ELYRIA — Boardman’s Trent Humphreys got a lot done with one swing of his bat Wednesday afternoon at Vic Janowicz Memorial Park.

He launched a walk-off home run that treated Boardman to a dramatic 9-7 come-from-behind victory over Mount Vernon. In the process, he also picked up the pitching victory and propelled his team to within one win of playing for the Little League Majors state championship.

Boardman earned a date with North Canton at 5 p.m. today on the same diamond. The winner gets a berth opposite power-hitting Hamilton, the champion of the winners bracket.

Boardman fell behind 1-0 after an inning, 2-0 after two innings and 7-2 after 3½. Mount Vernon threatened to put it out of reach with five runs in the top of the fourth on the strength of a two-run homer by starting pitcher Bryant Shellenbarger and a solo blast by catcher Justin Springer.

But Humphreys’ game-winner made a significant entourage of Boardman fans forget all that and get on their feet for a loud celebration.

“It was a great feeling, oh, my gosh!” Humphreys said of his 17th home run of the season. “I was hoping it was going over and … oh, my gosh! We’re one step closer to regionals.”

Boardman got strong pitching from starter Danny Boerio, who faced all but Mount Vernon’s final batter. Manager Frank Beato was forced by rule to pull Boerio because he had exceeded the 85-pitch limit. Enter Humphreys, who threw seven pitches in striking out Mount Vernon reliever Owen Carpenter.

“During the regular season, I was a starting pitcher a lot, but then I started closing most of the games,” said Boerio, who made his first start in tournament play. “They just wanted me to do 85 (pitches) and do good.”

Trailing 7-2, Boardman bounced back with four runs in the fourth inning. Mario Graziani, who walked, and Preston Stitt, running for Brandon Fuese, scored when Boerio singled and took second when the Mount Vernon outfield misplayed the ball. Boerio and Jack Lynch then scored on Humphreys’ two-out double.

The table was set for Humphreys when Lou Cardona, Alex Duda and leadoff batter Devin Curd teamed up to tie the score at 7 with two outs in the fifth. Cardona led off the inning with a double and Duda was sent in to run for him. It began to look like a wasted hit when the next two batters struck out. But Curd came through when he barely beat out an infield single that sent Duda home.

“I knew when I went to bat I needed to get a clutch hit so we could stay in the game,” Cardona said. “I was 0-for-2 today and I really needed a hit. It made me mad when the count went to 3-0, because I really wanted a pitch. I finally got one and hit it.”

“It was pretty exciting when I got to score the tying run,” Duda said. “Devin hit like a one-hopper and I ran home, slid and I scored.”

With Boardman just three outs from elimination, second baseman Gino Beato led off the sixth and was hit on the left elbow by a pitch thrown by Owen Carpenter, Mount Vernon’s fifth pitcher. That put Humphreys at the plate. He took a called strike, then hit the next pitch out.

“I was just like, ‘Wow, walk-off, see ya,’ when he hit it,” Gino Beato said.

“Are you kidding me? That was fantastic,” said manager Frank Beato. “They battled back. We made a couple bad errors there, but we kept our heads in the game. I had to go yell at them and grab a couple of them by the shoulders and throw some cold water on them. But you have to do that sometimes. It’s called motivation.”

Mount Vernon manager Sean Carpenter tried to absorb the tough loss.

“We didn’t play our best game,” he said. “We made some mental errors and some errors in the field that cost us some runs and we couldn’t throw strikes there for a little bit. But I’m proud of these boys, each and every one of them. They had a great run.”

Contact Daniels at 329-7135 or softball@bobdaniels.info.

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