CONYNGHAM — Tamaqua’s 8-10 year-old all-stars got off to a rocky start Saturday in the opening round of the Section 6 playoffs.

But, no worries.

Being a resilient group of players, the District 18 champions found a way to bounce back in terrific fashion Sunday afternoon.

Tamaqua scored in every inning to blow past Pocono Mountain 13-3 in four innings. The bounce-back win, which came after an 11-1 loss to Newtown on Saturday, sends Tamaqua into this evening’s elimination game. Once again, it will face Newtown, who dropped a 2-1 decision to Lehigh Township.

The way Tamaqua plays, it forces the other teams into mistakes. And it is designed that way, according to manager Bryan Smith.

“We want the other guy to make mistakes, throw the ball around. We want them to make plays,” said the Tamaqua skipper.

Indeed, that was the case in all four innings of play against Pocono.

In its first at-bats, the Blue Jays stirred the pot thanks to Grayson Smith — who reached base on an error, swiped a pair of bases, and rode home on a Bryce Tuckett single. After teammate Abram Graver bounced into a fielder’s choice out, he reached second on an error, and eventually scored on a wild pitch. That rally negated the Pocono team’s early 2-0 lead.

“We just want to keep putting pressure on the other guys,” manager Smith said. “Hey, we’ve got a lot of guys that can hit, so being down (2-0) never was a concern.”

Why should it be?

The Blue Jays added two more runs in the second to forge ahead and never looked back.

It got a leadoff hit from Jacob Kufro, and then proceeded to load the bases. When Chase Eltringham lofted a fly ball in the infield for an infield flyout rule, the ever-hustling Blue Jays took off and scored two runs on the play. It was heady for sure.

Tamaqua followed that up with a five-run rally in the third. Grayson Smith singled in the rally, doubles were blasted by Aidan Sabol and Bryce Bailey to surge the team to a commanding 9-3 lead.

Meanwhile, winning pitcher Grayson Smith was running smoothly on the bump, going the distance. He allowed three hits, struck out seven and walked two.

Tamaqua put the finishing touches on by scoring five runs in the home fourth.

Parker Grim singled in the rally, Smith drew a walk, and Tuckett singled in two runners — as did Graver.

LEATHER GEMS … Tamaqua infielders came up with a pair of web gems. Third baseman Sabol went to his right on a grounder hit in the hole between short, snagged the ball and made a perfect throw to first. Second baseman Eltringham pulled off the gem of the game on a liner that robbed Myles Senflug of a sure hit. Pocono third baseman Dominic Ficarro had a solid play on a grounder hit by Eltringham.

HIT PARADE … Tuckett led the Jays with two hits. Also adding hits were Smith, Graver, Sabol, Bailey, Finnegan Davis and Grim.

Pocono 201 0 - 3 3 7

Tamaqua 225 4 - 13 8 0

Senflug, Dinger and Gonzalez; Smith and Runk. W - Smith. L - Senflug.