BUTLER TWP— A tour of the ESPNstudios in Connecticut, a ride around Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia, recognition on the scoreboard at PNCPark in Pittsburgh — not bad for a bunch of Little Leaguers.

In fact, it was a magical ride to glory.

"We felt like major leaguers for a week,"said 12-year-old pitcher Matt Baranchak. "I'll never forget that."

Butler County will not soon forget the Butler Township Little League run to the Pennsylvania state championship and berth in the Little League World Series Mid-Atlantic Regional in Bristol, Conn., last summer.

The postseason run, a first in more than 60 years of Little League baseball in the county, was voted the top Butler County sports story of 2006 by the sports staff of the Butler Eagle.

There are more than 600 Little League teams in Pennsylvania. There is only one 12-year-old state championship team.

"As time goes by, you begin to realize what a big deal that really was," Butler Township coach John Baranchak said. "We were treated like kings everywhere we went for a couple of weeks.

"I still bump into people who congratulate myself and these kids for what happened. We had 12 solid ballplayers who got on a roll."

Butler Township had to win three double-elimination tournaments just to win the state title. It came out of the losers bracket to defeat Grove City twice for the section tournament crown. That victory gave the team a berth in the state competition.

Butler Township won 14 tournament games in all. Dalton Koebler and Matt Baranchak combined to win 13 of them.

Many of the games were close, including 7-5 wins in the state semifinals over Berwyn-Paoli and in the finals over Lehigh Valley.

In the state title game, Lehigh Valley had two runners on base with two outs. Koebler was on the mound when the next batter hit a fly ball to right field.

Right fielder David Tompkins made a diving catch to clinch the championship.

"He's a good athlete,"Koebler said. "I knew he was gonna catch that ball somehow. I just knew it."

Nine of Butler Township's 12 players hit home runs at some point during tournament play.

"Honestly, I could have pulled our lineup out of a hat and it would have worked,"Coach Baranchak said. "We had 12 unselfish boys who were committed to the team's success, and that's refreshing.

"All 12 of these kids were true all-stars, but you can only play nine at a time. We rotated guys in as best we could."

Koebler said the team's coaches — Baranchak, Jim Murray and Bruce Ziegler — set the goal of winning the state title as soon as the township's all-star squad was formed.

"They put the challenge in front of us,"Koebler said. "We never took it lightly. We all believed we could do it.

"This was as good as anything I've ever dreamed of. ... It was the best thing I've ever done."

Koebler hit two home runs in the state semifinal game while Tompkins and Chris Cotton homered as well.

After dropping decisions of 10-3 to New Jersey's state champion, 4-2 to Delaware and 4-1 to Maryland, Butler Township won its final game of the Mid-Atlantic Regional, edging the District of Columbia 3-2.

Tompkins homered and delivered a two-run triple in the game. Koebler struck out 14, including the final two hitters while the tying run was at third base and the winning run was on second.

"We won the last game we played together,"Koebler said. "That was important to us. We deserved to go out as winners."

During regional play, Butler Township faced a Maryland pitcher, Brandon Nelson, who threw 80 mph. It faced a New Jersey pitcher who had not been scored upon in 46 consecutive innings.

Butler Township scored on both of them.

"The best thing about our team is we accomplished everything as a team,"Coach Baranchak said. "We didn't have one or two superstars like most teams have at this level.

"Our boys got along and they love playing baseball. The biggest reason why they wanted to keep winning was they wanted to keep playing."

"The only time I ever felt nervous was during the last couple of innings of a close game,"Matt Baranchak said. "If we lost, we knew that was it. We didn't want the season to end."

A number of these players are involved in seventh-grade basketball. Just about all of them are involved in some type of baseball instruction during the winter.

Only one player — 11-year-old Colin McKee — was not 12 years old last summer. The other 11 players will move up to Pony League or Federation baseball this spring.

Coach Baranchak will not be among them.

"I'm gonna miss those guys,"he said. "But I owe some time with my other son, Luke, who will be 10 years old. He was part of the 9- and 10-year-old Butler Township team that won the district title.

"I'm going to bump Luke up to our 11- and 12-year-old team next year and see how we do. I think we can be good again."

Butler Township won District 25 championships at the 10-year-old, 11-year-old and 12-year-old levels last year.

"That's an incredible achievement," said Jason Stobert, who coaches the 11-year-old team. "I don't know if that's been done before by anybody."