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WILLIAMSPORT -- On Tuesday, the Mifflin County Babe Ruth 15-year-old All-Stars came within one run of beating the host team, West End, in the Pennsylvania State tournament semifinals.
Mifflin County was edged out by West End, 7-6, and finished third.
But, all was not lost for the 15-year-olds as they qualified for the Middle Atlantic Regional in Altoona later this month through a tiebreaker.
Mifflin County had a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but West End scored five times and went up 7-4. Mifflin County came within a run as it scored twice in the seventh to cut the margin to a run.
Logan Alexander went the first five innings for Mifflin County as he struck out four, walked one and gave up five hits. Jacob Ross came in relief. But he ran into trouble and Clay Ammon had to finish. West End finished with 11 hits and six of those came late in the game.
Mifflin County jumped on top with three runs in the first as Ammon had an RBI double and Aidan Attivo also knocked in a run with a base hit. The other run scored when Grady Hoppel reached on an error.
In the seventh, Hayden Yoder and Ammon had back-to-back doubles and an Alexander single made it a 7-6 game.
Mifflin County finished with nine hits. Ammon had a big day with the bat with three, while Arnold and Alexader each had two hits.
"Our pitching again stepped up Tuesday night," said Josh Snook, the Mifflin County manager, "Logan (Alexander) gave us five strong innings. We ran into some problems in the sixth when West End scored those five runs, but we came right back in the seventh and almost won.
"We told the team at the beginning, we tried to achieve our goals each step at a time and now we are going to regionals," Snook stated.