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Milton defeats Loyalsock to win Section 3 title at Berwick 8-6

By Jon Gerardi 8 min read

BERWICK -- As soon as Milton's Cohen Knarr fired the ball to first baseman Brody Ficks for the third and final out, Milton's players quickly celebrated on the infield at Berwick's field at Ber-Vaughn Park. For the first time in quite awhile, Milton's major baseball team can say they're Section 3 champions and heading to the state tournament.

Once Milton got its Section 3 championship banner and ran to the outfield as its fans cheered, Queen's "We Are The Champions" played over the PA speakers.

It was a fitting song to commemorate the moment.

Milton defeated Loyalsock for a second consecutive day in a winner-take-all Section 3 championship game, 8-6, to advance to the state tournament next week in Pittston.

"They worked really hard for it and they earned it and deserved it. We just never gave up and that reflected on the scoreboard today," Milton manager Garrett Shnyder said. "We were lucky to out-slug them, I'd like to out-pitch them. I'm a pitcher, so I'd like to out-pitch, but we out-slugged and that got us to where we need to be."

Loyalsock used a three-run fourth inning to take a lead over Milton, 6-3. That was in large part thanks to three doubles in a five-batter span as Maverick Garman, Silas Smith and Aiden Kiessling all connected on triples into left field with Smith's bringing in a run and Kiessling's driving in to for Loyalsock's lead.

"It was a huge momentum shift for us and the hope was to shift that momentum and go out and hold defensively," Loyalsock manager Jake King said. "Unfortunately we weren't able to do that and it came back and hurt us. They put a lot of balls in play. They hit the ball all over the field, we made some great plays and some routine plays, but obviously we didn't make enough of them."

Like the day prior, Milton responded right away in the bottom of the fifth inning to shift momentum for good.

Milton loaded the bases with a leadoff double by Jordan Brown, a batter reaching by being hit by a pitch in Cohen Knarr and an error put Weston Sumner on with no outs. That's when Max Shnyder had a huge two-RBI single into centerfield to put Milton behind just 6-5. A batter later, Zeke White had a grounder for an RBI to tie it and Blake Folmar put Milton ahead with two outs with an RBI single toward second base. Reece Armstrong connected on an RBI single into left a batter later and suddenly, Milton was back ahead by two runs.

"It came down again to pitching and defense. I mean our pitching was good, defensively we were good for the most part," King said. "There were a couple things here or there, but they hit the ball and put the ball in play. Again, tip of the hat to those guys. We knew it would be a battle. I'm proud of my boys though."

Milton dialed in the final two innings and prevented Loyalsock from rallying back.

In the fifth inning, Loyalsock's Jaxton Rupert reached with a one-out single before an error let Antonio Valentine reach, putting two runners on with just one out. But a ground out to first base and a strikeout ended the threat.

"Stay the course, put the ball in play and do what we've done all summer," King said what he told his players in the final two innings. "Just put the ball in play and good things will happen."

In the sixth inning, Loyalsock went three up, three down to end their summer as one of the top 16 teams in Pennsylvania. Milton held the heart of Loyalsock's lineup silent in that final at bat.

"The pep talk to Cohen was we have to be a pitcher, we can't be a thrower. He was just throwing, he was just trying to throw to the zone. Two of those three hits (in the fourth inning) we were ahead 1-2 and 0-2 and we're just putting pitches over the middle fot eh plate. I'm trying to tell him hey lets work away from the plate, lets try to entice swings out of the zone," Shnyder said. "That's how we pitch instead of throw, that's what he did in the last inning and it was the difference. He made the change and the change worked and we got lazy ground balls or a little pop fly or a strikeout. He was throwing the ball down in the zone, working down.

"There's no secret in baseball: ball up, ball out of the park. Ball down, less hurt," Shnyder continued. "Instead of throwing, he started pitching and that was really the message I was trying to send to him."

Loyalsock collected five hits, but struggled slightly with timely hitting as Loyalsock was 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position. That included going 0 for 2 in the fifth inning with runners at third and second with one out.

