AVON — Trailing by six runs after
two-and-a-half innings, Avon’s 11-year-old Little League All-Stars used a one-two knockout punch to floor visiting Elyria East on Wednesday night and capture the North District crown in a 17-7 mercy-rule decision.
Avon scored 10 runs in the bottom of the third to overcome a 7-1 East lead and then put it away with six more in the fourth, capped by Vince Mingo’s three-run homer over the fence in right-center that ended the game as umpires evoked the 10-run rule.
“Everybody was hitting the ball great,” Avon manager Chris Howard said. “That was a nice way to end it with Mingo’s walk-off homer. That was his first homer of the tourney season.”
Avon, which won 14-4 at Elyria East on Saturday in its only other tournament game, advances to a best-of-three District 3 championship at Veterans Memorial Park on Friday at 6 p.m., against the South District champion, either Tallmadge or Cuyahoga Falls North.
East jumped out to a big early lead mostly because of wildness by Avon’s starting pitcher, Kevin Maloney. The Elyrians scored six runs in the top of the third with only two hits, as they got six walks, including three with the bases loaded.
Sam Oehlke and Bryan Gregor got the lone hits in the inning. East also got three walks to score a run in the first inning.
But in the bottom of the third, Avon responded in a big, big way, after the first batter flied out. Three hits and an error followed and the winners were off and running.  
Avon ended with seven hits in the 10-run inning, highlighted by a double by Tim Moroz, who had four hits in the game. Jonny Morales, Alex Guzik and Mingo also had multihit games for Avon.
“Those two innings kind of got the best of us,” East manager Jason Shaffstall said. “I’m still proud of our kids. They had heart and worked hard in practice. They love the game of baseball. We wanted to win badly for Bradley Gruver. We dedicated the game to him.”
Gruver, a member of the team, suffered a broken leg and other injuries in a fall at home.   

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