Russ Canzler knew all about the offense.

The Valley West head coach saw the box scores. He looked through the stats.

Canzler was well aware that Tamaqua had the potential to knock around his pitchers and light up the scoreboard. After all, this is a Tamaqua team that scored 29 runs in its first two games of the District 18 10-12-Year-Old Little League Tournament.

But Canzler’s squad had an ace in the hole. Two, actually.

Valley West pitching continued to shine, stifling another opponent in Friday’s 4-3 win over Tamaqua in a winner’s bracket game.

“That was huge,” said Canzler. “We’ve been paying close attention to how well they’ve been doing, and they have a great offensive team. … But I’m happy with our guys. They’ve been in some big games, and they’ve pitched in some big moments, so I was really happy with how they settled into the game.”

Antonio Doganiero started for a Valley West team that had outscored opponents 18-0 in two games, and pitched into the third inning, striking out five. He was relieved by Jonas Aponick, who struck out six.

“Antonio (Doganiero) started out, and he’s been outstanding,” said Canzler. “It gets harder and harder to take him out. But we have Jonas (Aponick) there, who is a horse. They really complement each other well.”

Doganiero departed with a 3-0 lead and one out in the bottom of the third inning. Aponick came on and allowed a double to Brian Hinkle before Cian McLaughlin’s infield hit scored Cooper Ansbach, who reached on a one-out single off of Doganiero, to make it 3-1.

But Aponick worked out of trouble, getting a strikeout to end the inning with runners at second and third base.

Valley West got the run back when Aponick (2-for-2, two walks) helped himself in the top of the fourth inning, blasting a solo homer into the trees over the leftfield fence to make it 4-1.

Cleanup hitter Brady Mizenko blasted a three-run homer near the scoreboard in centerfield to give Valley West a 3-0 lead in the top of the third inning.

“We wanted to pitch them carefully,” said Tamaqua head coach Trevor Steigerwalt. “But you get behind in the count, and you got runners on, you gotta challenge them at some point. You gotta try to make them hit our pitch. We got ourselves in counts where they were able to key on a couple pitches and they did a good job of doing that. And they didn’t miss it when they did.”

Tamaqua threatened again in the bottom of the fifth inning. Hinkle grounded into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded to score Lucas Milot to cut the deficit to 4-2.

A walk to McLaughlin loaded the bases again, and Zander Coleman followed with a ground out that scored Lucas Kamant to make it a one-run game.

Valley West intentionally walked Chase Andrews (1-for-2) to load the bases again with two outs. But Aponick got a pop up to end the inning and work out of the jam.

Aponick struck out the side in order in the bottom of the sixth to close out the game.

“It’s a well-coached team,” Steigerwalt said of Valley West. “They do the fundamentals well … they hit their (cut-offs). We made a couple minor mistakes that gave them extra at-bats, and put extra kids up and added that pressure onto our team that we didn’t necessarily have to have.

“But I’m proud of the way the boys fought. They fought the whole time. They battled back into the game. Down 4-1 against a team like this, we chipped away; we were a hit short a couple times. We get a hit, a bounce, and we’re right there.”

LOOKING AHEAD

… Valley West will play at Anthracite Tuesday in a winner’s bracket game. Tamaqua will travel to Valley East Sunday in a loser’s bracket contest.

PREVIOUSLY ... Tamaqua rolled past Hazleton 15-6 and routed Jim Thorpe 14-3 before falling to Valley West.

Valley West 003 100 – 4 8 1

Tamaqua 001 020 – 3 4 1

Doganiero, Aponick (3) and Aponick, Doganiero (3); Milot, Hinkle (4) and Kane. W – Doganiero. L – Milot. HR: VW – Mizenko (3rd, two on), Aponick (4th, none on).