Mifflinburg wins first district title since 2002

May 27—WILLIAMSPORT — Lucas Kurtz was the first to say he didn't have his best stuff on the mound Saturday in the District 4 Class 4A championship game.

"I feel like I had no pitches I could look to," he said. "I wasn't spotting the fastball too well. I wasn't getting ahead in counts. I wasn't using my breaking ball well ..."

Other than that, though?

"I went out there, just tried to throw strikes ... and let my defense work for me. That worked out pretty good."

Mifflinburg's senior right-hander pitched four-hit ball over six innings, allowing one run on a late-game homer, and the Wildcats backed him with 10 hits for a 7-1 win over Montoursville at Bowman Field.

The win secured the program's first district title since its Class 2A state runner-up season of 2002, and it avenged a pair of one-run losses to the Warriors in Heartland Athletic Conference-Division II play.

"It's just all the kids," Mifflinburg coach Tom Church said while fighting his emotions. "They worked really hard for this — this is what they wanted — and it's just special."

Lucas Whittaker drove in three runs with a pair of hits; Troy Dressler went 4-for-4 with three doubles and scored three times; and Jarrett Miller landed the knockout blow with a two-out, two-run double in the Wildcats' four-run fifth inning.

"Montoursville's always a tough team; they fight till the end," said Dressler. "So until we got that last out, I was full-force the whole time."

The Wildcats (16-7) face the District 3 runner-up (East Pennsboro and Hanover play Tuesday) in the first round of the state tournament on June 5.

The Warriors (15-7), who were defending district champions, meet the District 2 runner-up (Honesdale and Dallas play Tuesday) in a state play-in game sometime late next week.

Mifflinburg pitching posted a 2.00 ERA in three district wins, with Zach Wertman, Zeb Hufnagle (2 wins), Lucas Whittaker and Kurtz coming up aces in the absence of Dressler, a Wake Forest recruit who is nursing a sore arm.

Kurtz made just his fourth start of the season Saturday. He improved to 3-0 with a 2.47 ERA by keeping Montoursville off the board for the first five innings despite the Warriors putting their first or second batter on base in all but one of them.

"Strikes," said Whittaker, the Wildcats catcher. "He threw strikes and put pressure on our defense, and our defense pulled through. Simple as that."

That was true from the get-go.

Kurtz opened the game with a one-out walk to Montoursville's Quinn Ranck, who stole second. Cael Frame then fouled off three, two-strike pitches before ripping a grounder toward the hole on the right side of the infield. Wertman ranged far to his left for the pickup and throw that kept Ranck at third base with two outs. The next batter flied out to center field, and the Warriors didn't advance another runner to third until the fifth inning.

"Initially I was covering the bag on a steal, and we know, in a district game, you have to lay all-out, make a play for everything. That's what I did, and I just came up with it and saved a run," said Wertman. "I'm not really thinking about saving a run in the moment ... but I afterward I'll realize something could have come from that."

Kurtz realized how big Wertman's play was in the moment, not only because it preserved a 1-0 lead.

"That's a huge play. That's awesome. It sets a tone," he said. "I mean, we got a lot of insurance runs in the later innings and that really helped. I got through six without my best stuff."

Warriors freshman starter Logan Kirby, who threw a one-hit shutout at Midd-West in the semis, was knocked around from the start.

Hufnagle blasted a shot to the left-field warning track for the second out in the first before Dressler cracked a double to right that fell when the fielder tripped while twisting to find the ball. Whittaker's high drive to right was then dropped for a run-scoring error.

Whittaker would go on to drive in a pair with a third-inning single and another run with a fifth-inning hit, but getting the early run may have been as impactful.

"When you get an early lead, you play relaxed," said Whittaker. "That's what we try to do every inning, go out and win every inning. We did that today."

Whittaker threw out a baserunner attempting to steal in the second, erasing a leadoff hit. Luke Rokavec and Dressler turned a sterling 3-6 double play after consecutive one-out walks in the third. And Montoursville lost a run in the fifth on appeal after Matthias Albert missed the plate on Cole Johnson's single.

"Every batter I was trying to get ahead of, but when it didn't work I figured I had to attack them," Kurtz said. "Throw it in there, let them hit and let my defense work."

Mifflinburg broke it open in the fifth on four hits and a walk off two relievers. Hufnagle walked to start the rally, and Dressler, Whittaker (RBI) and Wertman (RBI) followed with consecutive hits to make it 5-0.

Then Miller, who singled in the second and took a curveball of the helmet in the fourth, crushed a fastball over the left-fielder's head for a 7-0 lead.

"It just felt so good," said the senior outfielder. "I was up in the count (2-1), and I was just sitting fastball. He threw me one right in my sweet spot, and when I barreled it up it's just like one of those that words can't even describe how good it feels."

When the Warriors' Marco Pulizzi pulled a 2-1 Kurtz fastball over the left-field wall with one out in the sixth, it did little more than spoil a shutout bid.

Kurtz finished the sixth with his third strikeout, and Whittaker closed it by fanning two in the game's only clean half-inning.

"(Kurtz) said, 'It's one of my worst games I've thrown all year, but I got through it,'" said Church. "He did. He struggled, but he made the pitches he needed to make.

"I'm so proud of him. That's a lot of pressure on a kid that only threw, like, four games this year, to stand on that mound and do what he did."

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DISTRICT 4 CLASS 4A BASEBALL

CHAMPIONSHIP

At Bowman Field, Williamsport

MIFFLINBURG 7, MONTOURSVILLE 1

Mifflinburg;102;040;0 — 7-10-0

Montoursville;000;001;0 — 1-4-2

Lucas Kurtz, Lucas Whittaker (7) and Whittaker, Zach Kerstetter (7). Logan Kirby, Cole Johnson (4), Grayson Rinker (5) and Matthias Albert.

WP: Kurtz. LP: Kirby.

Mifflinburg: Zeb Hufnagle 1-for-3, 2 runs; Troy Dressler 4-for-4, 3 doubles, 3 runs; Whittaker 2-for-4, 3 RBIs; Zach Wertman 1-for-4, run, RBI; Lane Hook run; Jarrett Miller 2-for-3, double, 2 RBIs.

Montoursville: Johnson 1-for-3; Marco Pulizzi 1-for-2, home run (6th, solo), run RBI; Rinker 1-for-2; Jaden Wilson 1-for-3.