HAZLE TOWNSHIP - Saddle up the horses, Franklin Township is on the cusp of another District 18 8-10-year-old Little League title.

Using just about everything in their arsenal, the Maroons put on an impressive display of baseball to waltz past Valley East in the opening game of the best-of-three championship series on Thursday.

Franklin Township’s winning recipe included heavy doses of clutch hitting and sturdy pitching, with safety squeezes, stolen bases and aggressive running sprinkled in.

The result was a 12-2 victory, and a horde of momentum and confidence heading into the weekend. Franklin Township can seal the deal and wrap up its second straight D18 championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. when the same two teams return to Hazle Township. A Valley East victory in that game would force a deciding game on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Though the Maroons stumbled out of the gate watching East go in front 2-0 after a half-inning of play, they quickly went to the fore with a three-run uprising in the bottom of the frame and never wavered after that.

Both of the East runs were unearned as a pair of errors and a Gabe Tidwell double produced the lead. That was all the offense Valley East would muster, however, as Franklin pitchers Myles Meek and Jake Kistner combined to allow just one hit the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, the Maroons were putting big numbers on the scoreboard in three of their four atbats during the mercy-rule shortended game.

Franklin Township used a pair of three-run outbursts to jump ahead 6-2.

In the first inning, the Maroons got hits from Kistner, Brody Hunsicker and Jakoby Andrews with Kistner’s single plating a pair of runs.

In the third, Franklin used a perfectly executed safety squeeze off the bat of Bryson Brungard to ignite its scoring. It was his second well-executed safety squeeze, pulling it off in the first inning as well.

“The kids are resilient,” said Franklin Township manager Travis Hunsicker . “We hit the ball one-through-12 in our batting order. We put the ball in play, and put the pressure on the other team’s defense.”

When the home fourth rolled around, the Maroons went for the jugular scoring six runs to curtail the contest. Taking advantage of six walks, and a Mason Neff single, the Maroons closed out the win.

“Our kids work hard. We practice every day, and we try and cover all the basics,” Hunsicker said. “We just beat a good Valley East team. It was a really nice way to start this best-of-three series.”

SHORT WORK … Starting pitcher Meek worked two-and two-third innings for Franklin before giving way to Kistner. Meek struck out four, walked two with no earned runs on 50 pitches. Kistner walked one and did not allow a hit in less than two innings of work.

FREE SWINGING … The Maroons had 11 hits, led by Andrews with three, and Neff and Hunsicker with two apiece. Grant Hunter, Miles Mann, Kistner Brungard all had one.

GREAT APPROACH … The two well placed safety squeeze bunts by Brungard is a long-lost art in the game. Bravo to him.

Valley East 200 0 – 2 1 0

Franklin Twp. 303 6 – 12 11 2

Schrader, Hill (3) and Hartley (4) and Tidwell; Meek, Kistner (3) and Brungard. W – Meek L – Schrader