Expand<\/a><\/p>\nBY HOLDEN MOSTOFSKY<\/p>\n
CORRESPONDENT<\/p>\n
The Abington Minors Baseball team is one step closer to a state championship.<\/p>\n
Abington defeated Valley East, 9-4, in the Section 5 championship final Wednesday night to advance to the state tournament, which is at Upper Providence Little League in Phoenixville.<\/p>\n
The team is 9-0 in the all-star season, outscoring its opponents, 120-15.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to do that with solid pitching, consistent pitching and defense,\u201d Abington coach Paul Keeler said. \u201cThe most impressive stat to me is the runs allowed rather than the runs scored because for 10-year-old baseball, that\u2019s an impressive number. That means you have players who are throwing strikes, and that means you have players who are making plays in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abington will face Section 2 champion Ingomar on Monday at 10 a.m.<\/p>\n
Keeler said the team will have to continue to play similar to past games in hopes of advancing further into the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need the defense we had in the first two games of sectionals, preferably not the start of the last game of sectionals,\u201d he said. \u201cIn practice, we\u2019re working on defense. Over the past two to three days, we\u2019ll continue to work on defense, and we\u2019ll have live at-bats just to keep us fresh on what we want to do at the plate. Ingomar looks like a very solid team. They\u2019re from a big Little League from a very strong section. So we know we have our work cut out for us. We\u2019re excited. Our kids are very, very excited. We, as the coaching staff, are excited, and you know we look forward to playing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abington\u2019s pitching depth is one of the team\u2019s biggest strengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cStephen Strauch pitched a game with no walks and a shutout over five innings, and Ford Eckenrode in the championship pitched a complete game with no walks, as well,\u201d Keeler said. \u201cThose two guys threw two great games to get us there. Connor Mitchell pitched the opening game of the sectionals, and also did a great job getting us through a very competitive game, and also has great velocity and is hard to hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pitching staff is also backed by a strong defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have Noah Troy, Patrick Scanlon, Santo Zanghi and Jack Keeler who can all consistently throw strikes and throw a mix of pitches to keep offenses off balance,\u201d he said. \u201cThen we present good defense behind them, and that\u2019s what makes us a strong team to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Abington has a strong defense, they also have power at the plate and\u00a0lineup depth.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team\u2019s advantage is that we\u2019re tough top to bottom,\u201d Keeler said. \u201cThe back of our lineup is scoring runs and has a very high on-base percentage, so teams aren\u2019t getting a breather with us when they get to the back of our order. We have kids that are putting the ball in play, getting on base, and can drive the baseball, even our savvy baseball players at the back of our order.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keeler is no stranger to a state tournament.<\/p>\n
He coached the Abington Majors to the state final last year before ultimately losing in the title game.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth groups are great groups, and we as a coaching staff really stress that being part of a team means sacrificing part of yourself for the collective greater good,\u201d Keeler said. \u201cWe also remind the boys, because they put a lot of pressure on themselves, that this is a baseball game and they should have fun. Mistakes are going to be made.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to win a district title. We want to win a sectional title, and we want to win a state title. That is our objective. But the overall objective is for them to have a good time, make memories and work together for a common goal that\u2019s bigger than themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roster: Jack Keeler, Connor Mitchell, Stephen Strauch, Ford Eckenrode, Noah Troy, Santo Zanghi, Rowan Walsh, Patrick Scanlon, Mikey Fogley, Drew Cognetti, Luca Bossi, Declan Horutz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abington\u2019s Mike Fogley (31) high-fives an Abington coach during a game against North Pocono in Dunmore, Pa., on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[25251,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-252627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-little-league","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n![\"Abington\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/STT-L-LLRDPTUESDAY-BOLDL-0630-01-1.jpg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Abington\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/STT-L-LLRDPTHURSDAY-BOLDL-0702-04-1.jpg?w=620\")
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