Two years ago, pitcher Justin Aungst started in the District 11 Class AA championship game and helped guide the Falcons to a district crown as a freshman.

During last week's district title game against Notre Dame (Green Pond), Aungst's name was called again. And once again, the Salisbury ace delivered on the mound.

Aungst, who allowed four runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings, helped the Falcons capture their second district title in three seasons with a 9-4 victory over the Crusaders last Wednesday at Coca-Cola Park.

"I'm happy for this group of seniors now," said head coach Mike Pochron. "They actually got two, and they got a league title and a district title."

It may not have been Aungst's greatest outing statistically, but there are few that have been more rewarding and satisfying.

"It feels great," said Aungst. "Not many teams get the chance to win two gold medals in a year. We got two, and hopefully we can get a third."

After the Crusaders tallied three hits and two runs off Aungst in the top of the third inning to take a 2-0 lead, the Falcon bats came to life from that point on.

Brad Vangeli led off the bottom of the third inning with a single to right field and scored during the next plate appearance when Evan Kulig lined a single to center field. Aungst connected on a single two batters later. Mason Kresley followed that with a clutch two-run double to put the Falcons ahead 3-2.

"I had confidence," said Aungst. "I gave up two runs, but I knew our offense would come back. I knew we were going to come back and get some runs. We really started hitting the ball later in that game."

"We just needed someone to get it started," said Vangeli. "I came up in the right spot, got a good swing on it and a good hit. The next three innings, actually, we got our nine runs in three innings straight."

The Falcons got two more in the fourth inning and four in the fifth when they batted around the order. The first six Falcons reached base in the bottom of the fifth. A Vangeli two-run single to right field scored Zach Seitz and Tyler Cooperman to push their lead to 8-2. Utsch later scored in the inning on a Crusader infield error.

The Crusaders added two more runs off Aungst in the sixth inning, but Nic Ampietro pitched the final 1 2/3 innings and allowed two hits and struck out three batters.

"We have a lot of experienced guys, and there's no reason to panic," said Pochron. "I think that's part of it too. They know they've got time and there's plenty of time to come back. We took advantage of it."

"Coming off the loss last year [to Pine Grove in District aa final], we didn't want to come back here and get another silver," said Vangeli. "We were really determined this time to come back and get a gold medal. It was a great team effort all around the hitting, pitching and defense."

Results from Tuesday's state playoff game against Neumann-Goretti were not available at press time. See next week's issue for coverage of that game.