CRANBERRY TWP — A few words turned into a lot of runs for Butler Township Saturday night.

After being no-hit for three innings in its first-round East Zone Pony-13 Tournament game at Graham Park, Butler Township's bats erupted for seven consecutive hits and seven runs in the fourth frame.

The outburst paved the way to a 13-5 victory over Western Branch (Va.) to kick off play in the five-team, double-elimination tournament.

"Six of our first nine outs were fly balls," Butler Township manager Daryl Patten said. "That's not us. I got the kids in a huddle and said we had to get back to hitting hard line drives or ground balls.

"Once we did that, the hits came in bunches."

Saturday night's second game — Chambersburg vs. host Cranberry — was rained out, forcing tourney play to be backed up Sunday. Cranberry defeated Chambersburg Sunday.

Winner of the tournament heads to Fullerton, Calif., Thursday for a berth in the Pony World Series.

"Looking at the bracketing, we saw how important this first game was," Patten said. "That's why we went with our firepower right away."

That firepower was ace right-hander Mark Gross, who survived a rocky first inning to strike out 10 and allow six hits in a route-going effort.

Butler Township, 17-5 during North Pittsburgh Federated League play this season, allowed three hits and committed three errors in the first inning — but escaped by allowing only one run.

Second baseman Luke Baranchak bobbled a ground ball, but threw out a runner trying to score from second on the play. Shortstop Nick Patten caught a line drive with the bases loaded. Trevor Pizzarello blooped a RBI single to right, but Keith Vallejos grounded to first baseman Conner Thomas to leave the sacks full.

Gross allowed just three hits the rest of the way — none after the fourth inning. He threw 118 pitches and improved to 9-1 on the year.

"That umpire had a small strike zone. Mark did an outstanding job in spite of that," Patten said. "He didn't have his best stuff tonight, but he knows how to win without it.

"We have other pitchers. We just wanted to go with our best right away."

Gross is not eligible to pitch for another 40 hours.

"I was impressed by the way he handled our bats," Western Branch manager Ed Eng said. "We usually hit much better than this. To go seven strong innings against our lineup ... We haven't seen that happen much."

Western Branch was 19-4 in league play this year.

Vallejos retired nine consecutive Butler Township batters after walking Reid Werth to start the game. He took a 1-0 lead into the fourth inning, but did not survive the frame.

Patten doubled inside third to begin the inning. D.J. Perez had a RBI single, Nick Reamer a run-scoring double and Werth a sacrifice fly to culminate the game-turning inning.

"It was the second time through the batting order and they just solved Keith," Eng said. "They're a good-hitting team and that happens a lot in baseball."

"Our guys were a little nervous at the start of this game, this being the East Zone and everything," Coach Patten said. "Once we settled down, we played well."

Butler Township wound up with 14 hits. Patten had two doubles, a single and two RBI. Werth homered, doubled and and had two RBI. Gross and Reamer had two hits each.

After defeating Chambersburg 3-2 earlier Sunday, Cranberry — 20-2 during the regular season — was knocked into the loser's bracket with a 9-2 loss to New Bedford (Mass.) Sunday night.

Levi Varner pitched a complete game for New Bedford.

Troy Martin delivered the game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh inning in Cramberry's win over Chambersburg. Ross Bondo had two hits in the game.

Joel Shaffer, Ryan Donnelly and Martin combined for the victory on the mound.

Butler Twp. 000 705 1 — 13 14 7Western Branch 100 301 0 — 5 6 4W: Mark Gross 7IP (10K, 4BB).

L: Keith Vallejos 3IP (1K, 1BB).

Butler Twp.: Reid Werth HR 2B 2-RBI 2-R, Nick Patten 2-2B 1B 2-RBI 2-R, Mark Gross 2-1B RBI 2-R, Garrett Goslaw 1B 2-R, D.J. Perez 1B RBI, Jesse Savisky !B RBI, Nick Reamer 2B 1B RBI, Conner Thomas 1B, Jordan Kowalski 1B

Western Branch: Sam Porter 2-1B, Toby Buchanan 1B, Jeremy Butler 1B, Trevor Pizzarello 1B RBI, Jeff Butler 1B 2-R

Monday: Cranberry vs. Chambersburg, 3:30 p.m.; Butler Township vs. New Bedford (Mass.) 6 p.m.; BT-NB loser vs. Cranberry-Chambersburg winner, 8:30 p.m.