As the Red Land Little League all-star team completed its second cycle through the batting order in their opening game of the District 6 tournament at Northern Lebanon Little League's field in Fredericksburg, Jake Cubber flexed his muscles, driving a one-strike pitch over the center field fence to give his team a 10-0 lead in what eventually became a 12-0 victory over the host team.

Cubber's home run was far from the biggest highlight in what became a storybook summer for Red Land, but it represents a useful line of demarcation when encapsulating the team's stem to stern dominance in a run to the United States championship at the Little League World Series. Over the course of 61 innings in 13 games against Pennsylvania teams in district, sectional, and state tournament competition, Red Land pitchers surrendered just three home runs. Cubber stepped to the plate as Red Land's eighteenth batter of the international tournament, and his homer was Red Land's fourth in a brief, hour-long span. Red Land would add two more within the next five pitches as Adam Cramer and Cole Wagner followed with round-trippers of their own, and in those same 61 innings, the team would hit a total of 71 home runs.

Five of those came in Red Land's thirteenth and final victory against Pennsylvania competition, a 17-0, four inning victory over Back Mountain National Little League that closed out the state tournament and propelled Red Land into the Mid-Atlantic Region tournament.

"I'll tell you what, that's the best top-to-bottom hitting lineup we've faced in a long, long time," said Lehigh Little League manager Charlie Raineri after Red Land topped his team, 11-1, in the state tournament opener.

"They'll probably go to Williamsport," predicted Back Mountain manager Tom Paczewski. "I think they clocked (Wagner, who was Red Land's championship game pitcher) at 75. He was that good. He was that dominant."

"Hats off to them," said Marple Township Little League manager Scott Davies, whose team also fell to Red Land at the state tournament. "Those boys hit everything."

Red Land's powerful offense can be framed with any number of metrics -- the team hit a collective .467 against Pennsylvania opponents; they scored five-plus runs in over a quarter of their offensive innings, and their 0.49 team earned run average was but a fraction of their opponents' 16.91 mark. Red Land outscored Pennsylvania opponents by a 207-8 margin, tallying as many runs in those first two trips through the batting order as did all of their Pennsylvania opponents combined over the course of three levels of tournament play.

67 of those runs came in the state tournament, where Red Land swept to four consecutive double-digit victories. Red Land opened the tournament with the win over Lehigh, then rolled past MYAA National Little League, which had won the Pennsylvania championship in the 10-11 year old age division the prior year, by a 20-0 score. Red Land topped Marple Township, 19-1, in the winner's bracket final before dispatching a pitching-depleted Back Mountain National team in the championship game.

"These kids have been together and have worked very hard to get here," said Red Land manager Tom Peifer after the championship game. "The best part is seeing how the kids have grown and worked together over the years."

Red Land jumped on Back Mountain National for four runs in the first inning of the championship game. Braden Kolmansberger opened the game with a double to the right field fence, and soon scored on Dylan Rodenhaber's grounder. Wagner scored on an error, and Chayton Krauss hit his fourth home run of the state tournament to give Red Land an early advantage. The District 6 champions added three more in the second, then tallied six more in the third. Krauss capped that rally with a two-out grand slam to dead center field.

In the fourth, Bailey Wirt, Wagner, and Jaden Henline all cleared the fences as Red Land completed its scoring.

"They're a really good team top to bottom," said Back Mountain National coach Quinn Kavenaugh. "Their athletes ... can play so many different positions, and it's tough to bog them down. All of their thirteen players can hit the ball. Their third sub (Wirt) hit a home run."

Wagner threw a complete game, striking out ten and surrendering just two hits in four innings of work. Max Paczewski led off the first inning with a single to right field for Back Mountain National, and Luke Spencer legged out an infield hit in the third.

