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SCRANTON -- Mifflin County took another step in the right direction in the Babe Ruth 15-year-old Mid-Atlantic Regional as it downed Northern New Jersey, 13-2. on Friday.
Mifflin County is now 2-0 and will meet Centre County (1-0) in the winner's final bracket at 10 a.m. today. The tournament is double elimination.
The win assures Mifflin County of a final-four finish in the regional, which is the 14th time the league has done so.
Mifflin County pushed across a run in the second as Ryan Hine reached first on a wild pitch, third strike. He got to third on the first of Doug Weaver's three doubles. Hine completed his journey hone on a wild pitch.
In the third, Mifflin County started to pull away as it scored three times. Tucker Gill and Weaver had RBI hits with Weaver's going for two bases. The other run scored on an error.
From that point on Mifflin County just kept adding runs. The local all-stars scored two runs in the fourth on no hits and Landen Eichhorn knocked in two runs with a base hit in the fifth.
In the sixth, Northern New Jersey had a bad inning in the field as it had a wild pitch, a passed ball and an error helping Mifflin County to score three more times.
Finally in the seventh, Mifflin County wrapped up its scoring on a sacrifice fly from Hunter Bailey and Eichhorn came home on a wild pitch.
"We still left too many men on base," Bill Corbin, the Mifflin County manager, said. "Against good teams we will need to get clutch hits. They helped us with wild pitches and passed balls. Our pitching today was real good."
"Garrett (Leitzel) had four good innings and Doug (Weaver) and Chris (Moon) gave us some good innings too," Corbin said. "Doug (Weaver) has really done a good job for us with the bat the last two games."
Northern New Jersey scored two runs in the fifth on no hits and two Mifflin County errors. Another error led to Northern's only hit. With two outs, Mifflin County had an infield mistake and the next man up, Owen Parilla, had the only hit of the game for the Northern New Jersey.
Weaver worked the fifth and sixth and Moon had three stikeouts in the seventh. As for Leitzel, he had eight strikeouts in his four innings. He gave up no hits and walked one.
Northern New Jersey gave up seven walks, six wild pitches and had four errors.
Corbin earned his second finish in a regional final four, tying him with Fred Zook and Bernie Howard. The record for the league is held by Scott Reigle, who had three.
Notes: Mifflin County now has beaten Maryland (10-0 on Thursday) five in a row and eight of the last nine times. … Mifflin County has beaten Northern New Jersey seven times in a row. The last loss came in 1990 (13-year-olds), 5-4, in Beacon, N.Y. The manager of that team was Bill Corbin. … Gill and Weaver each have five doubles. … The win for Corbin was his 103rd lifetime as an all-star manager. The break down by age is 71 with 13-year-olds, seven with 14-year-olds and 25 with 15-year-olds. … Hine and Eichhorn each had two hits.