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Hughesville rallies from four down to beat Wellsboro and reach first district final since 2013

ALMEDIA–Less than 24 hours after its season ended in the District 4 Class AAA semifinals at Central Columbia last year, Hughesville players began working toward 2022.

A year later they were again playing in the semifinals at Central again, trailing by four runs after 3 ½ innings. Senior right fielder Dylan Farnsworth gathered his teammates between innings and let it be known history would not repeat itself.

Right on cue, Hughesville flipped the script. The Spartans came storming back and scored seven runs in the next three innings. Austin Gray threw three spectacular shutout innings in relief, Gage Thomas hit a go-ahead, pinch-hit, RBI sixth-inning single and every Spartan left his mark Tuesday as Hughesville rallied and defeated Wellsboro, 7-4 while earning a spot in Friday’s final at Bowman Field against either Central Columbia or Mount Carmel.

“We’ve worked all year for this. We’ve worked our butts off. We lost in the semis last year and the guys decided then and there that we weren’t going to let it happen again, right fielder Dylan Farnsworth said after going 2 for 3 with an RBI. “I think it was believing in ourselves and having the confidence in ourselves that we can hit.”

“There’s no better feeling,” Gray said. “There was no doubt. This was ours to win from the start.”

Wellsboro, however, had other ideas and showed exactly why it had won its last eight games. The Hornets (13-5) scored twice in the first, once in the third and once in the fourth to build that 4-0 lead. Isaac Keane was sailing at that point, allowing just one hit but Hughesville’s confidence never wavered.

The Spartans scored three runs in the fourth inning, tied it in the fifth on Eli Olshefskie’s two-out RBI single and added three more in the seventh, highlighted by Thomas’s go-ahead single and Brenden Knight’s RBI double.

“That’s gutsy. We showed a ton of grit. Our motto has been since the Loyalsock game has been ‘fight” we got knocked on our tails against those guys and I said all we’re going to do from here is fight we’re going to scratch and claw for everything,” Hughesville coach Chris Kish said. “I’m super proud of my guys. They showed a a lot of heart and resiliency.”

Everyone did his part, too. Eight different players had hits; the defense made no errors; Jed Webb and Gray slowed a powerful offense and the dugout stayed loud all afternoon. In the ultimate team game, Hughesville showed exactly why it is a good team, period.

“Before the game I just said trust each other and we’ll do this. It’s really a team out there. There’s no one or two people carrying us out here. It’s everyone. We come together and we punch it out as a team and that’s awesome.”

Farnsworth (2 for 3) was in the middle of Hughesville’s fourth-inning rally which changed the game’s complexion. He hit an RBI single after Jackson Bower and Carter Cowburn opened with singles. Tyler Wetzel drew an RBI walk and Coen Riegner, who played marvelous defense at shortstop, dropped a perfect RBI squeeze, making it 4-3.

Hughesville produced two-out thunder with nobody on base an inning later to tie it as Cowburn walked, Farnsworth singled and Olshefskie hit an RBI single. An inning later Aiden Barlett was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Thomas’s rocket through a drawn-in infield.

Knight kept the momentum going and slammed an RBI double down the left-field line before stealing third and coming home on a throwing error. Just like that, Hughesville had gone from four down to up, 7-4.

“After we lost last year, these guys were in the weight room the next day and said, ‘We want to be different.’ If you want to be different you have to take a different approach,” Kish said. “You have to come every single day and you have to work. Our guys showed a lot of perseverance and fight.”

Gray showed his fight in all three innings he pitched, but especially in the sixth. The right-hander who often wears a cowboy hat, stayed on the horse after Conner Adams hit a lead-off single, stole second and went to third on a balk with no outs.

Gray sandwiched a groundout to Knight at third between two strikeouts and preserved the tie. That energy carried over to the offense as Hughesville took the lead. Gray struck out five in three innings and closed out his clutch performance with his fifth strikeout as Hughesville reached its first district final since 2013.

“It’s my job to battle out of that for everyone else. We’ve practiced that situation a couple times and I wasn’t worried one bit,” Gray said. “My defense had my back and helped a ton. I couldn’t do it without them.”

Wellsboro enjoyed an outstanding season and made a run at reaching its first district final since 2010. Caden Smith went 3 for 4 and Darryn Callahan 2 for 4. Those two ignited a two-run, first-inning rally and scored on Keane’s two-run single. They also had hits in the third and Keane’s RBI grounder added another run before Gabe Sprouse scored in the fourth on Dylan Abernathy’s double to the right field fence as Wellsboro went up 4-0.

Just when it looked like Hughesville was in trouble, the Spartans were just getting started. The Spartans made the latest of their impressive comeback wins this season their best.

“That’s Hughesville,” Gray said. “That’s the way we do it around here.”

Wellsboro 201 100 0–4 9 0

Hughesville 000 313 x–7 8 1

Isaac Keane, Blake Hamblin (6) and Caden Smith. Jed Webb, Austin Gray and Tyler Wetzel. W–Gray. L–Keane.

Top Wellsboro hitters: Smith 3-4, 2R; Darryn Callahan 2-4, 2B, R; Keane 1-3, 3 RBIs; Conner Adams 1-3, SB; Gabe Sprouse 1-3, R; Dylan Abernathy 1-3, 2B, RBI. Top Hughesville hitters: Dylan Farnsworth 2-3, RBI, R; Coen Riegner 1-2, RBI, SB; Gage Thomas 1-1, RBI, R; Brenden Knight 1-4, 2B, RBI, R, SB; Carter Cowburn 1-2, 2 BB, 2R, SB; Jackson Bower 1-4, R; Eli Olshefskie 1-2, RBI; Wetzel RBI.

Records: Hughesville 16-5. Wellsboro 13-5.

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