Central Mountain mauls Milton, 10-0 in six innings
By Tom Elling
MILL HALL, PA – Baseball is a multi-faceted game. Sometimes you get either solid pitching performance or a barrage of hits, or maybe a stellar defensive effort, but rarely, do you get all three to coincide.
Thursday at Mill Hall Community Park, Coach Mike Kramer’s Wildcat team used all three to crush a pretty good Milton team.
Gabe Johnson, though at times running deep counts, went five strong innings, striking out nine, issuing two free passes, and hitting two batters as he pitched a two-hit shutout to gain the win, Dallas Alexander pitched an inning of relief and set down the Black Panther hitters 1-2-3 in the 6th.
Meanwhile, the defense played errorless baseball and the bats collected nine hits. Once again, the offensive assault was spread throughout the line-up. Nate Helms got the barrage going with a lead-off double in the bottom of the first. A couple walks, a Milton error and a clutch RBI single by Elek Fravel produced a four-run first inning. That was more than enough for the Wildcats as they extended their record to 4-0. Gabe Johnson supported his own cause as he scored three runs, rapped a single and triple and got aboard twice more on an error and a walk. First baseman Kelvin Probst scored two runs, smacked a double and hit a Sac Fly after walking his first time at bat.
The number six spot in the line-up went three-for-three. Fravel was 2 for 3 with two RBI and Jack Hanna capped the 10-run rule 6th with a two-run producing single.
To further support the all-round effort, Braylen Corter and Gardy Fravel each had an RBI and Connor Foltz scored a run.
Central Mountain will host winless Shamokin (0-4) on Monday, April 3rd.
