Maddix Dalena felt great as soon as he opened his eyes Friday morning. Ethan Stahl experienced the opposite emotion seconds after missing an eighth-inning bunt sign Friday afternoon.

By game’s end, those players and all Montoursville players were on the same wavelength. They all felt pretty awesome. And together, they and South Williamsport played an awesome game.

Dalena threw seven masterful innings, Stahl hit a game-changing double and Nick Reeder dropped an RBI bunt single as Montoursville edged South, 1-0, in a classic Backyard Brawl semifinal. AJ Llorente closed out the game with a perfect eighth inning as Montoursville (13-4) avenged last year’s finals loss and dethroned the defending champion.

Montoursville will play the winner of the Brawl’s other semifinal between Williamsport and Loyalsock at 11 a.m., Saturday. That game had not concluded by press time.

“We’re always in games like this. That’s the fun part about this school and this baseball program, Dalena said. “ This could have gone either way. Today it went our way and it was a great win. Playing on this field in front of all these fans, it’s an amazing feeling.”

Dalena pitched a pretty amazing game. So did South Williamsport’s Makai Day.

Like two old west gun slingers, Dalena and Day staged a riveting duel and held their opponents scoreless through seven innings, each allowing just three hits during that time. Dalena reached his 100-pitch limit after the seventh inning and Day worked into the eighth when Montoursville finally broke through.

Cameron Francis led off the inning with a single before Marco Pulizzi grounded into a fielder’s choice. Stahl then delivered the game’s biggest hit, sending a double over the right-fielder’s head. Reeder followed, dropping a well-placed bunt between the mound and third base as Pulizzi slid home and gave Montoursville the lead.

“Stahl came up big for us. He’s been a grinder the last four years for us,” Montoursville coach Jeremy Eck said. “He’s been in an out of the lineup , but he plays great defense at second base and he always puts the ball in play. He’s a senior, and I’m excited for him.”

Stahl was angry he missed the bunt sign on the first pitch and was down 0-2. Turns out it was a blessing in disguise as the hard worker drilled the hit of his scholastic career thus far and put Montoursville in position to take the lead.

“I knew I had to do something there. I was trying to go the other way and doing what I could to move that runner around,” Stahl said. “It’s less than two outs and I know with our lineup we’re going to score there (while standing on second), so I’m just excited there about what we can do.”

After the third inning, South could do nothing against Dalena. The Connecticut-bound senior did not surrender a hit over his final four innings and did not allow a baserunner after issuing his only walk in the fourth inning. Dalena retired the final 14 batters he faced before Llorente worked a perfect eighth to earn the save and make it 17 straight retired to close the game.

Throwing as hard as 91 miles per hour while consistently staying in the upper 80s, Dalena also mixed in nasty off-speed pitches and dominated as the game progressed. The right-hander froze South hitters several times with two strikes, struck out 11 and never let a runner reach third base. In fact, only two players reached second base.

“He’s done that all year. We didn’t get ot see the Maddix Dalena we wanted to last year,” Eck said “As this year has progressed, he feels more and more comfortable. When he gets into that zone and he’s pumping different pitches, with the velocity that he works at, he’s hard to hit at this level.”

“It was fun. I was so zoned in before the game. I knew I was going to get the job done today. I was ready ever since I woke up this morning,” Dalena said. “Usually, it takes a little while before I get settled in, but once I get into a rhythm and the feel of the game, I start feeling it a little more.”

Day sure was feeling it as well. The lefty kept Montoursville off-balance for seven innings, struck out six and was equally efficient, getting through seven innings on 83 pitches.

Like Dalena, Day did not let a Montoursville runner reach third until the eighth inning and also was backed by a super defense which played error-less defense behind him.

It felt like this game could go on forever and as each pitcher worked like Picasso on the easel, it looked like the first run scored would be the only one.

Despite Day’s excellence, Montoursville was confident it could find a way and Francis lit the fuse in the eighth inning. A player who hit a go-ahead, seventh-inning home run at Jersey Shore two weeks ago, ripped a single into left field and the game-winning rally was on.

It was the bottom of the order igniting things, Stahl driving home the team depth by hitting his double from the No. 9 spot.

“I was feeling like we were going to wake up with the bats. We got some good swings on balls but they didn’t go through. We finally found a way to break through at the end,” Stahl said, “I feel like 1-9, we’re all dangerous. We can all get hits at any point and we had to turn it on.”

Day, Alex Neidig and Kaiser Kistner all had hits for South. Both teams took turns making fantastic plays with Montoursville left fielder Cole Remsnyder taking away a hit with a diving catch and South second baseman, going deep into the hole, running to his left to do the same.

“I’m proud of the guys for hanging in there,” Eck said. “A win against a pretty good team like that, I’ll definitely take that.”

Maddix Dalena and Cael Frame. Makai Day and Kayne Jones. W: Dalena, (5-0). L: Day, (5-2).

Top Montoursville hitters: Cameron Francis 2-3; Ethan Stahl 1-3, 2B; Marco Pulizzi 1-3, run; Nick Reeder 1-4, RBI; Jaden Wilson 1-2, 2B . Top South hitters: Alex Neidig 1-3; Day 1-3; Kaiser Kistner 1-2 .

Records: Montoursville (13-4), South (11-4).

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