Ramblers End Wildcat Run, 17-6

AdminMay 29, 2018Last Updated: May 29, 2018

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WINGATE – At the beginning the Central Mountain baseball team gave a powerful Erie Prep baseball team all it could handle, the Wildcats building a 3-0 lead after two innings in a matchup of two district title-winning teams meeting Tuesday for a berth in the PIAA playoffs.

But the Ramblers put up an 8-spot in the top of the third inning and try as the Wildcats might, CM saw its season end in a 17-6 5-inning thumping administered by the visitors from the shores of Lake Erie.

Central Mountain started out as it did in last week’s 1-0 District 6 championship game win over Hollidaysburg. Starter Aaron Swartz made the pitches he had to when Prep threatened, stranding three runners and striking out four over the first two innings, the Wildcats holding their 3-0 lead. Things looked promising when Swartz got his fifth strikeout to start the top of the third, but then the Ramblers went walk, single, single, single, walk and single and Swartz was gone. By the time the inning ended 12 batters had come to the plate and eight of them scored for an 8-3 Prep lead.

EP put up another five runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth, touching up four Wildcat pitchers for 14 hits on the way to 17 runs. The Ramblers’ Rockne Seidel, who came into the game without a homerun on the season, clubbed two, one a grand-slam plus a double and a hit by pitch for nine RBIs.

The Wildcats did produce six runs on eight hits off two Prep pitchers. The first came in the bottom of the first when Asher Corl had the first of his three singles. Mahlik Houtz drilled a double to centerfield and the run came in off a Prep infield error on a ball hit by Swartz. CM added two more in the second as Austyn Carson started with a single, Troy Gardner was hit by a pitch and Rocco Stark got on base on a fielder’s choice. Zach Eck bunted in one run with a single, Corl’s second single driving in the second.

The Wildcats scored their final three runs in the bottom of the fourth. Gardner got on base on an error, Stark was walked and Eck again bunted for a hit. Corl followed with his third single. When the bottom of the fourth ended it was a 13-6 Prep lead and the Wildcats avoided a 10-run-rule defeat at that point. But Prep added four more in the fifth and when the Wildcats went down one-two-three in the bottom of the inning the game and the CM season ended.

Corl paced the offense with his three singles. Eck had two bunt singles, Houtz a double and Carson and Evan Prough contributed singles.

Central Mountain finished at 13-8 and the school’s second-ever District 6 title. Prep is now 18-3 and preps for a PIAA Class 5A first round game Monday, June 4 against the third place team from the WPIAL (District 7).

Coach Mike Kramer said he liked the never say die attitude of his team when it rallied for the three fourth inning runs to keep the game alive. As for Prep’s 8-run third inning, Kramer said “the little things added up” as his team could not afford to give-up a big inning against such a solid opponent
The veteran Wildcat head coach said his squad came into the game “feeling good; we’re here to play” but then his team “woke up a sleeping dog and we couldn’t find an answer to shut them down.”

Game Notes:

The Wildcats stopped at the Liberty-Curtin Elementary School on their way to Wingate and were greeted by the school’s 238-member student body.

The game was played in stifling hit, the game time temperature 90 degrees.

It was the final game for the ten seniors on the Wildcat squad: Brady Eck, Gardner, Adam Lindsey, Prough, Tanner Spangler, Austin Rager, Houtz, Corl, Carson and Trevor Hanna.