If the Valley Little League All-Stars were nervous, they did a great job of hiding it.
After giving up an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning, the defense strung together five innings of nearly flawless play to defeat Halfway 8-1 in the first round of the Maryland District 1 9-10 All-Star Tournament on Monday.
"We've put a lot of work into our fielding," Valley manager Tim Hartsock said. "I told the pitchers to just go out there, throw strikes and trust the defense."
Hartsock used five pitchers.
"Because this was the first game, I wanted to use as many pitchers as possible to help eliminate the nerves," he said.