Mechanicsville American had two shots to walk away with a District V Little League (11-12) championship last week at Manchester but in the end they came away empty handed.

  Instead, Tuckahoe American beat Mechanicsville in back-to-back contest to cap a dominating performance by the West End group where Tuckahoe Little League claimed four of the five baseball titles and three of five softball championships.  Atlee (10-11 baseball), Mechanicsville (11-12 softball) and Chesterfield (Senior softball) were the only teams that kept Tuckahoe from a complete Little League sweep.

  Mechanicsville was undefeated in the winner’s bracket heading into the double-elimination championship game on Friday against Tuckahoe. Therefore they looked to be on solid footing to advance to the Little League State Tournament despite giving up several inches across the board to their tall opponents.

  “We were laughing because all of these guys we’re playing are like, four, five, six inches taller than my players,” said Mechanicsville manager Patrick Holler. “You look like giants over there compared to Sammy Lyttle and Jack Redick. It’s just kind of funny.”

  Mechanicsville took the field for warm-ups looking so sharp they drew daunted praise from the Tuckahoe fans in attendance. But something changed between practice and the start of game play.

  “I guess the nerves got to them to start with,” Holler said. “We made a few errors and errors always cause runs.”

  Facing Mechanicsville’s Zane Durbin on the mound, Tuckahoe’s Brian Edmonds reached on a one-out shot up the middle that allowed him to reach second on a bobble. Next up Kevin Hood sent a shot to third that was not fielded cleanly putting runners at the corners. Callaway Sigler’ hit into the middle of the field also refused to be corralled allowing Edmonds to score.

  With two outs, Hood scored on a pass ball for a quick 2-0 Tuckahoe lead.

  But Mechanicsville answered in the bottom of the inning. Nolan Caler led off with a walk and reached third on a single from Dustin Barden. Caler scored on a wild pitch and with two outs Barden tied the game 2-2 on a single up the middle from Matthew Holler.

  Holler then gave Mechanicsville the lead, beating the throw to the plate on a single to left from Jack Rettig.

  However given the early confidence Tuckahoe refused to yield and knotted the game 3-3 on a home run from Bochic Long in the top of the second. 

  Once again Mechanicsville answered, adding two more in the bottom of the inning. With bases loaded Caler scored on a wild pitch and Barden reached home on a single to third from Holler for a 5-3 lead.

  But Tuckahoe was in a groove. Edmonds started the third with a single to short and Hood doubled to the centerfield fence. A double to the left field fence from Sigler drove the pair home to knot the game 5-5 and brought Holler to the mound in relief.

  Sigler then gave Tuckahoe a 6-5 lead on a groundout to short.

  The see-saw battle continued in the bottom of the third when Caler scored on a pass ball and Sam Lyttle gave Mechanicsville a 7-6 lead on a wild pitch.

  Tuckahoe found an answer again, knotting the game 7-7 in the top of the fourth.

  But it was miscues in the fifth that proved Mechanicsville’s undoing.

  With two outs, Tuckahoe’s Travis Reitsnider sent a shot to the mound that Holler fielded from his knees, but the difficult throw to first that would have closed out the top of the inning, was high allowing the offense to stay on the field.

  Next up Long doubled to center and a double up the first base line from Timmy McGinley drove the pair home for a 9-7 lead.

  Still, Mechanicsville looked to be in prefect position to savage the win in the bottom of the inning.

  A double from Lyttle was followed by singles from Mitchell Matheny and Caler to load the bags with no outs. A single to center by Cole Hicks drove in Lyttle to pull Mechanicsville within one, 8-9 with still no outs.

  But Rettig’s sacrifice fly to left went awry when it was ruled Matheny left early at third for an unusual double-play on the appeal.

  Next up, Holler’s shot to short was fielded cleanly by Edmonds who simply tagged Caler to put an end to Mechanicsville best chance at a comeback as neither team scored in the sixth. 

  Patrick Holler felt nervous mistakes proved Mechanicsville’s undoing. “You look at the scoreboard and I would think three or four of those runs they scored were just because of errors,” he said. “But, it’s 12-year-old baseball.

  “It was a back and forth game and I think Tuckahoe played probably one of the best games they played in the tournament and hats off to them,” Holler added. “On any given day you can be beaten and today was their day. Hopefully tomorrow is ours.”

  But when the two teams returned to the field less than 15 hours later, Mechanicsville appeared to have left their moxie on the other side of town as Tuckahoe cruised to a 10-0 four inning win.

  “We laid an egg today,” Holler said.

  “We never got started,” he said. “They come in and jumped on the first couple batters, got hits. Then a boy hit a home run. We gave up four runs in the first inning and never answered them. We got nobody on base, one, two three, the bottom of the inning.”

  Holler felt the difficult loss on Friday evening coupled with a quick turnaround played against his team. “I think we kind of got caught on our heals a little bit,” he said. “Going into that first game our expectations were we were going to handle them… even being kind of close, when we lost it, I don’t think the kids were ready to come back. Maybe if it was later today it possibly would have helped. They came in and went through warm-ups even a little sluggish. Just kind of going through the motions.”

  Still Holler was proud of his team’s effort. “Since they were eight until now this team has had a lot of success,” he said. “We’ve been in the championship game every year except one. I look at the kids and proud of them and just the success of getting to that championship game every year for the most part. They really worked hard and they’re a lot of good ball players.”

Tuckahoe Amer…. 422 2 — 10 10 4
Mechanicsville A.. 000 0 —  0   2 1
Hood and Reifsnider, Peaden (2);
Metheney, Morris (1) and Barden. W— Hood. L — Metheny.
Highlights: Eli Ottinger (TA) 2 for 3,
2 HRs, 5 RBIs; Lucas Carlisle (TA) 1 for2, HR, 2 RBIs; Brian Edmonds (TA) 2 for3, 2 runs, Mike Holler (MA) 1 for 2.
Note: Tuckahoe American wins the championship, advances to the state tournament July 22 in Leesburg.