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Sophomore pitches Warriors past Mifflinburg

todd hummel, the daily item, sunbury, pa.
·4 min read

May 21—MONTGOMERY — Logan Kirby doesn't want to think too much on the pitcher's rubber.

"I just want to pitch, and not think out there," Kirby said. "When I think, I overthink and then I don't pitch well."

Tuesday in the District 4 Class 4A semifinals at the Montgomery Athletic Community Center, it was quite obvious Kirby wasn't doing much thinking.

The sophomore righty needed just 85 pitches in his two hitter as one Mifflinburg runner reached second, and the No. 2-seeded Warriors advanced to the District 4 championship game with a 6-0 win over the Wildcats.

The Wildcats (13-5) got singles from Zeb Hufnagle in the second, and Lane Hook in the sixth, but not much else against Kirby. Montoursville's ace won his fifth game of the season against just one loss, striking out five, and hit batsman.

"We didn't bring our bats (today), and when we did hit it hard, we hit it right at people," Mifflinburg coach Tom Church said. "He was tough today."

Mifflinburg's best chance to score probably came in the fourth inning. Troy Dressler reached on an error with one out. With a 3-2 count with two outs, Aaron Bollick stung a ball into the hole between third and short with the runner moving on the pitch.

However, Montoursville's shortstop Quinn Ranck went deep in the hole to back-hand the ball, and made a perfect throw to end the inning. It was one of three plays the Montoursville defense made to keep the Wildcats off the bases. Royce Bowes made a back-handed stop down the line at third base to take away a hit, and Kirby took a line drive off his lower leg, and hobbled to pick up the ball, and get the runner by a step.

"They made some hellish plays on our kids. We hit the ball really hard a few times that I thought the shortstop and third basemen made really great plays on," Church said.

The ball off Kirby came to open the top of the fifth, but after a few minutes of being checked out by the trainer, he didn't miss a beat. In fact, three of his five strikeouts came after getting hit.

"It fired me up," Kirby said. "It made me refocus and find a different level."

Montoursville got single runs off Dressler in the third, fourth and fifth innings to take a 3-0 lead. Brayden McCourt singled with one out in the third, stole second and scored on Bowes' RBI single. Jonah Heddings walked with one out in the fourth. A wild pitch and a passed ball moved him to third, and Noah Kirby's groundout gave Montoursville a 2-0 lead. Bowes walked in the fifth and Ranck singled. After a double steal, Bowes scored on a wild pitch.

The Wake Forest-bound Dressler allowed four singles in his final high school start. He struck out seven and walked three.

Montoursville added three more runs in the top of the sixth. Noah Kirby singled, and a throwing error on Michael Reeder's sacrifice punt allowed Kirby to score and put Reeder on third. After an out, McCourt doubled home a run. A single by Bowes and a walk to Ranck loaded the bases before Zack Neill knocked in the final run for the game via a single for a 6-0 lead.

The Warriors (14-4) will now face Danville (15-5) in the District 4 Class 4A championship game at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Bowman Field in Williamsport. The teams split two games this season — Montoursville won 10-0 in six innings on April 16, while Danville won 8-7 on May 1.

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DISTRICT 4 CLASS 3A PLAYOFFS

SEMIFINALS

at Montgomery Athletic Community Center

NO. 2 MONTOURSVILLE 6, NO. 3 MIFFLINBURG 0

Mifflinburg;000;000;0 — 0-2-1

Montoursville;001;113;x — 6-8-1

Troy Dressler, Kaiden Kmett (6), Lane Hook (6), Nick Lloyd and Jayden Boyer (6). Logan Kirby and Noah Kirby.

WP: Kirby; LP: Dressler.

Montoursville: Royce Bowes, 3-for-3, run, RBI; Zack Neill, 1-for-3, RBI; Noah Kirby, 1-for-3, run, RBI; Brayden McCourt, 2-for-3, double, 2 runs, RBI.