Wildcat baseball earns needed win at Danville

DANVILLE, PA – Friday was a game the Central Mountain baseball team had to win to keep its Heartland Conference title hopes alive. The Wildcats did just that, jumping on top early on the way to an 8-4 victory at Danville.

The win ended a two-game losing streak and kept the ‘Cats within hailing distance of Heartland-leading Selinsgrove. Central Mountain is now 12-1 in league play, 13-4 overall. Selinsgrove is 14-0 in the conference and 16-1 overall. Central Mountain visits Shamokin (0-15; 2-17) on Monday, then faces off at Selinsgrove on Wednesday: completion of a suspended game at 3 p. m, followed by the regular season league finale for both teams.

Should the Wildcats win at Shamokin Monday, they’d need to sweep the Seals Wednesday to win the crown; a split would earn Selinsgrove the title.

Friday’s win saw more offense than during CM’s two-game skid earlier in the week. Held to five hits by Shikellamy in a 5-4 loss on Wednesday, the Wildcats picked up nine hits off two Danville hurlers, led by sophomore Elek Fravel. Starting at third base with Cru Stover on the mound, Fravel had a homerun, a single, a run scored and two RBIs. Cayde McCloskey provided a double, a single and three runs batted in and scored two runs. Gabe Johnson had two singles, as did Connor Foltz and Nate Helms in with a single.

Meanwhile Stover was dominant on the rubber: five innings, two hits and one unearned run, striking out 12 and walking two. Kevin Grenninger and Brady Myers followed, Myers finishing with two shutout innings, giving up two hits, striking out three and walking one.

CM  3 0 2 2 0 1 0 = 8-9-2

D      0 0 0 0 1 3 0 = 4-5-3