Wildcats stay perfect, edge Millionaires
MILL HALL, PA – Clutch hitting and solid pitching proved to be the winning combination for the Central Mountain baseball team Wednesday at a windy Mill Hall Community Park. The Wildcats worked hard to post a 3-1 win over visiting Williamsport.
Starter Gabe Johnson and reliever Chase Brush combined to hold the Millionaires to three hits and one unearned run. Johnson worked the first five innings to earn the win, giving up two singles while striking out 11, walking three and hitting two. Brush finished with two innings to earn the save, giving up a double (to Griffin Vollman), striking out five and walking one.
Meanwhile the offense came through when it had to. The game was scoreless into the bottom of the third when the Wildcats played small ball to get their first run. Braylen Corter led off with an infield single and Gardy Fravel sacrificed him to second, Corter scoring when Kevin Grenninger scorched a ball into right field.
A second ‘Cat run scored in the bottom of the fifth. Gardy Fravel was hit by a pitch to start the inning and Nate Helms sacrificed him to second; Fravel would score on an RBI single to left from Cru Stover.
Williamsport plated its lone run in the top of the sixth, using the Vollman double, a walk, a catcher interference call made by the base umpire, and an infield error to make it 2-1. With the Millionaires threatening for more, Brush responded with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning to preserve the narrow lead.
CM notched an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth: a Levi Schlesinger single, a Corter sacrifice bunt and a clutch two-out single from Helms to make the score 3-1. Brush finished with a 1-2-3 seventh inning, the last two outs on swinging strikes.
The Wildcats are now 9-0, 6-0 in the Heartland Conference as first-cycle play ends for the team. Next up is a Friday trip to Milton (2-3; 2-4), a team Central Mountain downed by a 10-0 score on March 27. Williamsport fell to 3-2 in conference play, 5-3 overall.
The Wildcats had two singles from Corter, a double and single from Stover and two singles from Grenninger. In with one single each were Helms and Schlesinger.
Coach Mike Kramer praised the work of his two senior pitchers. He said Johnson is “a bulldog…one it would be tough to wrestle the ball away from” to take him out of the game. And he liked how Brush responded to adversity when Williamsport loaded the bases in the sixth inning. The coach said he was “very proud” of team effort against “a quality opponent in Williamsport.” He liked the execution to score the three ‘Cat runs, “get ‘em on and get ‘em over.”
W 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 = 1-3-1
CM 0 0 1 0 1 1 x = 3-8-2
