Mifflinburg topples Keystone, 11-6

BEECH CREEK, PA – Keystone Little League followers knew going in that District 13 champion Mifflinburg would be a formidable foe. The Union County team lived up to its billing Wednesday night, scoring early and often on the way to an 11-6 win over the Keystone Major All-Stars in the Section 3 winners’ bracket final.
The victory earned Mifflinburg a berth in Friday’s championship game. The loss put Keystone into a Thursday evening elimination game with Upper Dauphin. For Keystone to take the Section 3 title, Coach Cole Hanley’s team would have to down Upper Dauphin Thursday and defeat Mifflinburg both Friday and Saturday to snare the sectional crown and a trip to the state Little League championships.
Mifflinburg played an almost perfect game Wednesday night. The visitors got two gift runs scoring off a batter’s strikeout in the first inning, doing the damage with just one hit and one Keystone error. They put up five runs in the top of the third, pounding out six hits, opening a 7-0 lead; they added two more in both the fourth and sixth for an 11-0 lead.
Keystone, held to just one pop fly single from Zavier Wadsworth, exploded for six runs in the bottom of the sixth to make a game of it. The inning was highlighted by a 3-run homerun by Evan Batterson over the centerfield fence, followed moments later by a monster 3-run homerun from Logan Daniel over the right-centerfield fence. Singles in that inning came from Evan Edwards and Logan Bower.
Otherwise Mifflinburg dominated, nine different players contributing to their 12-hit attack.
Keystone used four pitchers on the night, Mifflinburg with five. Brennen Snyder started for Mifflinburg and earned the win, going 3.1 shutout innings, giving up just the Wadsworth single. He worked out of a second inning jam when Keystone loaded the bases with two outs on two walks and a hit batter but could not score.
Keystone will meet Upper Dauphin at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The Dauphin County team stayed alive with an 8-2 win over Athens.
Coach Hanley said his team “has to get the bats going tomorrow.” He called his team’s 6-run sixth inning “a confidence builder” for some of his players who have been struggling at the bat.
M 2 0 5 2 0 2 = 11=12-2
K 0 0 0 0 0 6 = 6=5=1