There were no thoughts of plays or players as Matthew Knock headed off the field.

The Weatherly mentor simply saw the big picture after his squad defeated Anthracite 11-1 in five innings to capture the Mike Turrano Award as champions of this year’s Panther Valley 9-10-year-old Little League Tournament.

“This is what I would call a true All-Star team,” Knock beamed. “Weatherly is such a small town, where these kids have played together day-in and day-out. But we weren’t exactly able to have the exact amount of kids we needed, so we drew from the Tri-County area, which brought down three kids that really augmented what we have here.

“And part of this, at that age, is these kids learned to be a team. To bring kids in from another area, and (have them) play together, I have so much respect for the Weatherly kids, and it shows the kind of people we have here in this town.”

Weatherly posted a 5-0 mark during the tournament.

The team built confidence with each of its wins. That momentum carried over into Tuesday’s contest, as Weatherly built a 4-0 lead against Anthracite after the first inning.

“We’ve taught the kids from the very beginning that we’re going to play each pitch as it comes and how we receive it, and they’re going to go out and take advantage of every opportunity that they can,” said Knock. “To get up early on a team is great, but what we didn’t want is to have complacency, and at times we got a little flat.

“What I saw from the first game in this tournament to the last game in this tournament is we were able to capitalize and not lose that edge once we got up. We were able to continue to be aggressive throughout the entire game, as opposed to resting on our laurels.”

The early runs in the opening frame came on a mix of wild pitches and passed balls. After Anthracite pulled a run back in the top of the third, Weatherly tacked on two more runs on an error in the bottom of the inning.

Weatherly pushed across five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to end it.

Mitchel Knock had two singles and scored three times for Weatherly. Colton Yachera singled twice and scored two runs, while Chase Grier added a double and scored twice.

Kyle Reiner closed out the game on the mound, pitching the final three innings, allowing one run and just two baserunners. He retired the side in order in each of the final two frames.

Bradlee Connors got the start for Weatherly, giving up two hits and one walk while striking out two.

“I think we played very well today, we played one of our better games,” said Anthracite manager Shane Schirer. “We just didn’t score runs. We made some really good plays on defense, and things just didn’t fall our way.”

Luke Brimmer scored Anthracite’s run on an error in the third to cut the deficit to 4-1.

Anthracite had runners at first and third in the second inning after Gabe Perilli drew a two-out walk and Carson Jones singled to left field. But Connors worked out of trouble with a strikeout to end the inning.

Spencer Schirer and Kaden Koerbler had singles for Anthracite.

HELPING HANDS … Knock noted the three players from Tri-County — Alex Diaz, Brian Sheman and Cody Gruver — were instrumental in helping the program both on and off the field. “A lot of the life lessons that we learned here through baseball season, we’ve really grown as a family. And I would say that this team, and this community, has really grown to be a family as a result of the Little League Baseball program at Weatherly,” said Knock.

LESSON LEARNED … While Weatherly marched to the tournament title with an unblemished record, Knock pointed to a setback days before the event began when talking about the team’s success. “We started the season off with a scrimmage against an all 11-year-old team from Franklin Township. We played a great game, and were up 8-2 in the sixth inning, but we lost the game 9-8. This team was able to start a game, play five-and-a-half innings, but we didn’t know how to finish. It was a great lesson where we learned in that game how to finish what we do – start it, and finish it,” he said.

Anthracite 001 00 - 1 3 5

Weatherly 402 05 - 11 7 1

Lazar, Perilli (2) and Koerbler; Connors, Reiner (3) and Grier. W - Connors. L - Lazar.