Eight innings not enough to decide winner

Apr. 10—MIFFLINBURG — Though calls of "Yort! Yort!" sounded like a chorus of bullfrogs in Mifflinburg's dugout, they were actually shouts of encouragement for a young teammate who needed it.

Troy Dressler, a Wildcats freshman, gave up the go-ahead run to Lewisburg during a tough sequence in the top of the seventh inning Friday. His chance for redemption came in the bottom of the frame with Mifflinburg down to its last out, and Dressler delivered an RBI double to trigger the loudest "Yort!" howls of the day.

"Man, I just thought to myself, I gotta put the ball in play somewhere, and I was just thinking, I'm gonna hit a bomb," Dressler said. "You gotta be confident in the box. You can't be scared or nervous."

The rivals went to extra innings and burned the last usable daylight in a scoreless eighth, finishing the Heartland Athletic Conference-Division I battle tied at 4. Both teams expected to resume play on a mutual off day rather than finish prior to the return game in Lewisburg on April 30.

"I'm impressed. Our kids fought really hard," said Wildcats coach Tom Church. "I mean, we were down 3-0 in the first inning and came back to tie it up, then tied it up again.

"Our kids don't quit. It shows a lot of confidence."

The Green Dragons scored a trio of first-inning runs against Virginia Commonwealth-bound lefty Cade Dressler. Mifflinburg chipped away at the deficit and tied the score after three innings while Cade Dressler found his groove. It wasn't until long after he and Lewisburg starter Owen Arndt left that either team scratched across another run, with each scoring once off relievers Troy Dressler and Josh Heath.

"Owen and Josh, I can't say enough about the way they pitched," said Green Dragons coach Don Leitzel, who was hired ahead of the pandemic-spoiled 2020 season. "And at the end, it looked like Troy Dressler was throwing just as hard as his brother, and we're hitting balls hard at the end. I couldn't be happier with the way we're playing."

The former HAC-II teams were moved to Division I when the conference was realigned to two tiers for the current two-year cycle. They generated playoff intensity from the start Friday after Kaiden Wagner's leadoff single sparked a three-run rally.

Wagner lashed a 3-2 pitch to center field, stole second base in the course of consecutive strikeouts, and scored on Arndt's two-out hit through the right side of the infield. The next two Green Dragons — Max Mitchell and Forrest Zelechoski — worked Cade Dressler for walks. An errant pickoff throw to second base and a series of three wild pitches ushered home Arndt and Mitchell for a 3-0 lead.

Cade Dressler ultimately struck out the side to end the first, and he did it twice more before leaving after 4 2/3 with 12 strikeouts.

"He pitched like Cade," said Church. "If he wouldn't have thrown those 30 pitches (in the first inning), he would have been finishing (the game), probably."

Colin Miller led off Mifflinburg's half of the first with an infield single and later scored on Cade Dressler's two-out hit.

Arndt's only other difficulty came in the home third, when singles by Tanner Zimmerman, Liam Church (RBI), and Gavin Martin (RBI) alternated with strikeouts to even the score. The right-hander had strong command of his curveball, and finished with nine strikeouts and one walk in five innings. He left the bases loaded in the fifth with a sharp curve for a swinging strikeout.

Troy Dressler, who pitched around a dropped third strike and a two-out single in the sixth, was bitten by a leadoff walk an inning later. Heath, who bounded off the mound after fanning three straight batters on 11 pitches in the sixth, worked the walk from a 1-2 count to open the seventh. Heath, a West Virginia commit, immediately stole second base and raced to third on an 0-2 wild pitch to Shea Girton. After the count evened at 2-2, Girton — who came on in the sixth to catch Heath — dumped a curveball into center field for a 4-3 lead.

"Once he got to two strikes, I just said, 'Try to put it in play,' and, my goodness, he did. That's huge, coming in cold off the bench for your first AB," said Leitzel. "Shea is more of a contact hitter than maybe somebody else I might have gone with in that situation. I have a lot of confidence that he's going to make contact."

Troy Dressler made a gold-star play by diving to catch a popped bunt and firing to first base for a double play. He closed the seventh with his third of four strikeouts.

"I just knew I had to come back strong with the next pitch, and I couldn't get frustrated or flustered," he said. "Then we had to put the bat on the ball to be able to tie it up or even win it."

In the last of the seventh, Cade Dressler reached base on dropped third strike and took second on a run-and-hit grounder to shortstop. Troy Dressler then slammed a 1-1 fastball to right-center field to score his brother with the tying run and make "Yort!" a thing.

"I don't mind it," he said. "My aunt says it to me a lot — she's the one that really says it — but most people call me it now. All because I spelled my name backwards in pre-school."

LEWISBURG 4, MIFFLINBURG 4 (8 INNINGS)

Lewisburg'300'000'10 — 4-6-1

Mifflinburg'102'000'10 — 4-11-3

Owen Arndt, Josh Heath (6) and Heath, Shea Girton. Cade Dressler, Troy Dressler (5) and Lucas Whittaker.

Lewisburg: Kaiden Wagner 1-for-3, run; Jack Landis 1-for-2; Girton 1-for-1, RBI; Arndt 1-for-3, run, RBI; Max Mitchell 1-for-3, run; Joel Myers 1-for-3.

Mifflinburg: Colin Miller 2-for-5, run; Liam Church 1-for-4, run, RBI; C. Dressler 2-for-3, run, RBI; Gavin Martin 2-for-4, RBI; T. Dressler 2-for-3, double, RBI; Whittaker 1-for-4, double; Tanner Zimmerman 1-for-4, run.