“That’s key,” said Kreiser. “It’s a huge confidence builder for us. When we jumped out like that we were like a different team. They (his players) relaxed. But I wanted to ten-run them, that’s what I wanted to do. We’ve been waiting for that all year.

 “We finally hit the ball,” continued Kreiser. “We’ve been in games, and our defense has let us down and our hitting has let us down. But tonight we hit the ball well and played good defense.”

  “It was 4-0 after the first inning,” said Thome. “Coming off that first inning, we put our heads down a little. We have to have the confidence that we’re going to score four runs. We didn’t, but we’ve got to believe that we can.

 “We gave up some unearned runs,” Thome continued. “They hit, we didn’t. They made the plays, we didn’t. You’ve got to give the credit to them.”

 Colon-Rodriguez wasn’t overpowering. What he was was pitching to contact, moving the ball within the strike zone and not beating himself.

 During his route-going effort, Colon-Rodriguez didn’t strike out a batter and walked three. Richland touched him for the unearned run in the top of the fourth that made it 6-1, and for Jude Anthony’s sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth.

 ” ‘Worm’s’ been pitching good all year,” said Kreiser. “This was important because we have a lot of games in-a-row coming up. If our starters can go deep into games, it’s huge.

 “He doesn’t throw hard,” Kreiser continued. “But he moves the ball around and keeps hitters off balance.”

 “Their guy threw well,” said Thome of Colon-Rodriguez. “He didn’t walk many. He made us put the ball in play.

 “Lebanon’s aggressive,” continued Thome. “They stand in there. They swing the bats. They didn’t throw the ball around. They didn’t give us anything extra.”

 Fifth Ward padded its lead to 7-1 in the bottom of the fourth, after Jose Porte singled, stole second and came around on Raylin Pena’s safety. Lebanon tallied its final two runs in the sixth, on an RBI-double by Pena and an RBI-triple from Braden Collazo.

 In the final tally, Fifth Ward out hit Richland 9-5.

 “We’re always pretty patient,” said Kreiser of his team’s plate approach. “I like to be patient at the beginning of the game. If a pitcher throws strikes, we want to attack. If a pitcher is throwing balls, we want to be patient. Their first kid (Reilly Peiffer) didn’t throw hard, their second kid (Jude Anthony) cranked it up, but we still hit him.”

 “We threw the ball around a little bit,” said Thome. “Walks are going to kill you. We were missing spots and getting behind in counts. When you do that, it gives them an opportunity to hit the ball. It wasn’t our best pitching performance.

 “We play five or six games next week,” Thome. “I’ll be able to tell you where we’re at by Wednesday.”

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 2019 Fifth Ward Schedule

 2019 Richland Legion Schedule

 Lebanon County American Legion Baseball League

 East Division Standings

West Division Standings