The Sayre Woods South Little League 10-year-old team won its district tournament, defeating Franklin, 9-6, in the final In doing so, they became the third SWS team to win a district title this year, joining the 12- and 16-year-olds.
In the first inning of the final, Vincent D’Acunto (4-for-4 on the night) hit a two-out single, setting the stage for Stephen Weir’s monstrous home run over the left field wall. In the second inning, the SWS bats really came to life as the team scored five more runs to make it 7-0. Evan Andretti doubled, knocking in two runs and ended up with two key hits on the night. Aaron Hart came back from vacation to play and proved his worth immediately as he connected for a line-drive single to knock in another run. Billy Olsen pitched five complete innings to keep Franklin in check, while great fielding proved to be too much for Franklin to overcome.
Conner Langlois got a clutch RBI in the fifth that was needed after Franklin closed to within 8-5. As Franklin mounted its comeback, solid defense from Joe Murphy and Daniel Decker got Olsen out of trouble. Going into the sixth, with two outs and two runners on, Aaron Hart come on to pitch and closed out the inning. After walking two batters, he got the No. 3 hitter to ground out to sure-handed Vincent D’Acunto, the No. 4 hitter to pop up to the pitcher, and the No. 5 hitter to strike out, ending the game and giving SWS the title.
The Sayre Woods squad will be back in action this weekend when they play in the sectionals in South Wall against the District 11 champion.
The team’s players are D’Acunto, Weir, Frank Butta, Hart, Decker, Jesse Magliulo, Andretti, Patrick O’Donnell, Mathew McAnally, Olsen, Langlois, Murphy and Joseph Del Duca.