DUBOIS — For the second year in a row, the Elk-McKean All-Stars are state champions.
The all-stars from Johnsonburg, Ridgway, Kane and Wilcox took an early lead and never looked back on the way to an 8-3 victory over Hollidaysburg to claim the Senior League State title Sunday afternoon at Showers Field.
After winning the Junior League title a season ago, Elk-McKean moved up a level and hasn’t stopped winning since with a strong regular season before capturing the District 10 title against DuBois.
Elk-McKean won all four games of the tournament, including three of four by at least four runs and did not allow more than three runs in any of its games.
Playing as the away team Sunday, Elk-McKean got off to a strong start in the top of the first, taking advantage of a handful of defensive mistakes by Hollidaysburg to push across four early runs.
Camron Marciniak got the game started with a grounder to second, as he was able to reach first safely on an arrant throw.
Aiden Zimmerman followed by singling down the line in left to put two runners on before a fly out in foul territory resulted in the first out.
Carson Whiteman was then able to reach on another error, as his grounder to second was bobbled allowing Elk-McKean to load the bases.
Kaden Dennis drew a bases-loaded walk to bring home Marciniak for the first run of the game before Domenic Allegretto reached on an infield single to short to score Zimmerman.
Whiteman was also able to score on the play while Dennis moved up to third when the throw from short when wide of the first base bag.
Dalton Stahli came through with the final RBI of the inning, laying down a sacrifice bunt back to the mound as Dennis came home when the throw went to first.
Dennis led Elk-McKean and the tournament with a .759 batting average.
Hollidaysburg battled back in the bottom of the inning, scoring two runs on four hits to trim the deficit in half.
Rocco Grassi started the rally with a one-out single before scoring when Bryce Martellacci followed with a triple.
Martellaci then scored the second run of the frame on a sac fly off the bay of Tyler Faber.
Hollidaysburg trimmed the deficit to one in the bottom of the third when Caleb Jandora reached on a one-out infield single before a Landon Perry double down the right-field line brought him in to score.
Elk-McKean responded in the next half inning by putting up its second four spot of the day to take a commanding five-run lead.
Ethan Wells led off with a double before Luke Zimmerman singled to put runners on the corners with no outs.
Marciniak then drew a walk to load the bases, as Aiden Zimmerman delivered a two-RBI single to score Wells and Luke Zimmerman.
Morris then hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Marciniak, while Aiden Zimmerman was thrown out attempting to advance to third for the second out of the inning.
Whiteman then started a two-out rally by reaching on a hit by pitch before Dennis walked to put an end to Hollidaysburg starter Martellacci’s day on the mound.
Perry then took over for the home side, as he walked the first two batters he faced in Allegretto and Stahli to bring Whiteman in to score the fourth run of the inning to bring the score to 8-4.
After allowing three runs on eight hits over the first three innings of the game, Aiden Zimmerman allowed just one hit, a single in the fourth, and no runs over the final four innings to finish off the complete game.
Aiden Zimmerman finished the game with three runs allowed on nine hits over seven innings while not recording any walks or strikeouts to pick up the win on the mound while also going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored at the plate.
He had a 1.31 ERA during his appearances on the mound in the tournament.
“The recipe continues to work as long as everybody does their part,” Elk-McKean manager Casey Zimmerman said.
Elk-McKean will now begin play in the East Region tournament in Bangor, Maine on Thursday.
