CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Batting around twice in four innings including sending 22 men to the plate in a 16-run fourth inning, Clarion cruised to the District 25 Minor League (10 and under) Little League championship with a 22-0, four-inning win over Oil City at Clarion’s Paul A. Weaver Park Wednesday night.

“We talked about this being our first goal for the season from the first All-Star practices,” Clarion manager Luke Huwar said. “We wanted to defend the title that a lot of these kids had last year, and we came out and did a pretty good job with it. We are pretty happy to accomplish our first goal.”

While the 16-run fourth inning sealed the victory, it was a quick start at the plate for the Clarion nine, which was the visiting team, that got the ball rolling.

Clarion sent 10 batters to the plate in the first inning scoring five runs on six hits and an Oil City error to take a 5-0 lead.

“Jumping out to that quick start was a big part of taking the pressure off and getting the ball rolling tonight,” Huwar said.

In the first inning, Clarion got a two-run single by Ethan Rex and RBI base hits from Dylan Smail and Alex Love, who had a nice game going 3-for-3 with two runs scored and four RBIs out of the No. 9 hole, while also scoring a run on a wild pitch.

After picking up a sixth run on a Love two-out single to left in the third inning, Clarion really broke things open in the fourth scoring the 16 runs on five hits, four Oil City errors, a catcher’s interference, six walks and two hit batters.

Paul Craig, Smail and Parker Miller all reached base three times in the inning while all three players scored twice in the frame as did Eli Nellis, Rex, Casey Kemmer, Billy Kahle and Love. Miller, Rex and Love each had two RBIs apiece in the inning, which Huwar said was a tough inning to manage.

“It’s difficult,” Huwar said. “You don’t want to teach kids bad baseball, but at the same time (you want to teach them about) being good citizens, good ballplayers and good sports. It’s a part of learning and a part of life when they quit baseball.”

Oil City, which got hits from Elijah Sebin and Bryce Davis, tried to make some noise in the bottom of the fourth when Any Mietus reached on aa leadoff error and moved to third on a one-out double to right by Davis. But Miller, Clarion’s second pitcher of the game, recorded the final two outs to keep the shutout in place.

“Hats off to Oil City,” Huwar said. “They came out here fighting. They were in a tough position having played a couple of losers’ bracket games. I know they were down a couple of their pitchers and in a really tough spot. They came out here fighting and gave us all we could handle for the first couple of innings. It was important (for us) to have that winners’ bracket game and the day off. I think that was a big factor the way the game started out.”

Liam Huwar started on the mound for Clarion and got the win going three innings allowing one hit while striking out four.

Clarion moves into the Section 1 Tournament which will be played in Brookville July 16-20.

CLARION 22, OIL CITY 0

Clarion 501 (16) — 22
Oil City 000 0 — 0

CLARION — 22

Eli Nellis 2b/c 4321, Paul Craig 1b 2310, Dylan Smail ss 4312, Parker Miller c/p 3322, Ethan Rex cf/2b 5323, Liam Huwar p/cf 3121, Carter Hindman 3b 1000, Casey Kemmer ph/rf 1200, Brady Beggs lf 1000, Billy Kahle ph/lf 1200, Alex Love rf/3b 3234. Totals 27-22-13-13.

OIL CITY — 0

Blake Marchinke p/ss 2000, Andy Mietus 3b 2000, Elijah Sebin c/ss/p/cf/rf 2010, Bryce Davis 3b 2010, Ryan Jackson lf 1000, Aiden Thompson lf 1000, Carter Bialo ss/2b 2000, Jaivoun Taylor 2b/ss/c 1000, Bart Rosen cf/p 1000, Crusoe McFall rf 1000, Max Lingo rf/p 1000. Totals 16-0-2-0.