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By Ray Wilde
Sports correspondent
Branson, MO -- The last two games the Mifflin County Babe Ruth All-Stars played were ones for the ages.
Mifflin County pulled out two
games in the late innings to win
the Mid-Atlantic Regionals.
On Friday, they won another
game for the ages as Mifflin County won the opening game of the 15-16-year-old Babe Ruth
World Series beating Southern Florida, 9-8, in
12 innings.
Mifflin County plays today at
noon against England.
Southern Florida led 6-5 going into the bottom of the
seventh.
Jude Zook led off with a base-hit and Kooper Walters moved him to second on a sacrifice bunt.
Colton Aumiller then drove Zook home with a double.
Neither team scored in the eighth.
Down one in the ninth, Mifflin County scored a run thanks to a Southern Florida error.
Again Mifflin County trailed by
one in the 10th. Again Mifflin County scored a run on another Southern Florida miscue.
In the 11th, neither team scored. Aumiller, who came in the 10th through another shutout
inning in the 12th.
Zook went to second in the 12th as a ghost runner. Again Walters moved him up to second.
Aumiller was intentionally walked and Liam Shaffer was hit by a pitch. Mifflin County won the game
as Luke Shawver walked with the
bases loaded.
Denny Yetter, the Mifflin County manager, used four pitchers.
Haven Bridge started, Shaffer was second, Maverick Smith third and Aumiller finished and got the win.
Smith had a great outing as he finished the sixth and pitched into
the 10th.
"Our last two pitchers, Colton Aumiller and Maverick Smith, did a great job," Yetter explained.
Max Trawitz saved the day in the top of the sixth. Trawitz at second base, dove for a ball that
would have scored three runs.
Southern Florida only had four hits.
Mifflin County finished with eight.
Shaffer had three hits. Aumiller, Shawver, Bridge, Zook
and Jett Powell each had a hit.
Shawver drove in four runs.
Shawver and Aumiller each had a double.
It was Mifflin County's 790th win and was its fourth win in the opening game of a World Series
(4-3).
It was only the second win against a Florida team (2-4).
It also was the third-longest
game in the history of the league.