UNION CITY — In the wake of the Butler Township Little League All-Star baseball team’s exit from the Section 1 tournament, players and coaches took some time to reminisce.

The squad had just dropped a 7-2 decision to DuBois Monday night, ending the team’s run.

“There were some emotional tears. These kids had been in it for so long,” said team manager Chris Singleton. “They talked about how much fun they had playing together.

“The core group had been playing together since they were 7-years old and had won or finished runner-up in 28 tournaments.”

Butler Township found itself behind the 8-ball early in the elimination game as DuBois scored four second-inning runs and never trailed.

“DuBois is a big hitting team and we wanted to keep them off-balanced,” said Singleton. “We had our pitchers (beginning with starter C.J. Singleton) throw a lot of sliders, change-ups and knuckleballs. DuBois wasn’t hitting the ball very hard, but their groundballs were finding the holes.”

Butler Township answered with RBI singles from Landen Strawn in the second inning and J.T. Ritzert in the fifth, but DuBois added insurance runs in the third, fourth and fifth.

Chandler Ho pitched a complete game for DuBois, allowing the two runs on eight hits while striking out three.

Strawn (three innings) and Ethan Trettel (one) both pitched in relief for Butler Township.

Kyle Yost and Strawn both led the team’s offense with two singles.

Brayden Young singled and finished his postseason with an on-base percentage of .800.

Chris Singleton is proud of his team’s effort and of its sportsmanship.

“I’m very pleased with the way they handled this loss,” he said. “Obviously, we are disappointed we didn’t make the state championship tournament, but it’s a super group of kids. We proved that we can play with anybody.

“The coaches of the other teams all said that we had the best defense, particularly our infield defense, of any team in the tournament. That’s a pretty big compliment.”