LIMEPORT — Baseball is easy; throw strikes, field the ball, and hit the ball.

It also doesn’t hurt to stay aggressive and take advantage of the other team’s mistakes.

That’s the formula that Franklin Township used Sunday to eliminate Harleysville with an 11-1 win in the Connie Mack State Tournament at Limeport Stadium.

The throwing strikes portion of the approach fell to Parker Rodgers, who threw 44 of his 66 pitches for strikes, striking out five along the way and allowing just one run, which was unearned.

In two games in the tournament, Rodgers has allowed just one earned run in 7 1/3 innings of work.

Rodgers also reached on an error in the third, and drove in a run with a ground ball to left in the fourth inning.

“He’s a big lineman for football and sometimes everybody looks at him when he’s on the mound, because he’s a big guy,” said manager J.C. Dietz of Rodgers, who also stole a base in Sunday’s game. “I like kids who throw strikes, and that’s what he does.”

The Mud Dawgs had several miscues, but Harleysville committed nine errors that led to five unearned runs. To compound the errors, Franklin Township played some small ball and did it well.

Back-to-back sacrifice bunts in the second inning turned into fielder’s choices with both the runner and batter being safe. Grant Birnbaum also got down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move both Logan Bellis and Cash White into scoring position.

That led to a Rodgers RBI single. Another run scored when Rodgers and White pulled off a double-steal to push their lead to 10-1.

Luke Haydt had two RBIs, the first coming on a second-inning single, and the next coming on an RBI double in the third that also moved Chris Goida to third. Braylon Hunsicker’s ground ball then scored Goida for an 8-1 lead.

“We’re a great hitting team and when we get guys on base and move runners into scoring position, we’re in good shape,” said Haydt. “It helps too that we had Parker (Rodgers) on the mound and he was throwing strikes.”

Goida and Haydt both had two hits. Brock Atwood was 0-for-3, but reached base on a walk, a fielder’s choice, and an error and each time came around to score.

In addition to turning fielding errors into runs, Franklin Township also took advantage of the fact that Harleysville was without their starting catcher. They played a hunch and felt free to put runners in motion, and it paid off. The Mud Dawgs went 6-for-6 in stolen bases with White and Hunsicker both stealing bags twice and Bellis and Rodgers both stealing one.

The fact that the game was limited to five innings by the 10-run rule and Rodgers pitched all five innings, will help Franklin Township’s pitching situation Monday when it plays its third game in three days.

“We’ve all played together since majors, so we’ve had a good experience for the past four or five years,” said Rodgers. “We have one of the better hitting teams left in the tournament, and we have good pitching, good baserunning, and good defense, so I think we can make it pretty far.”

SATURDAY AT THE PARK ... Franklin Township lost to league champion Northampton 7-1 Saturday to slip into the loser’s bracket. Atwood had a pair of hits and two of the Dawgs’ stolen bases in the game. Jake Albert, Hunsicker and White also stole a base.

MONDAY, MONDAY ... One thing is certain; Franklin Township will have Tuesday off. On Monday, it will be back at Limeport to face Upper Providence at 5 p.m. The loser of that game will be eliminated. Should the Mud Dawgs win, they would play again on Wednesday at 5 p.m.

LAY OF THE LAND ... With just two Connie Mack leagues — the Bux-Mont and Lehigh Valley Leagues — remaining in Pennsylvania, Limeport provides the perfect location for the state tournament. It’s likely that none of the player’s grandparents were even born when the stadium was built in 1932, and the fact that center field goes uphill because of huge boulders that were too expensive to remove or that there is a prize hunting dog buried underneath third base is lost on the players. League and stadium officials believe that Limeport Stadium has provided a home for the tournament since 1992.

Harleysville 010 00 - 1 5 9

Franklin Twp. 242 21 - 11 7 3

Crozier, Harris (4) and Antonioli; Rodgers and Goida. W - Rodgers. L - Crozier.