The Linesville 9 & 10 baseball all-stars were like a deer in the headlights Friday — they saw it coming, but it was too late.

Meadville dug its way out of a 3-0 hole to earn an 8-3 win and its first District 1 9 & 10 championship at the Crawford County Fairgrounds fields.

In the bottom of the third, Linesville lifted starter Joey Litwin with no outs and a tie score.

Hunter Merritt came to the hill and allowed an RBI single by Curtis Mattocks which ended up being the game-winner.

Meadville added four more runs on three hits in the fourth for the five-run edge.

Linesville scored two in the first on a wild pitch and tacked on one in the fourth with an RBI single by Jared Gallo. Gallo knocked in Taylor Williams, who also reached on a base hit.

Meadville topped Linesville 6-5 in Tuesday’s winner’s bracket final, and head coach Tyrone Brown felt that win was good for the confidence of the team.

“That was a big help, because being in that intense game Tuesday night kept us from getting our heads down,” he said. “We stayed in the game.

“We’ve been doing that all year — battling adversity and coming back and hitting the ball and playing solid defense.”

Meadville winning pitcher Jason Clune went 51⁄3 innings and allowed three earned runs on five hits and one walk with four strikeouts. He stranded six Linesville runners, which included defusing a bases-loaded timebomb in the fifth.

“Clune pitched a heck of a game,” Brown said. “And our defense came through once again. We are starting to rely on ourselves and becoming a team right now.”

“One through three and their fifth hitter was pretty good,” Clune said. “They have good hitters.

“It was great. I just felt so good, and I don’t know how to explain it.”

Kye Hopkins and Kyle Luben paced the Meadville offense, each going 2-for-3 with two runs scored.

Hopkins also recorded a two-run triple for a game-high three RBIs and scored the winning run in the third.