Wildcats edged in baseball opener, 8-7
MILL HALL, PA – But for one inning, the Central Mountain baseball team played some good baseball in its 2021 season opener. But inning number four represented a problem: visiting Mifflin County, down 5-0 after three, put up eight runs, just enough to provide the ultimate margin in an 8-7 victory at Mill Hall’s Community Park.
Wildcat coach Mike Kramer said he was disappointed his team came up short and said the Wildcats did execute some things well and “will come back stronger.”
But the top of the fourth proved to be too much to overcome. Wildcat pitcher Levi Schlesinger, in his first varsity appearance, sailed through the first three innings, giving up two first inning singles and then retiring seven in a row, five strikeouts among the nine outs.
The game changed when the visiting Huskies came to bat in the fourth. There was a double from Jaxson Pupo, then a fly out. But five walks, two hit batters, a sacrifice fly, a single and a costly infield error later, Mifflin County had scored eight times to take an 8-5 lead. The Wildcats went through three sophomore pitchers in the inning, Schlesinger, followed by Gabe Johnson and Cru Stover. Six of the eight Husky runs were unearned, the only Wildcat error of the game proving to be a costly one.
Stover, after some early jitters, settled down and put up 3.1 innings of shutout relief ball, giving up one hit while striking out five. Schlesinger went the first 3.2 innings and finished with five strikeouts and five runs allowed, three of them unearned.
Wildcat pitchers combined to walk nine batters and hit two more. The pitching staff was shorthanded as upper classmen Aidan Major, Cayde McCloskey and Ashton Probst were unavailable; all are expected back soon.
Central Mountain scored two in the bottom of the first; Kaden Falls led off with a single and Peyton Johnson doubled. Falls scored on a ground-out from Cy Probst and Johnson on a ground-out from Landyn Carson. The ‘Cats added three more in the second as Nate Helms was hit by a pitch and Schlesinger drew a walk. Tanner Swinehart brought them in with a triple down the right field line and Swinehart scored on a groundout from Chase Brush.
The Wildcats plated their final two runs in the bottom of the sixth off leadoff singles from Aaron Miller and Swinehart. Both were sacrificed up and scored on a sacrifice fly from Falls. CM got the leadoff runner on in the seventh inning when Cy Probst was hit by a pitch. He was sacrificed to second but stayed there when the final two ‘Cat batters were retired.
Swinehart led Central Mountain’s 8-hit attack with his triple, two singles and two RBIs Peyton Johnson finished with a single and double and Falls, Cy Pobst and Schlesinger all had singles. Probst also threw out two Husky runners who tried to steal. Mifflin County starter Connor Cherry went four innings and picked up the win. Gabe Johnson took the loss.
Central Mountain travels to Montoursville Wednesday for its Heartland Conference opener, game time 4:30 p.m.
MC 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 = 8-5-1
CM 2 3 0 0 0 2 0 = 7-8-1
