By Kevin Jacobsen
WASHINGTON, Pa. — For five innings, the Pony League World Series game between Johnstown B. Hale Boilers and North Zone champion Bay County Red (Mich.) belonged to Johnstown pitcher Jerrell Thornton.
His solo home run in the third inning was Johnstown’s only offense through five innings, and Bay County could not scratch across any runs against Thornton.
After the sixth inning, however, the teams struggled to get outs.
A veritable scoring explosion that saw the teams trade run for run ended in the bottom of the ninth inning when Tony Strasiser’s double plated two runs for Johnstown, which got the lead, lost the lead, then regained it at the last possible moment and earned a 6-5 victory over Bay County Friday.
“My hat’s off to the boys,” Johnstown manager Josh Day said. “Every time something went wrong, they picked each other up.”
Johnstown is off until Monday, when it will face the winner of the Chinese Taipei-Puerto Rico game at 8 p.m. Bay County’s next game is against Saltillo (Mexico) at 5:30 Sunday night.
After Bay County scored twice in the top of the ninth – after having previously erased a two-run deficit with two in the seventh – Johnstown rallied for three runs. Thornton started the inning with a single. After a strikeout and a walk, Dillon Boyer’s single cut the deficit in half. Another strikeout followed, then Strasiser laced a two-strike double into the right-center gap for the tying and winning runs.
“The centerfielder got a great jump on it,” Day said. “I thought he had a bead on it. I wasn’t sure until I saw it drop. I think I beat (Boyer) to home plate.”
Bay County scored in the ninth on a single by Ryan Jankowski, who had two RBIs.
Jankowski later scored on a strikeout-wild pitch.
The North champion was down to its last strike in the top of the seventh and trailing 3-1.
Jankowski, facing an 0-2 count, singled to make the score 3-2. He scored when Zac Olszewski’s fly ball to left was misplayed by Adam Polites for a game-tying double.
