Mistakes cost Lewistown
Howard cruises to five-inning win in Game 1 of CCL series
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LEWISTOWN -- After nearly two weeks with no baseball due to a bye week, Lewistown Foxpro returned to action as the second-seeded Lewistown welcomed the No. 4 Howard Hawks for Game 1 of the semifinals of the Centre County Baseball League playoffs.
Costly errors and big offensive output in one inning carried the Hawks over Lewistown in five innings, taking the opening game of the series by the final of 15-3 on Tuesday.
The game was scoreless going into the top of the third when things went a little haywire for Lewistown. The Hawks soared offensively scoring 10 runs in the frame with most of the Howard lineup batting twice in the inning.
It was a major inning for Bryce Greene, one of the batters to have two trips to the plate in the inning.
Greene had two hits in the frame including a base-clearing triple and drove in five of the 10 runs scored by Howard.
A lot of the issues Lewistown faced during the inning came defensively as it committed a total of four errors. Lewistown coach Mark Shilling Sr. gives the credit to the Hawks.
"That was the story of the game -- that was the big inning," Shilling said. "We didn't help Isaiah (Kearns) out at all. But Howard, they hit the ball hard."
Lewistown responded in the bottom half of the inning. At first it appeared as though that it was going to be a 1-2-3 inning after the first two batters had grounded out.
With two outs, Connor Cherry and A.J. Scheffel hit back-to-back singles, setting up Evan Mock, who hammered a double deep to center field, scoring both Cherry and Scheffel. the latter hustling his way from first. Then Evan Pupo took the ball the opposite way to give himself an RBI single to right that brought home Mock.
"We didn't quit. We did come out and hit the ball hard and scored three runs in that inning," Shilling said. "Maybe put us back into the game but it was just their night. Howard played good ball."
But that was as close as Lewistown was able to get as Howard scored five more runs in the fifth to put the game on ice.
Greene led the Hawks going 4-for-4 and collected seven RBIs. Howard pitcher Dylan Womer was 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
For Lewistown, Mock, Pupo, Hunter Thompson, Cherry and Scheffel each had a hit for the game with both Mock and Pupo driving in runs.
Womer went all five innings for the Hawks and had four strikeouts and zero walks.
"He was throwing strikes, he made us hit the ball," Shilling said. "He had a lot of ground balls, fly balls, basically he was just throwing strikes. He threw a good game."
Lewistown (11-5 overall) overall travels to Howard Thursday.
Howard Hawks 15, Lewistown Foxpro 3 (5 inn.)
Howard 00(10) 05 -- 15-10-0
Lewistown 00 3 00 -- 3-5- 4
WP: Dylan Womer. LP: Isaiah Kearns. SO: Womer 4 (H); Kearns 2 (L). BB: Kearns 2, Mock 3 (L). 3B: Bryce Green (H). 2B: Tyler Schall (H); Evan Mock (L). MH: Greene 4-4, Womer 2-4 (H). RBI: Greene 7, Womer 3, Dan Cole 2, Mikey Kresovich (H); Mock 2 (L).