BEECH CREEK — The more things change, the more they stay the same, at least in the Central Penn American Legion baseball league.

In the recent past, the league championship went through Beech Creek and it appeared as though the 2018 affair would be the same.

Mifflin County might have something to say about that.

On the heels of a marathon win over Clarence, Post 287 made its way over the Seven Mountains to square off against the Beech Creek Crickets Friday night in a winners’ bracket contest. They battled, scrapped and as a result, walked off the field 3-1 winners over the home team.

“Over the years, it has never been easy to win up here, but right now, they are playing as well as I could ever expect,” Mifflin County manager Bernie Howard said. “We struggled early, but they just keep bouncing back. This is the toughest place to play against the toughest team in the league and Drew (Westover) was nothing short of magnificent. He was in total control and we made every play behind him that we had to make. We had some timely hitting and overall, it was just a complete win for us.”

Next up for Post 287 is Huntingdon, the No. 2 seed, which sent Philipsburg to the bottom bracket Friday. After that, the next game is dependent on the outcome against Huntingdon — a win puts Mifflin County in the championship game Monday; a loss means a Sunday evening game against the survivor among four bottom-bracket teams, which will ultimately be decided earlier that day.

For his effort, Westover finished with a complete game, scattering four hits while walking two and striking out 10. He did hit two Cricket batters.

Going into the game, Westover used his experience of having faced many of the Cricket batters before to formulate a game plan.

“I knew that at the lower part of the lineup all I needed to do was to throw strikes, but at the top I have to work location,” he explained. “It was a good plan for me and as it turned out, it worked.”

With his team holding on to a 3-1 lead and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Westover was facing one of the toughest Cricket hitters in Trevor Hanna.

Hanna ripped a line drive down the left field line in foul territory to throw a scare into the Mifflin County faithful. But two pitches later, Westover won the battle when he froze Hanna with a nifty breaking pitch to seal the deal.

“He was waiting on my fastball and he timed it up again, but it went foul,” Westover said. “After my first curveball missed the zone, I knew he wasn’t going to sit on back-to-back curveballs and I was able to split the zone for the strike.”

As for the team being scrappy and one that battles to the end, Westover says right now that is the demeanor of the team.

“We definitely scramble for our wins,” he said. “It is playoff time and we know that we want to keep going. If we can continue to win, we can keep moving forward. I can’t remember how many times I have pitched against these guys. It is a good (competitive) atmosphere and I love pitching here. For most of us this is our last year so we definitely want to go out a winner.”

Mifflin County struck first in the first inning when, with one out, Max Oburn worked Crickets’ starting pitcher A.J. Smith for a free pass. That brought up Tyree Smalley, and after looking at two offerings from Smith, Smalley ripped an RBI double to center.

In the third, Mifflin County scored its second run when Post 287 juiced the sacks. Oburn was plunked by a Smith pitch and Smalley and Noah Wright followed with singles. Two batters after Wright’s base hit, Westover helped his own cause when he bounced into a RBI fielder’s choice for a 2-0 lead.

Westover’s only hiccup of the night came in the bottom of the third when Trey Gentzel walked, was sacrificed to second by Tanner Lavelle and scored on an RBI single to right by Hanna.

Mifflin County added an insurance run in the top of the seventh when Noah Wright led off with a triple to right and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Nick Hostetler for the 3-1 final.

From that point on, Westover settled in and only allowed the Crickets four base runners over the final four frames, two of those coming in the bottom of the seventh before he fanned Hanna to seal the deal.

Mifflin County 3, Beech Creek 1

Mifflin County 101 000 1 — 3-7-0

Beech Creek 001 000 0 — 1-4-0

WP: Westover. LP: A. J. Smith. SO: Westover 10 (M); Smith 3, Tanner Spangler 2 (B). BB: Westover 2 (M); Smith 5, Spangler 2 (B). 3B: Noah Wright (M). 2B: Tyreen Smalley (M). MH: Smalley 2-3, Wright 2-3 (M). RBI: Smalley, Westover, Nick Hostetler (M). Trevor Hanna (B).