PITTSTON \u2013 Even as Hollidaysburg\u2019s lead grew from three runs to five in a span of a couple of innings during Wednesday\u2019s Pennsylvania major baseball elimination game against Milton, manager Garrett Shnyder still held out hope that his squad could come back.<\/p>\n
But baseball can be a fickle sport. Sometimes the ball falls in your favor, and other times is doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Milton relinquished an early three-run lead to Hollidaysburg, which stormed back to score a combined six runs in the third and fourth innings to take a 9-5 victory and end the postseason for the District 13 and Section 3 champs at Jenkins Township Little League Field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t hate (the way the season ended). I thought we competed, and I truly think (Hollidaysburg) is a World Series-caliber team, and we\u2019re right there. No one is ever going to keep us down; we have a lot of warriors on our team,\u201d said Shnyder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hit a lot of balls really hard today that just didn\u2019t go our way. I think (Hollidaysburg\u2019s) pitcher no-looked gloved two or three balls up the middle, and they had a lot of balls fall that weren\u2019t hit very hard, but we were competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollidaysburg opened up a 6-3 lead in the third behind an RBI double by Blake Chamberlain and a two-run single from Jace Dodson.<\/p>\n
A two-run double to right by Heath Hanlon built Hollidaysburg\u2019s lead to 8-3 in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Milton has been down before during the postseason, and came back to win, so manager Shnyder was confident his boys could come through once again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been there (before). It is what it is,\u201d said Shnyder. \u201cI\u2019m always a fan of one swing can tie a ballgame, so if we\u2019re within four we\u2019re within reach.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the top of the sixth Milton showed what it can do when Jordan Brown and Weston Sumner hit back-to-back solo home runs to lead off the inning, but it was a case of too little, too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately in the sixth, one swing couldn\u2019t tie it for us \u2013 we went back-to-back with solo shots rather back-to-back two- or three-run shots. But that\u2019s baseball, and I was very proud of their determination and their grit to at least not lay down and to scratch out a couple more runs for the team,\u201d said manager Shnyder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the sixth we didn\u2019t just tuck our tails and say that\u2019s it our season is over; we put two really good swings on the ball, we hit another ball up the middle and my son, Max, had a very competitive at-bat where he unfortunately ended up striking out swinging. But we were in that game. Their effort was there today, and I appreciated it. \u201d<\/p>\n
Milton delivered the first blow of the matchup when it got an RBI double from Brown and an RBI triple from Zeke White to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the first.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe scored early, and that came against a really, really good ball team,\u201d said manager Shnyder. \u201cWe were right there, so I\u2019m very proud of my guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollidaysburg responded in the bottom of the first with a two-run double from Aiden Anderson.<\/p>\n
Milton then loaded the bases in the second when Reece Armstrong was hit by a pitch and Emmett Salwocki and Peyton Swineford both walked. Chamberlain, Hollidaysburg\u2019s second pitcher of the game, would get Cullen Reese to strike out and Brown to pop up to end the threat and leave the bags full.<\/p>\n
Following the game, manager Shnyder lamented about coming up empty in the second.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was saying if Jordan (would\u2019ve hit his homer) in the second with the bases loaded. If he did that, and if we then go back-to-back, the score is 9-9 and a totally different game,\u201d said Milton\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n
It also may have been a different game and a different outcome for starting pitcher Cohen Knarr, who was the tough-luck loser for Milton. Knarr pitched four innings and gave up 11 hits and eight of Hollidaysburg\u2019s runs. He also struck out two and walked none.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a few plays we could\u2019ve made to keep a few more runs off the board, but I was just preaching like, \u2018Hey, when you\u2019re working and keeping the ball down they\u2019re not putting great swings on it. Unfortunately, we kept a few pitches up and over the plate, but Hollidaysburg is a team that hits the ball out of the yard pretty consistently, and they had only (four) extra-base hits the whole game, so Knarr pitched well,\u201d said manager Shnyder.<\/p>\n
\u201cHollidaysburg hit a seeing-eye single through the right side, another one down the line, another one over the first baseman\u2019s head, and another one that falls in front of the center fielder. Hollidaysburg had five or six hits that weren\u2019t barrelled, but they just found a spot. There\u2019s nothing you can do about about that \u2013 the old Texas Leaguers \u2013 it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown and Sumner both batted 2-for-3 to lead Milton in its final game, and manager Shnyder hopes his players continue to build off what they accomplished this postseason as they move along in their baseball careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday just wasn\u2019t our day, and Monday wasn\u2019t our day, either. But I think we did a lot of really good things, and I think the kids opened their eyes to their potential in this tournament, and their real potential in their baseball careers. As soon as you see it click in your players\u2019 heads, as a coach there\u2019s nothing more you want to see,\u201d said Shnyder.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as you see the players get that confidence like I am that good and I do belong, it\u2019s a job well done on my end, and on (coach) Stu (Sumner\u2019s) end, and on (coach) Sean (Reese\u2019s) end. But this isn\u2019t it for us; we plan on winning a lot more titles and a lot more banners, and do a lot more things and have a lot of fun along the way. We\u2019re a very tight-nit group and we\u2019re a very tight-nit family. You\u2019re going to hear a lot of the kids\u2019 names from this team for a long, long time, so I\u2019m very excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little League Baseball 2026 Pennsylvania State 11-12 Tournament<\/p>\n
at Jenkins Township Little League Field<\/p>\n
Hollidaysburg 9, Milton 5<\/p>\n
Milton;300;002;-;5-7-2<\/p>\n
Hollidaysburg;204;21x;-;9-13-1<\/p>\n
Cohen Knarr, Jordan Brown (5) and Reece Armstrong. Carter Bridenbaugh, Blake Chamberlain (2), Aiden Pavlik (3), Jace Dodson (6) and Ronan Diehl.<\/p>\n
WP: Pavlik. LP: Knarr.<\/p>\n
Top Milton hitters: Cullen Reese, 1-for-3, double, run scored; Brown, 2-for-3, double, HR (6th, solo), 2 RBI, 2 runs; Weston Sumner, 2-for-3, HR (6th, solo), RBI, run; Knarr, 1-for-3; Max Shnyder, run; Zeke White, 1-for-2, triple, walk, RBI; Brody Rhodes, walk; Emmett Salwocki, walk; Peyton Swineford, 2 walks.<\/p>\n
Top Hollidaysburg hitters: Chamberlain, 3-for-3, double, 3 runs, RBI; CJ Burger, 2-for-2, double, walk, 2 runs, RBI; Aiden Anderson, 3-for-3, double, 2 RBI, run; Trey Muth, 1-for-3; Dodson, 1-for-2, 2 RBI; Samuel Mikolajczyk, 1-for-2, run; Pavlik, run; Heath Hanlon, 2-for-2, double, 2 RBI, run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSTON \u2013 Even as Hollidaysburg\u2019s lead grew from three runs to five in a span of a couple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-255285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}