Diehl, Mifflinburg walk off against Danville in districts

May 20—MIFFLINBURG — There were a lot of moving parts to Andrew Diehl's walk-off hit Saturday, even after the ball skipped through the middle of the diamond and safely into the outfield grass.

Diehl raced to first base with his fourth hit of the District 4 Class 4A quarterfinal game, the second four-hit game of his senior season.

Zach Wertman, who sparked the eighth-inning rally with a sharp, leadoff single, bolted down the third-base line to score Mifflinburg's winning run.

And winning pitcher Zeb Hufnagle jumped so high in the dugout to celebrate that he scraped a patch of his forehead on the crossbeam.

"I didn't get to run out (on the field)," Hufnagle said. "I was on my butt on the concrete."

Forgive them that one blooper. It had been six years since the Wildcats' last district playoff success.

Mifflinburg made the most of a handful of hits, taking a fifth-inning lead on Troy Dressler's two-run single and then breaking a two-inning-long tie with Diehl's clutch knock to edge Danville, 4-3.

"I figured just keep getting us up to bat and we'll find a way to get ourselves on and score runs," said Diehl.

Fourth-seeded Mifflinburg (14-7) earned a semifinal date 4:30 p.m. Tuesday against No. 1 Athens (18-1) at Mansfield University.

Danville, which carried a four-game win streak into the playoffs at the fifth seed, finished 11-10.

"Our kids played so hard," said Ironmen coach Devin Knorr. "We've been waiting all year for our guys — with such a young roster — to see if they were going to be ready to handle the big stage, and they certainly handled the big stage. It just came down to they got one more base hit than we did.

"Sometimes you show up with your best stuff and you still don't win. That's the beautiful part about baseball and the heart-breaking part about baseball at the same time."

Saturday's starters — Mifflinburg senior Zach Wertman and Danville sophomore Daniel Walker — each turned in five solid innings.

Wertman avoided disaster in the first inning as Danville loaded the bases with no outs. The Ironmen's Cole Duffy drove in the game's first run, but the Wildcats turned a double play, and Wertman ended the inning at 1-0 with a strikeout. He fanned four more — allowing a third-inning run on Wyatt Shultz's two-out RBI — and handed a 3-2 lead to Hufnagle with two on and two outs in the sixth.

Hufnagle's first pitch was swatted the other way by Danville senior Mason Raup, flared over first base toward the foul line to tie the score at 3. Raup finished the season with a .625 average (45-of-72).

"It was a great pitch by Zeb, and a better job by (Raup), just smacking it and getting it out there," said Wildcats coach Tom Church.

Hufnagle, now the Wildcats' ace as junior righty and Wake Forest recruit Troy Dressler nurses an arm injury, ended the sixth with a strikeout and then fanned five of eight Ironmen over the last two scoreless innings.

"I knew I just had to trust my defense because I didn't really have the time I usually get to warm-up, Hufnagle said. "They got a little bloop, but I settled in after that and was able to work out of it. After I got the first couple batters out, I fell into a groove and I was feeling great. Lots of confidence in the guys behind me."

The right-handed Walker allowed an earned run in the second that tied the score at 1, then coasted into the home fifth with a 2-1 lead. Diehl reached with his third hit, a leadoff single, and Hufnagle was hit by a pitch. Mifflinburg then pulled a double-steal ahead of Dressler's two-run liner to right that made it 3-2. Shultz retired seven straight Wildcats, striking out five, and worked around a two-out hit batsman in the seventh to force extra innings.

"I though Danny and Wyatt were outstanding, given the magnitude of the situation," said Knorr.

Hufnagle struck out three in the eighth, losing an eight-pitch battle to Kaleb Stetler (single) with two outs. In the bottom of the inning, Wertman scorched a leadoff single to the right of the second-base bag, and he was bunted into scoring position. Danville intentionally walked Luke Rokavec (1-for-2), and, after coaxing a popout, unintentionally walked Tanner Zimmerman to turn over the order to Diehl at the top.

"I just went to the plate and hit the ball," said Diehl, who struck out on a Shultz changeup in his prior at-bat. "I was thinking off-speed, and I knew I had to sit back on it and let it travel to hit it, but he didn't throw me any off-speed. He threw me a fastball, and I just threw my hands at it."

Diehl's two-out grounder couldn't have been rolled in more perfect spot, right between the scrambling middle infielders for a walk-off hit.

"It's just a good win. Means a lot for our program," said Church. "We fought hard, and we were determined to win. We said we weren't going to lose. They had that mindset. They weren't going to lose today."

Mifflinburg was 0-3 in playoff games since winning a district semifinal at Shamokin on May 26, 2017. The current seniors hadn't appeared in the postseason, losing all of 2020 to the pandemic and winning just six games in each of the last two years.

"It feels great because all of us have been playing together since we were eight years old," said Diehl. "So it feels great to go districts and play together."

Danville left 10 runners on base, six in scoring position with at least one left at second base or beyond in four innings.

"We had those opportunities," said Knorr. "We got the early lead, battled to keep the lead until they went ahead, and we answered right back facing their best. We're right there ... We just couldn't get that big hit to push that run across."

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DISTRICT 4 CLASS 4A BASEBALL

QUARTERFINAL

MIFFLINBURG 4, DANVILLE 3 (8 INN.)

Danville;101;001;00 — 3-8-2

Mifflinburg;010;020;01 — 4-7-1

Winning run scored with 2 outs

Daniel Walker, Wyatt Shultz (6) and Mason Raup. Zach Wertman, Zeb Hufnagle (6) and Lucas Whittaker.

WP: Hufnagle. LP: Shultz.

Danville: M. Raup 2-for-5, double, run, RBI; Carter Raup 1-for-3, run; Cole Duffy 2-for-3, RBI; Shultz 1-for-3, RBI; Walker 1-for-3; Eli Welliver run; Kaleb Stetler 1-for-3.

Mifflinburg: Andrew Diehl 4-for-5, run, RBI; Hufnagle run; Troy Dressler 1-for-3, 2 RBIs; Wertman 1-for-4, run; Lucas Kurtz run; Luke Rokavec 1-for-2.