Sentinel photo by BOB HOCKENBROCK Mifflin County first baseman Jayden Smith has to pull down a high throw in a pickoff attempt.

By Aaden Stevens

Sports correspondent

LEWISTOWN — Mifflin County (9-5) baseball hosted the Wildcats from Mechanicsburg (10-5). Even though the Huskies committed six errors, Mifflin County pulled out a thrilling 5-4 victory in front of the home crowd Monday.

​Senior Chase Hartung started once more for the Huskies and pitched four hard-fought innings, allowing only one earned run and striking out five. Tied up in the bottom of the second at one a piece, DH Thad Gerwick had a lead-off double on the first pitch, putting him on second with no one away. Following a Hartung strikeout, right fielder Reese Christine hit the first pitch he saw over the wall for a home run, the team’s fourth of the season, putting the Huskies on top 3-1. After a late charge from the Wildcats, the Huskies prevailed 5-4.

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Huskies coach Ray Hoppel broke down the team’s hitting as of late.

“I was really proud of our guys. We really swung the sticks well early in the game. We talked a lot about likely facing him while we were practicing yesterday, and I thought our approaches at the beginning of the game against him were as good as they could be. We really did a nice job in hitting the ball where it was pitched, and we got a couple of big extra-base hits when it counted, and thankfully, it was enough runs to get us a win,” the coach said.

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It’s not often you see a team have six errors and still pull out a win; the word that Hoppel had to describe it was “resiliency” ​​.

“I mean we focus on not letting innings get away from us. And so we try to wipe those mistakes as quickly as possible to make the next play. But it is easier said than done. So the innings, the errors we did have seemed to come one per inning. And so we were able to spread them out and not let them get too bunched up, and it gave us an opportunity to keep the innings from getting away. Our pitchers did a nice job throwing strikes, but even though the defense wasn’t very good today, I was proud of the resilience of the entire team because we were able to beat a really good team despite it,” Hoppel noted.

Mifflin County improves to 10-5 on the season and has won nine out of their last 11, and made it back-to-back wins over the other top teams in the Mid-Penn. The next game for the purple and grey is ( weather permitting ) ​Wednesday versus lowest-ranked Cumberland Valley. If the game gets pushed back, the Huskies will play on Friday at Central Dauphin. As for Mechanicsburg, they will drop to 10-6 and have a doubleheader versus top-seeded Chambersburg on Wednesday.