Sometimes it helps to have ice in your veins or a cannon for an arm when the game is on the line, but Lehigh Little League’s 12U All-Stars had both.

Lehigh’s double play on Greg Martinez’s catch in right field and perfect throw to home clinched a 4-3, extra-inning victory over Southern Lehigh on July 2 at Southern Lehigh.

The Spartans had the bases loaded with one out when Max Schaible hit the ball high, causing Martinez to turn and shift to his right to make the catch.

“I saw the ball going very far,” Martinez said. “It was relief and joy.”

Isaac Brunner tagged up from third base, but Martinez’s throw to Anthony Petko set up the perfect tag for the Lehigh catcher.

“It was amazing,” said Petko, whose voice was still hoarse from cheering. “I saw the throw was right on the dot. I just caught it right here, made the tag, and next thing I know, we’re celebrating. It was so fun. Oh yeah, [Greg Martinez] has the best arm on the team. I had to watch [the throw] because if I watched the runner, there’s a chance I could drop it, so that’s what I tried to focus on. 10 out of 10. So much fun.”

With a 3-3 tie and one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, Lehigh’s Zane Balaziuk came in to relieve starting pitcher Caleb Yoder, who was at 85 pitches.

Lehigh intentionally walked two-homerun hitter Mike Magazzu to load the bases, and Balaziuk struck out Logan Traub but fell behind on Isaac Brunner with a 3-0 count.

“It’s stressful, but that’s what you train for,” Balaziuk said. “You train for those moments, and you don’t think about doing bad. You think about doing good. I knew I gotta throw strikes.”

Balaziuk then struck out Brunner for the extra-inning showdown.

“The pitching, the catching, the plays in the field, the way they delivered the ball, the way Zane had ice in his veins, the way Caleb got us to that spot, my hat’s off to these young men,” said Lehigh manager Dave Cresci. “I don’t know how [Zane] did it. You just hand him the baseball, he takes control of the game, and he delivers. You know, bases loaded, 3-0 count, I don’t know anybody that’s getting out of that jam except for him, and he did it.”

Jack Cresci led off the top of the seventh inning with a huge double to left field, sending ghost runner Balaziuk to third base.

“My dad just said contact and keep your head down, so I didn’t swing 100 percent. I just got the bat on the ball and let it fly,” said Cresci. “It was an exciting hit because I haven’t really been hitting, and it got Zane to third base. The ball was hit to shallow left center, and the kid threw home, so I was halfway to second and then I went.”

Balaziuk scored Lehigh’s game-winning run on Lambros Dontas’ RBI.

Lehigh’s bottom-of-the-lineup gave the visitors a 3-1 lead in the top of the third inning on Marcus Stuart’s two-out hit to right field after Logan Collins’ line drive to center and a hit by Petko.

“I told the boys, it doesn’t matter what the batting order is. We want to be dangerous, top to bottom, and boy, did those kids deliver,” Coach Cresci said. “Marcus Stuart was phenomenal and came up big in a big spot with a two-out double and knocked in two runs off of that. It was awesome.”

Balaziuk knocked in Stuart on a double to left field.

Southern Lehigh tied the game on Magazzu’s two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning, but Yoder struck out the next two batters.

Yoder then forced a ground ball to the mound for the third out after a visit by assistant coach PJ Yoder.

“He was just saying calm down, don’t try to overthrow, and don’t try to blow it by him. Just hit the spots, and we’ll get out of the inning. It definitely made me more calm because I was pretty fired up. If you throw it over a good part of the plate, they’re gonna put a good swing on it, so you gotta be careful with that,” said Yoder, who had seven strikeouts on the night. “My arm’s a little sore right now, a little tender. I mean, I had 100 percent confidence in Zane. It’s a huge win for us, and it makes it a lot easier on us. We don’t have to go in the loser’s bracket now. We can just go straight to the chip.”

Lehigh will take on the winner of North Bethlehem versus Southern Lehigh on July 8.

“We did a lot of work preparing the boys for this game, and there are a lot of decisions that coaches make during the game, throughout the game, here and there, but I’ll tell you this very frankly and very honestly, there weren’t any significant coaching decisions that we had to make that made or broke the way this game went,” said Coach Cresci. “The coaches did what we minimally had to do. Everything that happened that was spectacular tonight happened exactly because of these baseball players. We set up the chess board, and they played the game.”