The goal may be lofty, but if Franklin Township executes the way it did Sunday night, that goal may become a reality.

Franklin received solid pitching, swung the bats well, played solid defense and ran the bases aggressively.

The result was a 12-2 victory over Anthracite/Lansford in both team’s District 18 Little League opener at Wayne Wentz Field.

“Our goal is five wins for the tournament,” said FT manager Travis Hunsicker. “That’s the district championship, and that’s our goal. This is one of five. We’re working hard. The kids put in the time. They get all the credit.

“The bats came alive. We got off to a bit of a slow start, but we stayed persistent and the last couple innings we had some solid line-drive base hits. We preach hard ground balls and line drives.”

Leading 3-0 after three innings, Franklin Township batted around in the fourth frame and scored six runs to take a commanding lead.

Consecutive hits by Parker Rodgers, Pierce Goida, Alex Bedocs and Snyder started the uprising.

“Momentum,” said Hunsicker. “A couple kids get it started and everyone follows with it. Momentum is the name of the game in baseball. You get some momentum and the team just builds off of that.”

Bedocs also delivered an RBI single during a three-run fifth inning that ended the game due to the 10-run rule.

“They eventually settled in,” said Hunsicker. “There could have been a little bit of nerves with this the first game of the tournament. We just told them to take a deep breath, relax and put good swings on the ball.”

Anthracite/Lansford had all kinds of trouble getting good swings against Snyder in the early going.

The right-hander struck out seven batters through the first three frames, allowing just two hits.

“Cody’s our ace,” said Hunsicker. “He’s a 12-year-old. That’s what we expect from him, to go out there and throw strikes. The most important thing is to throw strikes and use the defense behind him. He did a great job with that.”

He also did a great job with a bat in his hands.

Snyder had an RBI double to open the scoring in the first, and added another run-scoring double in the third.

“The first couple innings, they just couldn’t hit that boy pitching,” said Anthracite manager Jeff Lazar of Snyder. “He pitched a really good game. He keeps the ball low around the knees, which you don’t see a lot in Little League. He was hard to hit, but we came back and we started hitting the ball a little bit better, just a little bit too late.”

The visitors used an error and hits from AJ Reaman and Derek Lazar in the sixth to plate two runs and avoid a shutout.

“It was 3-0 until the floodgates open,” said Lazar. “We had a couple bad errors that gave away some runs. But we did a pretty good job toward the end. A couple of our guys were hitting. Hats off to (Franklin Township). They’re a well-rounded team.

“Our kids stay up. We preach to keep the positivity up and the anxiety and negativity down. I’m not sure it’s the outcome any of us wanted here, but that’s baseball ... You’ve got to be gracious when you win and gracious when you lose. We’ll be ready to play Tuesday.”

LOOKING AHEAD ... Anthracite/Lansford will travel to Hazle Township on Tuesday in a loser’s bracket game. Franklin will be back in action Thursday at Valley West.

BIG HITTERS ... Snyder had three hits and three RBIs for the winners, while Bedocs had three hits and scored two runs. Noah Wentz chipped in with two hits and two RBIs. Rodgers added a pair of hits, and Goida had a hit and scored three runs. For A/L, Kaden Koerbler had two hits.

ON THE MOUND ... Snyder finished with eight strikeouts and was pulled at 65 pitches. Tegan Hettler recorded the final two outs. Anthracite starter Gabe Pirelli fanned four batters in 3 1/3 innings.

Anthracite/Lansford 000 02 - 2 5 7

Franklin Township 102 63 - 12 11 2

Pirelli, Lazar (4) and Reaman; Snyder, Hettler (5) and Ulshafer. W - Snyder. L - Pirelli.