Garman (1 for 2, double, walk, stolen base, two runs), Rhett Datres (1 for 2, two RBIs, run), Silas Smith (1 for 3, RBI, run), Aiden Kiessling (1 for 2, double, two RBIs) and Jaxton Rupert (1 for 1, walk) led Loyalsock at the plate while Brennan Comerford had a walk and run scored and Ben Gusick had a run scored with a stolen base.

Milton's offense was led by Jordan Brown (2 for 2, two doubles, RBI, two runs), Knarr (walk, hit by pitch, two runs), Weston Sumner (RBI, run), Max Shnyder (2 for 2, three RBIs, run), Zeke White (RBI), Brody Ficks (walk), Blake Folmar (1 for 1, walk, RBI, run), Armstrong (1 for 2, RBI) and Emett Salwocki (walk).

Loyalsock opened the game with a big three-run first inning to start strong. After a fly out, Gusick was walked and would reach second on a passed ball and steal third. Garman was walked and stole second to put runners in scoring position with two outs. Datres delivered a key two-RBI single into shallow right-center to give Loyalsock a 2-0 lead.

Milton responded with a three-run bottom of the first inning to go ahead.

Cullen Reese reached on an error before a ground out put an out on the board with Reese at second. Brown crushed an RBI double into right field before Knarr was walked. Brown and Knarr would both take an extra base on a passed ball before back-to-back RBIs by Weston Sumner (ground out) and Shnyder (single) made it a 3-2 lead.

Loyalsock tied the game in the third inning thanks to Comerford scoring. COmerford was walked and reached third with two passed balls. Then, a dropped third strike allowed Gusick to reach first and on the throw to first, Comerford went home to score the game-tying run.

While Loyalsock was hoping to be the third team from Loyalsock Little League this century to make it to the state tournament (2008, 2000), Loyalsock still had an unbelievable summer reaching the Section 3 final. And King was more than proud of what this team was able to accomplish.

"It's been fun. Our first goal was to get them to Volunteer (Stadium). Not many kids get the opportunity to play there for a district final. We knew for us it was a matter of getting them to Volunteer to experience that," King said. "From there, everything was icing on the cake. Being able to come here to sectionals was a lot of fun. We were more prepared for this one, we just didn't finish. But it was a really fun summer. The boys worked hard. We couldn't have asked for more from the boys at all."

Milton now turns its attention to the state tournament in Pittston which begins on Monday and runs until Aug. 2.

Milton, the Section 3 champions, will compete against the Section 6 champions at 1 p.m.

"It's our goal to get there. It means a lot. I mean the town support, there's 60 people here in the outfield taking pictures. We packed the stadium. It’s a big thing for Milton baseball," Shnyder said. "We want to be good again and not just good for a year, we want to be consistently good and build the program back. That's what we're doing from a young age and I think it means everything to these kids."

Milton 8, Loyalsock 6

Loyalsock 201 300 -- 6 5 2

Milton 300 50x -- 8 6 2

Jackson King, Silas Smith (5) and Blake Richardson. Jordan Brown, Cohen Knarr (4) and Cullen Reese. W: Knarr. L: Smith.

Top Loyalsock hitters: Maverick Garman 1-2, 2B, BB, SB, 2 runs; Rhett Datres 1-2, 2 RBIs, run; Silas Smith 1-3, RBI, run; Aiden Kiessling 1-2, 2B, 2 RBIs; Jaxton Rupert 1-1, BB; Brennan Comerford BB, run; Ben Gusick, SB, run. Top Milton hitters: Jordan Brown 2-2, 2 2Bs, RBI, 2 runs; Cohen Knarr BB, HBP, 2 runs; Weston Sumner RBI, run; Max Shnyder 2-2, 3 RBIs, run; Zeke White, RBI; Brody Ficks BB; Blake Folmar 1-1, BB, RBI, run; Reece Armstrong 1-2, RBI; Emmett Salwocki BB.

Starting at /week.