Mifflinburg finishes Clinton’s fine tournament run

By Tom Elling

WYALUSING, PA- It was a valiant run, but the Clinton girls ran into the buzz-saw known as Mifflinburg and were shut 8-0 Friday evening in the sectional tournament final.

This time on a no-hitter by the Lady Cats’ #7 Taylor Stewart, she being the same hurler that shutdown Clinton earlier in the week on a one-hit gem. She struck out nine (9), while walking three. Clinton managed a mild rally in the top of the sixth when with two out, Stewart gave up back-to-back walks. An infield groundout (knocked down and fielded by Stewart) ended the District 12 champions’ run.

Camdyn Weaver got the start and fell behind by a 1-0 score in the bottom of the second when Maggie Rudendall rapped a two-out single to left scoring Brooke Gessner, who had singled earlier.

The floodgates opened in the third as Miff sent twelve batters to the plate. Anna Pachucki, Lainey Miller and Stewart all singled to produce another run. An error and two walks brought coach Shawn Weaver to the mound and he called on the arm of Aubrey Eiler to try to stem the flow. A hit batsman, an outfield error and another base hit added up to a couple more runs with a groundout to short ending the seven-run nightmarish inning. Mifflinburg was up 8-0. That was all they would score, but it was more than enough with the lefthanded ace Stewart on the mound. After three, it was Mifflinburg 8 and Clinton 0.

Camdyn Weaver took the loss. She whiffed two and walked two in her two-plus innings.

Mifflinburg showed no weakness as they performed with a balanced offense, aggressive base-running and a flawless defense. Add the pitching prowess of Stewart and you have a team that will be mighty hard to defeat.

Clinton did also show some leather as SS Maesyn Franquet was involved in eight defensive plays. Catcher Reagan Weaver had a hustling throw out on an attempted stolen base, and Mya Krout mad a fine running backhand grab in right center.

The story of the game was not so much what Clinton couldn’t do, but rather how well Mifflinburg played. It will take a great team to beat them.

So the Clinton Majors are done for the summer, but many are already involved with other teams as soon as Saturday, working on getting better almost daily.

The line score:

Clinton      0 0 0 0 0 0  0 0 4
Mifflinburg  0 1 7 0 0 X  8 7 0