Aug 15, 2021 2 min read

You want pitching, Youngstown, Ohio, has it in spades.

You want hitting, Youngstown can score runs quicker than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

You want defense, Youngstown has slick fielders at nearly every position.

All were on display Sunday night in the Pony League World Series at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington Park.

Mason Petridis did not allow a hit in the first three innings, Hunter Garvin crashed a two-run home run and Youngstown made only one error in defeating Bayamon, Puerto Rico, 4-1 in a winners’ bracket game.

Youngstown now moves on to an 8 p.m. game tonight against an opponent to be determined. Puerto Rico plays a 12:30 p.m. game against Washington County.

Petridis at one point struck out seven straight batters and did not allow the ball to be hit out of the infield. Puerto Rico finally touched up Petridis for a run in the fourth inning.

“I’ve been trying to get him on my team for the past three years,” said Youngstown manager Dom Triveri of Petridis. “He was in our Class B league. I’ve been on the other side of it for a while.”

Petridis allowed only one hit, struck out nine and walked one. He also went 1-for-2 with a walk at the plate.

“We want to play every position right,” said Triveri. “We want to have great hitting, we want to have great pitching and we want to have great defense. And that’s what we are trying to install in these kids. They’ve already bought in. They very coachable.”

And then there is luck.

When a ground ball threatened to makes its way to centerfield, second baseman Jake Rynd dove for the ball. It glanced off his glove, smacked him in the nose and the baseball ricocheted to second base for a force out.

Rynd would earlier hit a sacrifice fly that drove in one run and Jackson Cheeks drove in another run.    

Interestingly, one of the last time Youngstown reached the finals of this tournament, the opponent was Washington and the year was 1955.