Red Land was extended to the full six innings just once at the state tournament, when the District 6 champions topped Lehigh in their opening contest. Red Land cleared the fences six times in the game -- Wagner hit two, while Cramer, Krauss, Ethan Phillips, and Kolmansberger each added one. Krauss and Philips hit theirs in a five-run first inning, while Kolmansberger's came as part of a three-run burst in the sixth that completed the scoring.

"We knew with their lineup we wanted to get through the first inning with no runs," explained Raineri. "When they put that five-spot on us in the first inning, it was a little deflating for the kids."

Despite the rough start, Lehigh managed to become one of just four Pennsylvania teams that extended Red Land to the full six innings.

The next day, Wagner threw four perfect innings, and Red Land avenged a loss in the prior year's Pennsylvania state championship game in the 10-11 year old division with a 20-0 decision over MYAA National. MYAA National had won the prior year's meeting by a 6-4 score, but with many of the same players on the field in 2015, Red Land broke to a 4-0 lead before their opponents came to the plate, and capped the win with a nine-run inning in the fourth. Wagner retired all twelve hitters he faced, including nine via strikeout, while his teammates collected six home runs.

"They're a very good team," said Red Land coach J.K. Kolmansberger of MYAA National. "We didn't expect an outcome like this. We knew they had good pitching, and our two assistant coaches were practicing with the kids and throwing hard pitches to them. It makes us ready for games like this."

"We didn't expect them to come out like this," said MYAA manager Mike Shepard. "Our pitchers weren't hitting their spots, and that cost us. We've won nearly 20 games in a row, and we were destined to have one go this way. I told (our kids) to keep their heads up and be ready for our next game."

Braden Kolmansberger opened the scoring by launching the game's fourth pitch over the left field fence, and later in the first inning, Phillips added a three-run shot. MYAA National was retired in order on ten pitches by Wagner, and in the second, Henline (three-run homer to left field) and Krauss (solo shot to center) added to the lead. Cramer delivered a two-run homer in the third, and Rodenhaber capped Red Land's nine-run fourth with a grand slam.

The win pushed Red Land into a winner's bracket encounter with Marple Township, and Red Land's offense continued its white-hot pace. This time Red Land hit seven home runs -- Wagner and Krauss had two each -- and a nine-run second settled matters early in a 19-1, four inning victory.

Red Land moved into the championship game following this win, and Back Mountain National soon joined them after climbing out of the bottom bracket following an opening round loss. Back Mountain dropped a 6-4 decision against South Columbia Little League in the tournament's first game, then eliminated four teams in a span of four days to reach the state championship game.

In the last of these wins, a 10-5 win over Marple Township, Back Mountain National watched an early lead shrink before posting a four-run rally in the sixth that provided insurance and pushed their lead to a five-run advantage. Michael Rother delivered a run-scoring single in that inning, and both Rother and Max Paczewski added RBI singles.

Back Mountain's victory lifted the team into the state championship game for the first time since the league's 1962 state championship team, but a dearth of pitching options and a potent Red Land offense settled matters early.

"We were kind of out of pitchers," said Tom Paczewski after the championship game. "Most of the kids who were our main pitchers, we used every day to get to that point."

In the end, Tom Paczewski recognized that his team faced a tall order.

"We knew it was going to be tough to beat that team two games in a row," said the Back Mountain manager. "Their lineup is so strong top to bottom, and they have shutdown pitching."

"They're coming together at the right time," said Tom Peifer.

Red Land continued to gel. The Pennsylvania champions won three games in the Mid-Atlantic Region tournament by a 36-5 margin -- Red Land scored at least eleven runs in each contest -- and later pushed across a run in the bottom of the sixth inning to earn a 3-2 victory over Pearland East Little League (Texas East) in the United States championship game at the Little League World Series. Red Land then locked horns with Tokyo Kitasuna (Japan) Little League in what became the highest-scoring championship game in the 68-year history of the Little League World Series. Tokyo Kitasuna overcame an eight-run first inning deficit, and emerged with an 18-11 victory to earn the league's third-ever Little League World Series championship.