Wildcats Top Milton in PHAC opener
By Tom Elling
MILL HALL – It was as ideal a night for a late March baseball game as anyone could have expected. The Central Mountain Wildcats also found the sunny, 55 degree weather to their liking as they went to 2-0, defeating conference foe Milton by a 5-1 score.
Starting pitcher and the ace on the squad, Brady Myers pitched five masterful innings, allowing just one unearned run and limiting the visitors to just three singles. He mixed his pitches effectively in his first outing leading the Wildcats to their second straight win. He whiffed nine and allowed just one free pass.
Bryce Brungard came in to relieve Myers and tossed two shutout innings. He recorded three strikeouts in those couple innings. He got out of a jam in the 6th after getting a groundout and a ‘K’ allowing back-to-back hits/ He caught third sacker Dominic Lytle looking to quell that threat, Then in the top of the 7th, he stopped Milton 1-2-3.
Central Mountain went ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the 3rd. Isaiah Maldonado led off the inning with a slicing drive to left. Kevin Grenninger followed with a similar hit. After a pop out, the two moved up 90 feet with a double steal. Malaky Moyd drove in Maldonado with a single and advanced to second as the relay to the infield was late.Losing pitcher Milton hurler Luke Goodwin stopped further damage sandwiching a soft liner to second and a pop fly to center around hitbatsman (Connor Foltz).
Central Mountain would effectively put the game away with a big 4th inning. Catcher Watt Probst worked a base on balls to lead off the inning. Jase Seltzer was hit by a pitch. At that point, Milton coach Corey Burkholder called on Brayden Gower to take the mound. The Wildcats greeted Gower with a perfect bunt by Maldonado, a two-RBI single by Grenninger and an RBI-producing single from Gardy Fravel. The Milton relief pitcher got out of the inning with two punchouts and a fly to left.
Central Mountain didn’t threaten in the last two innings as Gower and the third Milton pitcher Louis Williams shut them down. Chase Beard did produce a two-out single in the 6th.
The ‘Cats scored their five runs on 9 hits. They committed two errors. Grenninger had three of the Wildcat hits. Maldonado had two. Fravel, Moyd, Probst, and Beard the others.
Milton had that one unearned run on 5 hits. Goodwin had two of the Panther hits.
Coach Mike Kramer’s team will next travel to Selinsgrove for another PHAC contest on Wednesday.
