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Dylan Zhang stepped to the plate with the chance to be the hero for Andover American.
North Andover chose to intentionally walk No. 3 hitter Brandon Marti, who had already hit a pair of home runs on the game, to pitch to cleanup hitter Zhang.
And the youngster delivered, blasting a three-run triple to right field to give Andover American a 9-8 walkoff victory over North Andover West in the District 14 Little League tourney on Sunday.
"He's a great line drive hitter," said American coach Don Hunt. "We have him batting fourth because often times people will walk Brandon.
"It was a really big hit. We were down by two runs and it was a 2-2 count. (Zhang) gets up and rips the ball."
Zhang was also the starting pitcher, going 3 2/3 innings, E.J. Perry threw one shutout inning and closer Cam Jhost came on to earn the win.
"I've been doing this for nine years and this was the most exciting game," said Hunt. "It was back and fourth."
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Andover American dropped its first game in pool play, 13-2 to Tewksbury American on Monday. Still, with a 3-1 record, Andover advanced to the next round.
Tewksbury, with two runs in the first inning and five runs in the second, pulled away quickly in the five-inning game.
Andover Nationals
The Andover National Little League squad stood 1-2 in pool play heading into Monday after a heartbreaking 7-3 loss in extra innings to Billerica on Saturday.
Andover held a 1-0 lead going into the top of the sixth behind the stellar pitching of Andrew Selima, who had pitched nine scoreless innings. Billerica pushed across three runs in the top of the sixth to go up 3-1. Andover then scored two runs to tie it up with a clutch two out hit by Griffin Clark. With Selima at second representing the winning run, Jack Finn delivered a solid line drive single which the Billerica center fielder gunned to the plate to nab Selima. Greg Partyka, Kelan Mahan and Griffin Brosnan also contributed key hits for Andover.
Andover was close in every game, getting solid pitching from Anirudh Murali, John Muldoon and Josh Lang. The duties behind the plate have been shared by Drew Manning and Selima and Peter O'Connell and Jack Hughes each chipped in with key play.
