by Vince Rodemer
STATE COLLEGE--A night after Mifflin County was the beneficiary of a rocky inning from visiting Clarence that resulted in a mercy-rule 11-1 victory, it almost turned the trick again.
State College made four consecutive errors to begin the seventh inning, but Oliver Daily came on to strike out the game's final three batters and give Post 245 the 6-4 home victory in an American Legion baseball game in State College.
For Mifflin County, starting the first, second and third innings by issuing a free pass, including the walk to start the third that jumpstarted State College's four-run inning was its downfall.
"Pretty much cost us the game when we had that one bad inning," Mifflin County coach Bernie Howard said. "It was like a reversal from (Monday) night. We had that one inning with a couple of walks, it was our undoing."
Post 287 starter Kyle Peachey seemed to be having control issues, which could have been rooted in the trouble that Peachey seemed to be having with the mound.
He was constantly kicking dirt around and trying to get his footing that resulted in him falling off the mound and leaving pitches inside and out of the strike zone.
Howard said the right-hander didn't voice any sort of complaints about the mound, so that wasn't the primary issue.
The walk to Caleb Walls to start off the bottom of the first was erased when Peachey got Tyler Hall swinging and catcher Isaac Maclay gunned down Walls trying to steal second.
Mifflin County had a chance to put a run on the board in the top of the second when Nick Hostetler singled with two outs and stole second to get in scoring position.
State College starter Spencer Randolph got a grounder to third to end the inning and the threat.
Post 245 started their half when Harrison Walls drew a leadoff walk and his courtesy runner scored to make it 1-0 on a Justin Vescio fielder's choice.
Peachey got out of the inning with a grounder to second and a fly ball to left, leaving the deficit at a run.
Mifflin County had two on with two outs in the top of the third on a pair of singles from Cade Attick and Ty Bodtorf.
Randolph escaped with a pop out to second base to that ended the inning.
The State College pitcher drew a walk to start the third and more trouble for Post 287.
Caleb Walls singled up the middle and Hall was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Josh Gardner and Vescio each drew bases-loaded walks sandwiched between an error and the score settled at 4-0.
Oliver Daily capped the four-run inning with an RBI single before Andrew Larson, who came on in relief could escape the inning on a beautiful Attick double play.
Mifflin County opened it scoring in the top of the fourth when Kenny Cavanaugh and Nick Hostetler put together back-to-back singles with one out.
Larson was excellent in the fourth and fifth for Mifflin County.
In the fourth his 1-2-3 inning was aided by Maclay's throw to second to catch Caleb Walls stealing and in the fifth allowing him pitched around a one-out walk.
State College added a run in the bottom of the sixth on a Daily tripled and Steven Plafcan RBI single to extend the lead to 6-1.
It was a good thing, though because after playing outstanding defense all day, State College made four straight errors to begin the seventh inning, plating three Mifflin County runs.
The final of the four was a rocket between the legs of the Post 245 second baseman and nearly got to the fence to score Ross Underhill and Ty Bodtorf and put Larson on third with no outs.
"We needed that," Howard said. "Down 6-1 in the last inning, we could have folded up the tent and we ended up with the tying run at the plate. I was proud of the fact that they did battle back there, it will be good for the rest of the season."
Daily came on to put out the fire with three consecutive strikeouts to end the game.
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