Sophia Ohanian snapped a 1-1 tie with a two-run home run in the third inning, and her Capitol City Little League all-star team went on to defeat two-time defending champion Northwest Washington Little League, 7-1, in the District of Columbia championship game at the Fort Lincoln Baseball Complex in Northeast Washington.

With the victory, Capitol City claimed its 22nd District of Columbia championship in the major baseball division, and advanced to the Mid-Atlantic Region tournament in Bristol, Connecticut.

Capitol City and Northwest exchanged runs in the game's early innings, with Capitol City scoring after Isaac Frumkin's leadoff single in the first, and Northwest knotting the score on Ben Varney's two-out RBI single in the second. But after Northwest pitcher Cade Bartos recorded two outs in the third, Ohanian homered, eleven-year-old Aidan Trinity singled, and Duncan Hudson drilled a run-scoring double into the left center field gap to give Capitol City a 4-1 advantage.

The offense was more than enough for Capitol City pitcher Robert Reynolds, who settled down from a shaky start to retire eight of the next nine hitters he faced before departing after 4-2/3 innings. Reliever Collin Bailey-Smith then recorded the final four outs to propel Capitol City to the region tournament.

"It was a tense situation when they tied the game up, because even though we had run through everyone relatively easily in pool play, it was still a single elimination final," said Capitol City coach Brice Plebani. "But once Sophia put that ball out, the game was over. It loosened everyone up, especially Robert. He didn't have to be lights out anymore, he just needed to finish the job, and we all knew he'd do it."

The District's championship tournament used a round robin format for the first time in 2013, and Capitol City reached the championship game after sweeping past its five pool opponents and then downing Banneker City Little League in the semifinal round. Capitol City outscored its five round robin opponents by a 57-7 margin, with two of the victories came in tightly contested wins over Capitol Hill Little League (4-0) and Northwest Washington (5-0). Those three teams finished round robin play clustered at the top of the round robin standings, and allowed far fewer runs than the remaining tournament entrants. The two victories propelled Capitol City into the top seed position for elimination round games.

"It was obviously nice to get the number one seed in order to help set up our pitching, but we weren't really focused on anything except the games in front of us," explained Plebani. "This group won as 10s, and that was without our top two pitchers on this year's squad, so we knew we were probably the favorites. We just wanted to take care of business, show what we were capable of and keep getting better throughout the tournament."

Bosley-Smith paced Capitol City's victory over Capitol Hill. The eleven-year-old needed just 72 pitches while throwing a complete game two-hitter in his team's 4-0 victory. Bosley-Smith struck out ten, walked none, and allowed no balls hit out of the infield. No Capitol Hill baserunner advanced past first base in the game. Meanwhile, another eleven-year-old -- Rory Friel -- delivered a two-run double in the bottom of the third inning to pace Capitol City's offense.

The victory moved Capitol City to 3-0 in pool competition, following earlier wins over Banneker City (12-0 in four innings) and Southern District Little League (12-2 in four innings). Capitol City then clinched the top seed heading into the semifinal round when Reynolds and Hudson combined on a perfect game in a 5-0 victory over Northwest Washington.

Reynolds retired all sixteen hitters he faced -- thirteen via strikeout -- and Hudson closed out the win by retiring the final two Northwest hitters. Plebani, who handled the managerial duties for the game, removed Reynolds from the mound after 65 pitches thrown to ensure the hurler's availability for a potential championship game assignment.

"We've had years where we've gone the whole tournament without giving up a hit, but that was against much weaker competition," noted Plebani, as he praised the pitching efforts of Bosley-Smith and Reynolds. "Those two performances may have been the best pitching performances I've ever seen in the DC tournament, and we got them back to back. To face Northwest and Capitol Hill in back to back games, with two different pitchers, and not have a runner reach second base is pretty phenomenal."

Capitol City's offense came in two bursts against Northwest Washington. Adin McGurk tripled and scored as part of a two-run surge in the second inning, and Friel singled home a pair of runs before scoring himself in the sixth inning.

Capitol City closed out round robin play with a 26-5 win over the Satchel Paige/Senators Little League -- the team capitalized on thirteen walks and four hit batsmen in the win -- and then moved into the title game with a 15-2 victory over Banneker City. Capitol City took control with an eight-run rally in the second -- Frumkin keyed the rally by belting a three-run homer on a pitch where he missed the take sign -- and carried a shutout into the sixth before Banneker third baseman Paul Renne delivered a two-out, two-run double. Zach Lordan doubled twice for Capitol City, and drove in four runs.

Capitol City flashed a potent offense after advancing to the Mid-Atlantic Region tournament. Paced by Reynolds (.667 batting average and three home runs), Aaron Rosenthal (.583 average and six runs batted in), and Lordan (.461 average), Capitol City hit .354 as a team and sported a .963 OPS in the tournament -- by far the best numbers posted by a District representative in a number of years. The D.C. representative led the tournament in hits and team batting average. Capitol City split four pool games, including a 12-3 victory over Burnt Hills Ballston Lake Little League (Glenville, New York) in what amounted to a playoff game on the final day of pool competition, and became the first District league to reach the Mid-Atlantic semifinal round since 2004. Capitol City fell in that semifinal round encounter, 15-4, to eventual region champion Newark National (Delaware) Little League.