshafer had the only hit in a five-run first inning as a walk, a fielder’s choice, and three Chestnut Hill errors helped start the game with a five-run advantage. Chestnut Hill rebounded in the bottom of the inning with two runs against starter Braylon Hunsicker, who also experienced some wildness with three walks and a hit batter, but pitched around the damage and allowed just two runs to score.

Hunsicker also walked the leadoff hitter in the second, before being relieved by Parker Rodgers.

“Braylon had a tough day and that happens,” said manager J.C. Dietz. “We’ll come back to him in the tournament; it was just one of those days. Rather than have him throw a bunch of pitches today, we went a different direction, and it worked.”

Rodgers gave up an earned run in 2 1/3 innings, giving the Mud Dawgs the innings they needed in the middle of the game, before White came on and finished out the game on the mound.

The lead was expanded with single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Brock Atwood walked to lead off the third inning, and a passed ball, ground out, and White’s sac fly brought him home. In the fourth, Luke Haydt stepped to the plate first and launched a long fly ball into the left-center field gap for a triple, scoring later in the inning on an error that made it 14-3.

The final run scored on a two-out rally in the fifth when pinch-hitter Brian Mriss singled to left and later scored on another Chestnut Hill error. The Thunder had more errors (5) than they did hits (3), which led to five unearned runs.

REMATCH ... Early in the season, Franklin faced eventual league champion Northampton and lost 9-7. Dietz believes his team can stand up to the champions when the two teams play on Saturday. In the first meeting, FT took a 5-0 lead before giving up seven runs in the bottom of the second. Down 7-5, Franklin battled back to tie the game in the top of the third before Northampton put two runs on the board in the bottom of the fifth to get the win. The two teams meet in the winner’s bracket Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Chestnut Hill plays again Sunday in the double-elimination tournament.

KEEP THE COACH HAPPY ... Dietz pulls double duty as both the Lehighton baseball coach and the Connie Mack coach. When asked what makes him happy about the Connie Mack team in this tournament, it was an easy decision. “Just seeing the progress and the development that these guys have shown from the beginning of the Connie Mack season to now. This time of the year, these guys can start to get worn down and maybe not be fully committed, but that’s not happening with these guys. They want to be here, they want to work, and they want to win.”

Franklin Township 571 11 - 15 9 0

Chestnut Hill 200 10 - 3 3 5

Hunsicker, Rodgers (2), White (4) and Goida; Zacharia, Balum (2), O’Karma (5) and Tate.