Little League baseball: Avon Majors force second game against Galion but can't finish job, fall short of state

AVON — After Avon denied Carter Crosswhite a win on the mound, he turned around and denied Avon a championship with his bat. Crosswhite pitched outstanding for Galion in Game 1, but had to eat a tough-luck loss in extra innings. He got revenge in Game 2, delivering the go-ahead double in the fifth that ultimately sealed Galion's Little League Majors District 7 title with a 2-0 win at Veterans Memorial Park in Avon on Saturday. "We have 11 boys out of 12 who can pitch," Galion manager Bob Lear Jr. said. "Carter delivered a huge hit, that helped us. I changed up coaching. It wasn't working with me on first base so I sent my assistant out there in the fifth and it worked." Avon won the first game 1-0 on an unearned run in the seventh inning to force the winner-take-all game. The Eagles were in the same position against the Tigers last year, but this time around were unable to complete the two-game rally for the district championship. Galion will head to Hamilton for the state tournament, which begins next Saturday. In the teams' three postseason meetings, the Tigers limited Avon to just one run in 19 innings, while the Eagles allowed four during that same span. "Our guys threw amazing," Avon manager Matt McQuality said. "We just knew we needed that baserunner. Our team wasn't going to win with a walk-off homer. We get guys on base, get running and take advantages of mistakes. Galion is better than some of the teams we played at state last year. That's a great team." Crosswhite and Avon starter Adam Libeg both pitched lights out in Game 1. Crosswhite allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out five — throwing every pitch. Libeg struck out six, allowing five hits and two walks. He was relieved in the seventh by Nico Sclimenti, who allowed one hit and one walk with one strikeout. Sclimenti ultimately got the win when Avon walked it off in the seventh. Keegan McQuality led off with a walk, stole second and came around to score when the Tigers elected to try to get McQuality at third during Sam Ryan's routine ground ball to first. The throw got past the third baseman and McQuality scored. "It was tough because they have a good lineup that can hit all the way around," Libeg said. "You've just got to find ways to put it by them. It felt good to get back here. They get to go to state this year, we got to go last year. If we played 10 times, we'd each win five. We were trying our best and gave it our best effort." The second game played out almost identically to the first as Avon's Allen Rodriguez and Galion's Lucas Prosser were dealing. Prosser went the distance with seven strikeouts, allowing five hits and one walk. He also was aided by some outstanding defense in the fourth when Avon's Vinnie LaMarca reached on a one-out single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Rodriguez sent a hard-hit grounder that shortstop Owen Perman made a diving stop to prevent from getting into left field. While it went down as a hit, it kept LaMarca from advancing to third or possibly scoring. Had he been able to advance, LaMarca likely would have scored on Libeg's deep fly ball to left field, but instead it was just a routine out and the Tigers got out of the inning. "That was big to hold them at second base," Lear said. "My pitcher just shut them down after that." Galion finally broke through in the fifth when Dom Blue drew a walk and Crosswhite crushed a ball to the center-field fence for an RBI double. He scored two batters later on Perman's liner up the middle. LaMarca relieved Rodriguez for the final out of the inning, but Prosser closed the door by retiring the side in order, including two strikeouts. "We didn't get to the end goal, but being with these guys the last three years, we were state runner-up last year and had big goals this year," McQuality said. "These guys are awesome. We ran it back with the same 12 from last year and added a great ballplayer. These guys are awesome. They've been amazing." Contact Chris Sweeney at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.