EAST BUTLER — Garet Banner had to be a fighter Tuesday night.

He fought the rain. He fought a four-run deficit. He fought a high pitch count.

And he prevailed.

The East Butler right-hander threw 134 pitches and struck out 12 in a complete-game effort at Speed-O Field, helping his team post a 10-6 Butler County legion baseball tournament victory over Karns City.

“Garet is one of those little guys who can do that,” East Butler manager Russ Scott said of the pitch count. “He doesn't throw real hard and he never seems to get tired.”

If anything, he grew stronger.

Karns City scored four times in the third inning — aided by an error, two walks and a hit batsman — to take a 6-2 lead. Banner shut the visitors out on two hits the rest of the way.

“My best pitch is my curve ball and they were starting to hit that,” Banner said. “I switched to more of a slow change and it worked out.”

Karns City wound up leaving the bases loaded in the third and seventh innings. East Butler left the sacks full in the third and fourth frames.

“We stopped hitting and they chipped away at us,” Karns City manager Shawn Pistorious said. “We had our chances.”

No. 8 hitter Connor Miller had a pair of key hits for East Butler. His two-out, two-run single in the fourth inning tied the game at six. Miller's run-scoring single in the sixth gave East Butler the lead and was the start of a four-run inning.

East Butler left 10 runners on base in the first four frames.

“We started getting some clutch hits and that was the difference,” Scott said.

Banner threw 16 pitches in the top of the first inning before heavy rain blew in and forced a delay of nearly an hour. Banner allowed all six Karns City runs in the second and third innings before settling in.

He said the delay didn't bother him.

“I just warmed up again and went back out there like we were starting over,” he said.

Jimmy Thompson threw 121 pitches for Karns City. He worked all six innings, but Pistorius said he would not have pitched the seventh.

“Jimmy's a workhorse, though,” Pistorius said. “I think he's finished every game he's started this year.”

Brandon Hildebrand paced East Butler's 12-hit attack with three singles. Braxton Hildebrand, Hunter Scott and Miller added two singles each. Banner was hit by a pitch three times.

Tyler Yough doubled and singled while Steve O'Donnell and Colton Hutchison scored two runs each for Karns City.

The other two BCAL first-round games — Center Township at Cranberry, Meridian at West Sunbury — were rained out. They will try to play tonight.

In the meantime, East Butler has a tourney win and an extra day off.

“Home-field advantage,” Scott said. “Everybody on our team helped get the field ready after all that rain. We wanted to get this one in.”

Karns City 024 000 0 — 6 9 3

East Butler 202 204 x — 10 12 4

W: Garet Banner 7IP (12K, 3BB). L: Jimmy Thompson 6IP (1K, 1BB).

Karns City (6-12-1): Logan Pistorious 1B, Tyler Yough 2B 1B, Jacob Weckerly 1B, Jace Ebbitt 1B RBI, Steve O'Donnell 1B 2-R, Colton Hutchison 1B 2-R, Lucas Larimore RBI, Cameron Blair 1B RBI, Jimmy Thompson 1B 2-RBI

East Butler (11-8): Brandon Hilderbrand 3-1B RBI, Braxton Hildebrand 2-1B, Isaiah Lucas 1B, Hunter Scott 2-1B RBI, David Matson 2B RBI 2-R, Trevor Gilliland 3-R, Connor Miller 2-1B 3-RBI, Hayden Kretzer 1B RBI

Thursday: Karns City vzs. Meridian/West Sunbury loser, East Butler vs,. Meridian/West Sunbury winner