Wildcats Post 7-2 Win Over Shikellamy
By Joe Walker
MILL HALL – The Central Mountain Wildcat baseball squad fell behind 2-1 early against visiting Shikellamy, but the Wildcats used five timely hits over the next three innings to plate six unanswered runs to come away with a 7-2 win over the visiting Braves Monday afternoon.
Sophomore Watt Probst singled in the bottom of the second inning to score Elek Fravel to put the Wildcats up 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning. Fravel had singled earlier, reached second on an error and then took third on a wild pitch and then scored on Probst single.
The Braves took the lead in the top of the third inning, as Mark Culp drew a leadoff walk and then scored on a triple by Kayden McCluskey, who later scored on a Wild pitch to give the Braves a 2-1 lead after 2 ½ innings.
The lead was short lived, as the Wildcats answered with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the third inning. Isaiah Maldonado reached on a fielder’s choice and then went to third on a single by Kevin Grenninger. Black Walker singled to score Maldonado and Grenninger advanced to third and then later scored on a pass ball giving the Wildcats a 3-2 lead after three innings.
In the fourth inning, Conner Foltz reached base when he was hit by a pitch and then stole second base. Foltz then scored on a single by Thomas Sprague to put the Wildcats up 4-2 after four innings.
The Wildcats blew the game open by plating three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, as Gardy Fravel led off with a double and then scored on a triple by Walker. Elek Fravel then walked and Probst followed up with a sacrifice fly out to score Walker from third. Fravel made his way to third and then later scored when a pick off throw by the catcher was offline and went into left field allowing Fravel to score the third run of the inning and give the Wildcats a 7-2 lead after five innings.
Junior Gage Laughner started on the compound for the Wildcats, as he went 5 ⅓ innings before he went over the 100 pitch limit. Laughner got the win as he fanned nine batters, walked four and held the Braves to two runs on just four hits. Ashton Bennett came in relief of Laughner and went the final 1 ⅔ innings, as he fanned three batters and walked two, but did not allow anymore runs.
Walker led the Wildcats with two hits, one being a triple, while Gardy Fravel added a double. Grenninger, Elek Fravel, Probst and Sprague all added one single apiece to account for the Wildcats seven hits.
“ It took the guys a little while to get use to the different pitching speed their pitcher was throwing at us. In the middle innings the guys started laying the barrel of the bat on some balls with some timely hitting. We were able to take advantage of some mistakes and some good base running. We seem to be starting to get a little hotter here in the late part of the season, which is what you want to see. We just have to keep doing that one game at a time this time of the season”, commented head coach Mike Kramer on the Wildcat win.
“Gage (Laughner) came through with another good pitching effort for us. There were a couple times he got himself into a little trouble, but he was able to pitch his way out of it. Ashton (Bennett) then came in an closed the door for us,” added Kramer.
The Wildcats, now 12-3 overall and 9-2 in the Heartland Conference, are back in action on Monday when they travel to Williamsport in a Heartland Conference game. The Wildcats edged the Millionaires by a narrow 3-2 score earlier in the season.
