Wildcat Baseball Visits Huskies Thursday

MILL HALL — The second season can’t come soon enough for the Central Mountain baseball team.

It is a Wildcat squad that rode a 6-game winning streak to a fine 8-2 start but has staggered of late, finishing the regular season at 9-7 and falling to a three seed for the District 6 Quad-A playoffs that get underway this Thursday at 4 p.m.

For Central Mountain it will be, for the third year in a row, a trip to Lewistown to take on Mifflin County, the Huskies’ 11-9 finish enough to earn them a number two seed and a home game.

Top-seeded State College (14-5) hosts four seed Altoona (9-10) in the other semi-final Thursday, the winners meeting for the District 6 championship next Tuesday, May 27, at Blair County Ballpark in Altoona.

Central Mountain is no stranger to the field, the Wildcats going 2-2 against the district’s three other Quad-A teams. The first two games were April wins, 7-2 over Altoona and 6-1 over Mifflin County; the two May games were losses, 15-4 to State College and 5-2 to Altoona.

The Wildcats did a lot of things right in the 6-1 win at Mifflin County on April 23. Junior Caleb Seyler started and went the distance, giving up 9 hits, striking out 8 and walking zero; his teammates committed but one error behind him.

Meanwhile Mifflin County self-destructed in that game, making seven errors. Of Central Mountain’s six runs, only two were earned.

Husky sophomore Peyton Reesman took the loss, pitching five innings, giving up four hits and four runs (one earned) while striking out 9 and walking 3.

Central Mountain has played some of its best ball at the Mifflin County field, located down the hill from the new Mifflin County High School. In addition to the April win this year, the Wildcats, as the number three seed, have defeated Mifflin County, the number two seed in both 2012 and 2013 district semi-final action.

The Wildcat regular season sputtered to a close last Wednesday, an 8-6 home loss to Montoursville (9-7).

Sophomore Toner Corl took the loss in relief of Seyler while freshman Brycen Mussina, in relief of Quinton Kuntz, picked up the win.

Central Mountain had 9 hits in the game, led by Clayton Butler, the junior DH going three-for-four, including a double and two RBIs.

A scheduled Friday game at Bellefonte never got past the second inning because of lightning and Wildcat participation in the Montoursville tournament last Saturday did not happen when the Warriors had a playoff game instead.