Another day and another dramatic Greencastle win. Greencastle escaped two late-inning jams Saturday night at Newville to defeat Northern Lebanon 4-3 and is now one victory away from playing in the Pennsylvania State Little League Championship on Monday.

Greencastle will play Back Mountain on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Back Mountain fell to the elimination bracket, losing 9-6 to Council Rock Newtown.

Greencastle had a 4-1 lead going to the bottom of the fifth inning. Northern Lebanon loaded the bases on two errors and a hit-by-pitch. Two runs were walked in to cut Greencastle’s lead to 4-3.

Ryan Emlet was brought in to pitch, making his first post-season appearance pitching, and retired the first two hitters to get out of the inning.

Emlet faced the 3-4-5 hitters in the bottom of the sixth. After retiring the first batter, Greyson McQuade walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch to get into scoring position. Emlet then struck out the next two hitters to preserve the win and keep Greencastle alive in the tournament.

Greencastle manager Derrick Horst told Mid Penn Broadcasting on the post-game show, “Ryan Emlet, I just can’t say enough about him. He hasn’t pitched yet because of hip pain. He threw in the bullpen this morning and said he was feeling good. We decided to roll the dice and go with him. He did what he had to do to get out of the inning. It was a great performance.”

Bryce King started and pitched the first 4 1/3 innings, allowing just one earned run on three hits, three walks, and four strikeouts.

Issac Good’s home run in the first inning staked Northern Lebanon to a 1-0 lead.

Greencastle came back with two runs in the fourth inning. Ryan Emlet had a run-scoring double. Greencastle made it 2-1 on a bases-loaded walk to Chase Cordell.

Greencastle added another run in the fourth on an error to make it 3-1, then made it 4-1 on a Bryce King single in the fifth.

Greencastle has struggled scoring in the state tournament, scoring twelve runs in four games after scoring  121 in 10 district and sectional games.

Horst said about the offense, “Tonight, we hit a lot. We had a lot of baserunners, but we just couldn’t get them around. It felt like every inning it was coming. A couple of guys got hits that have been struggling.We just need confidence to get that momentum back and get hot.”

Greencastle had runners on base in every inning but stranded nine in the game.

Greencastle will play Back Mountain on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. The game can be heard on Mid Penn Broadcasting.