District 20’s Little League All-Stars opened tournament play in the 12U Majors division on June 26.

Northwest lost to Pennridge, 15-1, and a pitchers’ duel in Lehigh’s game against Southern Lehigh ended in a 2-0 extra-inning victory for Southern Lehigh. North Bethlehem had a bye.

“We definitely had opportunities, but the bats just didn’t come through,” said Lehigh manager Mike Ondria. “We have a big hitting team, and we should’ve hit. That pitching wasn’t pitching that usually dominates us, and for some reason, we really struggled with the bats today, which was surprising. We kind of felt like we should be putting runs up and definitely hitting. A couple times we had first and third, man on third, bases loaded, and we just couldn’t push it through.”

Lehigh’s Coltin Brozino and Southern Lehigh’s Beckett Spieglmyer battled on the mound for four scoreless innings.

Brozino delivered 10 strikeouts, including three straight in the third inning, and Spieglmyer had three total strikeouts for the Spartans.

In the top of the fourth inning, Brozino escaped a bases-loaded jam by striking out Southern Lehigh’s next two batters.

Lehigh shortstop Jackson Ondria hit a two-out single up the middle in the bottom of the fourth when a brief thunderstorm halted the game.

“We were kind of chomping at the bit, knowing they had the bottom of their order coming up,” Coach Ondria said. “Coltin struck out almost all of them the first time through, and then they were obviously trying to bunt a lot to burn-up pitch counts and generate walks, I think, more than anything. It frustrated our kids a little bit but we tried to talk through that, prepare them. It’s not something you see very often where almost every batter is bunting. The kids aren’t used to that type of play, so it was tough but we did what we could.”

When play resumed 40 minutes later, Ondria advanced to third base on Brozino’s single to right center but was tagged out on a delayed steal.

“Coming out of the rain delay, we hoped to catch them off-guard, but their catcher and pitcher made a great play on it,” Coach Ondria said.

Lehigh’s Dallas Cruz and Southern Lehigh’s Austin Showalter took the mound in the fifth inning.

Cruz retired the first six batters he faced, striking out all three in the top of the sixth.

Lehigh’s Anderson Ryzewski and Julian Correa had leadoff base hits in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively, but were left on base.

Showalter’s RBI double to center in the top of the seventh was Southern Lehigh’s first run, and Jayden Ney’s RBI single put the Spartans ahead, 2-0.

In the bottom of the seventh, Vaughn Emerich had a leadoff walk, and Ondria doubled to center, but was later thrown out at home by Southern Lehigh right fielder Irvin Brunner.

“We’ve seen their best tonight. In our minds, we know we’re a better team,” said Coach Ondria. “We didn’t perform up to our abilities tonight by not hitting and not putting up any runs. We go to the losers’ bracket now, and we still feel like we’re the best team in districts this year.”