Sentinel photo by BOB HOCKENBROCK Mifflin County third baseman Reese Christine (right) holds on to the bag to record an out.

MILROY — Mifflin County baseball hosted State College on Monday for senior night. After a close couple of innings, the Little Lions defeated the Huskies, 6-1.

The game was held at Armagh Field, a different field than the previous game which was held at Mifflin County Middle School.

Clay Ammon said, “I think playing on different fields could affect our gameplay if we let it but I also think it can give us an advantage playing on some less than ideal fields that we know and other teams don’t.”

Huskies head coach Ray Hoppel had a different outlook on if switching fields could affect the game.

“I don’t think so. When you go on the road and you’re playing in different parts all the time, some have grass and some have dirt. So, playing on different fields is not too concerning to me. We just have to execute. These guys have played a lot of baseball in their lives and they know how to play in different fields and different dimensions so to me that’s not concerning. I was more connected today about how we lost our composure late in the ball game and that was something that was a little more concerning to me,” Hoppel stated.

Mifflin County (4-2) held the lead for the first few innings until State College (4-4) picked up the intensity, leading to the 6-1 final score.

“They have a really good hitting team,” Hoppel explained. “These guys have played against a lot of those kids their whole lives, they know what’s over there. You have to bring your ‘A’ game to beat them, and for five and a half innings I thought we were pretty good. But, we kind of let the game get away from us there in the sixth inning. We’ll learn from it, we’ll move on and hopefully the next time we play them it will be a little different.”

Ammon agreed with his coach’s sentiments.

“We’re a strong defensive team but in games like this, our lack of offense puts extra pressure on our defense.”

Although the Huskies walked away with a loss, they held strong in the first half of the game.

Hoppel spoke on the team’s strengths and weaknesses.

“I thought Grady Hoppel threw an outstanding game, their top four or five hitters are really stout and he really kept them at bay and did a really nice job with their hitters and gave us a chance, but it comes down to hitting the ball a little bit better,” he said.

The Huskies were 4-1 before this match up, leaving them 4-2 following Monday’s game.

Ammon explained what he thought was the main difference in the game.

“We did not square up a lot of balls, they hit some balls pretty hard,” Ammon noted.

Hoppel noted the Huskies have to post more runs in order to assist their pitchers.

“It comes down to our offense these last couple of games. We’re struggling to score runs. You ask your pitchers to do a lot whenever you’re having a hard time scoring and so that puts a lot of stress on them out on the mound. And hopefully we can swing the bats a little bit better these next couple of games and take some of our pressure off of our pitchers,” the coach added.

Next, the Huskies host Altoona at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday.