MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Keystone’s Caleb Mahoney is chased back to third base by Loyalsock catcher Jeremiah Johnson in the first inning at Volunteer Stadium in South Williamsport.

WILLIAMSPORT — Hart Fletcher walked off the mound in the top of the sixth to a roar of cheers from the crowd after he threw a solid 5 1/3 innings. In perhaps one of the biggest games in his young career, Fletcher seemed to embrace the spotlight as Keystone crusied to a 5-2 win over Loyalsock for the District 12 9-11 baseball championship Friday evening at Volunteer Stadium.

Fletcher could not have had a better performance which included 12 strike outs and gave up just three singles and one run before the 85-pitch rule forced his night to end.

“We’ve been using Hart all tournament long,” Keystone coach Israd Mahoney said. “He’s a seasoned kid who throws well under pressure, for him to throw lights out like that was huge for us.”

Loyalsock knew they had to play a fundamentally sound game to have a chance to win as they had to rattle off three straight wins to get to the championship game, and turned an 18-8 defeat from East Lycoming earlier in the tournament into a 12-4 win Tuesday to advance to Friday night’s matchup. Keystone rolled through the district bracket winning by 10-run rule in each of its three games.

“I’m really proud of my kids, they battled through the losers bracket to get to the championship game. they did well, I am really satisfied with that,” Loyalsock coach John Kiehl Jr. said. “They bought into all of the hard work they put in and we were able to hang in there with Keystone. … A couple mistakes and we would have been there.”

Loyalsock had a few miscues early in the first inning that produced the first run of the night when Keystone’s Caleb Mahoney walked, then scooted around the bases on two wild pitches. John Kiehl III was able to get a ground out and a strikeout, but a dropped third strike which would have ended the inning resulted in an error and Mahoney scored from third. Fletcher swung through Kiehl’s fastball and took off for first after he heard it hit the ground, Mahoney sprinted off of third to attract Jeremiah Johnson’s attention to force a play at third, but Johnson’s throw sailed over the glove of Drake Dupont. Kiehl was able to get out of the inning with a pop fly to Lane Morasco in right field. Things were looking good for Loyalsock down by just one run, but all of that changed in the third when Keystone’s bats came alive for the second time through the batting order.

“Our big guys were able to come in there and hit nice doubles to left center and that’s what opened the door for us.” Mahoney said.

Keystone was able to build a comfortable 5-0 lead for Fletcher to work with when Caleb Mahoney had his second walk of the night in the thrid inning and scored when Cole Bailey produced a towering double to the left-center field wall. Fletcher replicated that with an RBI double of his own to score Bailey, then scored two batters later as Gavin Karstetter hit another double down the third base line for Keystone’s fourth run of the inning.

Loyalsock looked to answer in the top of the fourth inning. Johnson hit a single back up the middle and advanced to second on a wild pitch before Kiehl III hit another single past the second baseman. With runners on the corner and just one out, it knew it had a scoring chance. James Carpenter squared up a ball, but was hit right to the second base for a force out that scored Johnson from third.

“We just had to keep working at the lead. I told them that we have come back before in the tournament.” Kiehl Jr. said about Loyalock’s chance of digging out of the deficit.

That chance grew more and more out of reach as Fletcher was able to comfortably move around the strike zone and did not give up another runner for the rest of his night.

Kiehl III came back out for the fourth inning and seemed to have brushed off the previous inning as he worked around a two-out jam with runners on second and third to give his team another shot for some runs down just 5-1. But the damage was done with Fletcher still throwing strong as he strucout the side in the fifth inning.

Loyalsock down to its final three outs looked to mound a comeback against Bryce Brungard who came in to relieve Fletcher. Johnson led off with a hit down to the left field fence, and hustled into third for a lead off triple. Kiehl III looked to advnce Johnson, but hit a dribbler back to Brungard for the first out. Deryk Kulp, the next batter, scored Johnson, but grounded out to shortstop and Loyalscok was down to its final out which Brungard got Derek Dupont to hit a ground ball to Maliky Moyd who was standing right on top of first base.

“Hats off to Loyalsock’s pitchers,” Mahoney said. “They kept us at bay today, but we able to get those hits to win. We just need to keep the bats rolling better than we did tonight and and keep working hard heading into sectionals.”

Loyalsock 000 101–2 4 2

Keystone 104 00x–5 5 1

John Kiehl III, Jeremiah Johnson (5) and Johnson, Dolan Harmon. Hart Fletcher, Bryce Brungard (6) and Eli Bailey. W–Fletcher. L–Kiehl III.

Top Loyalsock hitters: Johnson 2-3, 2 runs; Kiehl III 1-3; James Carpenter 1-2. Top Keystone hitters: Cole Bailey 1-2, run, RBI; Fletcher 1-3, RBI; Gavin Karstetter 1-2, 2 RBIs.