Wildcats Drop 2-1 Pitchers Duel to Jersey Shore

MILL HALL – The Jersey Shore and Central Mountain baseball teams staged a small early season classic in a battle for first place in the Heartland Conference on Wednesday. When the crisply played two hour game ended, the visiting Bulldogs went home with a hard-earned 2-1 win.

The victory gave ‘Shore undisputed possession of first place in the conference with a 3-0 mark, 3-1 overall. The loss dropped the Wildcats to 2-1 in the Heartland, 4-1 overall.

Jersey Shore’s Timmy Saar and Central Mountain’s Aaron Swartz were masterful on the mound. Saar (3-0) worked 5.2 shutout innings to earn the win while Swartz (2-1) went 6 strong innings and was dominant with the exception of the top of the third when the Bulldogs bunched all three of their hits to produce their two runs.

Eli Willits led off the third with a solid single and Nate Ewing dropped in a double just beyond the reach of Wildcat right-fielder Rocco Stark. Koby Peacock would get in ‘Shore’s first run on a nubbing infield single up the third base line. Darrin Stetts followed with a groundball back to Swartz who elected to go to first for the out as Ewing crossed the plate with the Bulldogs’ second and final run.

Jersey Shore would not get another hit the rest of the game and held the 2-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning where the Wildcats’ try for another comeback win fell just short. Stark started the inning with a hard ground ball error off the glove of shortstop Ewing. Austin Confer followed with a hard single to right, runners on first and second and no one out. Trevor Hanna advanced both runners to scoring position with a sacrifice bunt.

With runners on second and third and one out, Jersey Shore coach Mike English elected to give Asher Corl a walk, loading the bases. Mahlik Houtz drilled a single to right, scoring Stark. But ‘Shore right-fielder Stetts charged the base hit and threw a strike to catcher Seth Hamilton, retiring Carson, attempting to score, for the second out. Bulldog reliever Brandon DePasqua struck out the final CM batter for the win.

‘Cat coach Mike Kramer  lauded the mound work of Swartz and reliever Zane Probst, noting that giving up two runs should be enough to win a game. He said his team “had opportunities,” as the Wildcats left nine runners on base, including three in the first inning. CM also picked up six walks but Saar and DePasqua made the clutch pitches when needed. Kramer said, “We have little things to clean up and we’ll be a tough team to beat.”

Houtz paced the Wildcats’ offense with a 2-for-3 evening, Carson, Swartz and Tanner Lavelle adding singles. The sophomore Probst pitched another shutout inning; he now has gone 6.2 innings over four games without surrendering a hit or a run.

Central Mountain will be back in action Friday, a home game at 4:30 p.m. against Midd-West (0-3; 1-3).