Cranberry Township's PONY Bronco Division baseball team won the East Zone championship last weekend and will compete in the World Series, beginning Friday in Los Alamitos, Calif. Team members include Mike DelDuca, Sean O'Shea, Ryan Karpinsky, Daniel Leach, Aidan Leiendecker, Matt Cinker, Connor Smith, Zach Tkatch, Casey Clauson, Zyler Freedman, Nick Dunmire, Nick Parrotto, Jaxon Read, Andrew Warhola, Luke Anderton, Creed Erdos, Ryan Domencic. Coaches include Mike DelDuca, Greg Parrotto, Nick Dunmire, Greg Clauson, Drew Smith and Dave Read.

CRANBERRY TWP — Cranberry Township's Bronco Division baseball team turned its long shot into a long trip.

The 12-year old squad won the East Zone championship on Sunday and is headed to the PONY Bronco Division World Series, which begins in Los Alamitos, Calif. on Friday.

“I don't know how many people gave us a shot, but instead of the kids putting all of their baseball stuff away, they're hopping on a plane and flying to California. It's awesome.”

Cranberry competed in the zone tournament because it hosted the event, but proved more than worthy by going 5-1 at the three-day, double-elimination event.

“PONY baseball went through some major changes this year,” said Cranberry assistant coach Greg Parrotto. “They changed the birthday deadline to be eligible from May to August. That made a lot of kids ineligible once the postseason tournaments started.

“We had two teams during the season and had to combine players from both teams so we could participate at zones.”

Cranberry defeated teams from Ohio, New York and North Carolina. But a second-round loss to Center Township forced it to navigate its way through the loser's bracket, which it did successfully.

On Sunday, Cranberry defeated Center Township twice, 8-5 and 17-12, to claim the championship at Cranberry Community Park.

“We had confidence playing them again because in the game we lost to them on Saturday, we committed several errors and lost 9-8,” said Parrotto. “We normally are strong in the field, but in that game, we allowed four unearned runs.

“The best part is that everybody contributed for us in that tournament, some more than others. But all the players did something to help us win.”

Three pitchers spearheaded Cranberry's effort on the mound - Jaxon Read, Zyler Freedman and Connor Smith. In a win over Wilmington, N.C. Sunday morning, Freedman struck out 12 in five innings.

The team is no slouch at the plate. In the 17-12 clinching win over Center Township, Creed Erdos, Andrew Warhola, Nick Parrotto and Aidan Leiendecker each had multiple hits. Leiendecker laced a pair of bases-clearing triples and drove in seven runs in the game.

Cranberry will open World Series play Friday against a team from Hawaii. Six other teams are involved, including international squads from Taiwan, Dominican Republic and Mexico.

“We are not setting hard-line goals for the team,” said Parrotto. “(Head coach) Mike DelDuca and I talked about that the other day. The World Series is the best of the best. Just to get to this point, we've exceeded expectations. We are going out to have fun and compete.

“The kids never gave up at zones. They have great camaraderie and great confidence.”