Huskies nudge Trojans, 3-2

LEWISTOWN — Mifflin County baseball defeated Chambersburg in a nailbiter on Tuesday at Capouillez Field, 3-2.

Mifflin County (6-4) held a 3-0 lead entering the seventh inning, where the Trojans (2-7) would record two runs.

Tye Plank and Logan Alexander each had one RBI for the victors. Jayden Smith, Madden Weaver and Elliott Yetter each scored a run.

On the mound, Husky senior Grady Hoppel went six and two-third innings, allowed three hits, two runs, four walks and two strikeouts.

“They have a couple guys committed, and the top of their order is pretty good,” Hoppel said about the Trojans.

Huskies coach Ray Hoppel continued, “We went down there (Chambersburg) and played a couple of weeks ago and they are a super fundamentally sound team, and every game we have played with them over the last several years has been close. We knew we were going to have to play almost error free ball and some clutch hits and we did just enough to win today.”

Hoppel added that Grady had a strong performance on the bump.

“I thought Grady was phenomenal. He ran his pitch count up a little high at the end and we had to take him out but essentially what he does is he gives us a chance to win every single time he goes out and this was his third start. And he held their bats at bay for most of the game. I was more than pleased with his performance,” the Huskies coach noted.

Hoppel was also pleased with the overall performance of the team.

“We have to figure out how to win again. We started off pretty well and then slumped a little bit last week. So, we finally managed to put two in a row together so hopefully that will give us a confidence boost for the rest of this week,” Hoppel said.

The Huskies main priority right now is working on their hitting. In order to continue to win games the Huskies will have to hold strong at the dish.

“We still aren’t hitting quite to where we need to be. We put a couple of good swings on the ball today. Landen really jumped on one early in the ballgame and we had a couple of key base hits. We didn’t have a lot, but the ones we had were important. So, we just have to be a little bit more consistent 1 through 9 in the lineup and then we will be okay,” Hoppel explained.

Both teams had four hits and two errors.

The Huskies travel to play Bald Eagle Area (4-9) today at 4:30 p.m. On Friday, the Huskies face Mt. Union (11-4) at home.