Ridley Area breezes into state Little League final

Ridley Area took the easy road into the 10/11 Pennsylvania Little League Tournament final, and they did it in style.

Ridley homered three times in the first inning to key an 11-1 rout of West Side in five innings in the winners’ bracket final in Bethlehem, Monday.

Michael Floirendo and Jack Sharer clubbed back-to-back homers, then Sean Williams added a blast, like Floirendo’s a two-run job, to stake in the first.

That was all that Sharer required on the mound, allowing one unearned run and striking out four in five innings. Williams also doubled as part of a 3-for-3 day. Jaxon Kehoe added three hits, including a double, and two RBIs, while Zack Ladislaw tacked on a two-run single.

Ridley gets to wait it out Tuesday while it awaits the survivor of Ridley to a 5-0 lead the losers’ bracket battle between West Side and Back Mountain for a place in Wednesday’s final. The West Side-Back Mountain winner would have to beat Ridley twice to take the title.

Softball

The finals series of the PennDel Over-50 League will have to wait until next week.

Coaches Bar used a three-run third inning to top Philly 5.0, 4-3, Monday, evening up the teams’ best-of-3 semifinal series. The rubber match will be Wednesday night at Collingdale at 6:30.

Nick Vaccarino, Dave Rucci and Dave McNamara contributed run-scoring base hits in the decisive third inning. John Basile made the offense stand up in the victory. In the other semifinal: Lefty’s Bar 8, J.T. Brewski’s 0 >> Lefty’s booked passed to the final with a sweep thanks in part to Bob Pace, who nearly collected as many hits (two) as he allowed on the mound (four) in notching the victory.

Tommy McLaughlin and Joe Baiocco provided three hits and two RBIs each. Mike Brunner added two hits and two RBIs for the Lefty’s, which awaits the Coaches/Philly 5.0 winner in the championship series that would start next Monday.