×

Warriors advance past first round of districts

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Hughesville's Zack Murray is tagged out by Montoursville first baseman Mitchell Rothrock as he dives back to the bag on a fly ball in the fourth inning Tuesday at Montoursville.

Dylan Bower raced into second base clapping his hands as he watched two runs score. The sophomore left fielder has grown up learning about Montours­ville’s rich baseball tradition.

Now he and his teammates are trying to build on it. So far, so good.

Bower hit a go-ahead, two-run fourth inning double, the bottom of the order delivered a series of clutch hits and Brycen Mussina and Logan Ott combined on a three-hitter Tuesday at Giles Field as Montoursville defeated Hughesville, 8-2 in the District 4 Class AAA quarterfinals. Bower, starting in his first playoff game, doubled twice and Montoursville (12-6) advanced to Friday’s semifinals where it will play at top-seeded Central Columbia.

“It just felt great. We’ve started coming together and playing as a team and that’s what we needed in a playoff game,” Bower said. “I have a lot of faith in my teammates. I knew we would come through at some point.”

Montoursville did just that in the fourth and fifth innings, scoring eight times and turning a 1-0 deficit into an 8-1 lead. The Warriors delivered four straight two-out hits in the fifth inning that produced five runs and broke open the game. Freshman Jaxon Dalena ignited the two-out rally with a two-run single and No. 9 hitter Bryce Ranck added an RBI single before Owen Kiess capped the rally with a two-run double down the right-field line.

Bower, Dalena and Ranck were outstanding at the bottom of the order, going a combined 4 for 7 with two walks, five RBIs and two walks. Kiess and Mussina added two hits and Logan Ott went 2 for 3 with an RBI.

“As the season has gone on we’ve been getting more mature and the bottom is coming through a lot. They’re hitting the ball hard and doing what they need to do for the team,” Montoursville coach Travis Wurster said. “He (Hughesville starter Jacob Corson) was throwing a lot of off-speed pitches. We went through the lineup once and we made good adjustments which we weren’t doing earlier in the year. Now we’re learning to hit a little more and we made the adjustment and that was nice to see.”

Montoursville delivered eight of its 10 hits over the final four innings and none was bigger than Bower’s two-run double. The Warriors had put runners on second in each of the first three innings but Corson stymied it each time and Hughesville led 1-0 with one out in the fourth. This time, Bower made sure Montoursville finally broke through.

Bower worked a 1-1 count and then drilled a ball to the right-center field fence, easily scoring Mitchell Rothrock and Gabe Phillips. The momentum only built from there and Montoursville soon took control.

“As soon as I hit that I knew it was going to score both of them. My approach at the plate was I have to get these guys in somehow,” Bower said. “We just started piling on runs after that and we got on a roll the next inning with two outs.”

Hughesville (12-9) took a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Ryan McClain singled, Corson bunted him to second and Conner Kepner hit an RBI single. The Spartans made it 8-2 in the sixth as Kepner walked and Jared Snyder belted a two-run double.

It was not the ending Hughesville wanted, but this young team still made big strides a year after losing 10 seniors and most of its 2016 starters. The Spartans rallied from a 1-3 start, won 11 of 13 games at one point and laid a good foundation for future success.

“Everybody knows we lost 10 seniors and that’s tough but these kids never made excuses and our coaching staff never made excuses,” Hughesville coach Chris Kish said. “The expectation is to win but unfortunately today we were on the other side of that. What I told the kids is sometimes you learn more from your losses than your wins. I told the seniors that hopefully this adversity will resonate with you so that when you get into a job and you become a husband or a father or whenever you go to work, you apply these things and use them as a springboard to help you personally.”

Mussina and Ott did a nice job slowing down Hughesville any time it mounted threats after the first inning. Mussina, a senior, threw five innings of three-hit baseball and allowed just one run while striking out seven and winning his second straight district quarterfinal game. Ott, a freshman, performed well under pressure in his first high school playoff game and struck out four in two innings.

After Snyder hit his RBI double, Hughesville loaded the bases with two outs. Ott then fell behind the next batter 2-0 before showing he is as mature as he is talented. The left-hander, throwing in the low to mid-80s, struck him out on three straight pitches from there, throwing a perfect pitch on the outside corner for the final out. He then retired Hughesville’s top of the lineup in order to close it out in the seventh.

“That’s a tough spot for a 15-year old kid to come in and it was nice to see him close the door. He threw really well,” Wurster said. “It’s nice when you have (pitching coach) Mike Mussina coming out to talk to you and it’s nice when you’re looking in at your brother (catcher Nolan Ott). Those two have a good connection and he calmed him down and got him on the plate. He just needed to throw strikes there and he came through.”

Hughesville 100 001 0–2 3 3

Montoursville 000 260 x–8 10 0

Jacob Corson, Conner Kepner (5), Zack Murray (5) and Jared Snyder. Brycen Mussina, Logan Ott (6) and Nolan Ott. W–Mussina, (1-1). L–Corson, (4-2).

Top Hughesville hitters: Ryan McClain 1-3, R, BB; Kepner 1-2, RBI, 2 BBs; Snyder 1-3, 2B, RBI; Murray 1-3. Top Montoursville hitters: Mussina 2-4; Owen Kiess 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI, R; L. Ott 2-3, RBI; Dylan Bower 2-3, 2 2Bs, 2 RBI, R; Jaxon Dalena 1-2, 2 RBI, R; Bryce Ranck 1-2, RBI, R; Mitchell Rothrock 2 R; Gabe Phillips 2 R.

Records: Montoursville 12-6. Hughesville 12-9.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today