By Brian Holtzapple
For The Daily Item
July 04, 2009 04:00 am
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TURBOTVILLE -- With its deep fences and spacious outfields, the field at the Frantz & Moser Complex offers teams plenty of opportunities to score a lot of runs.
A total of 17 runs were scored in Friday's opening game of the District 13 Little League Area II Junior Division tournament between Union County rivals Mifflinburg and Lewisburg.
And it was Mifflinburg that won the backyard brawl, scoring nine runs through the first five innings before holding off a late charge by Lewisburg to take a 9-8 victory.
Mifflinburg next plays Snyder County on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., while Lewisburg drops into the elimination bracket and plays an opponent to be determined on Thursday at 5:30.
"I kept preaching to the boys -- play like it's 1-0, play like it's 1-0 and it wound up a one-run game," said Mifflinburg manager Shawn Cooper. "Our kids stayed focused and Lewisburg didn't quit. Luckily we held on for the win."
Trailing 9-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Lewisburg finally began to come alive in the game.
Highlighted by Will Sumfest's grand slam to left-center and an RBI single by Josh Glick, Lewisburg scored five runs in the inning to close its deficit to 9-7.
In past Little League tournaments the games between Mifflinburg and Lewisburg have always been competitive, and after he watched Sumfest's grand slam Cooper said he and his team were experiencing a little deja vu.
"What was going through all of our minds was here we go again,'" the Mifflinburg manager said. "Lewisburg has beaten us a couple of times in tournament play. We really wanted to get this game, and the kids knew what they needed to do to get the win."
"The grand slam made it a two-run ball game, so I still thought get one out at a time and keep runners off the bases,'" Cooper added. "The way Lewisburg was hitting the ball, that's contagious."
Lewisburg added a two-out RBI single by Mike Fisher in the seventh to close to 9-8, but the potential go-ahead run never got on base.
Mifflinburg's third pitcher in the game, Zach Aurand, coaxed Lewisburg's No. 9 hitter Jacob Girton to fly out to center to end the game.
"(Sumfest's) homer built us back up and we were ready to play then, before then we were just playing to get through the inning," said Lewisburg manager Greg Girton. "After we hit the grand slam we had hope.
"We started seeing the ball late in the game. The first pitcher Mifflinburg had (Ty Walters) was a great pitcher, but by the time we started hitting the ball I think it would've been a different game if we had another inning."
Behind Walters, who struck out five and walked five to get the win before leaving early in the sixth, Mifflinburg was cruising along in the contest.
Mifflinburg scored five runs in the third on a two-run single by Oakley Whitesel and bases-loaded walks drawn by Charlie Hackenberg and Aurand to take a 6-1 lead.
Walters helped his own cause out with an RBI double in the fourth before Mifflinburg's eventual game-winning runs were scored in the fifth on a two-run homer from Nick Gemberling.
"Nick put a charge in that ball. That kid hits the ball hard every time up and he hits all day long," Cooper said.
Mifflinburg needed Gemberling's home run as the team sat on its big lead through the final two innings.
"We got complacent, we got a little sloppy on the bases and we got a little bit lazy," Cooper added. "My players might have learned a lesson tonight that an eight or nine-run lead might not be enough."
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