For seven innings Monday, Seth Griffith operated with the skill of a master chef.

 

The Ephrata right-hander sliced a little here, diced a little there and -- voila! -- served up an 8-1 win over Warwick in a matchup of L-L section leaders in Lititz.

 

"He kept us off balance," Warriors first-year boss Bob Locker said. "We have some good hitters and he did a real good job. He threw strikes, hit his target and didn't walk anybody."

 

Griffith, 3-0 with a 2.67 earned run average, threw just 78 pitches. Of those, 59 found the strike zone.

 

Like a good realtor, the Mountaineers' senior is all about location.

 

"That's what we work for, trying to pound the zone," said Griffith, who added that he benefited from the cloudy, cool conditions.

 

"This is my type of weather," he said.

 

These Mounts seem to thrive in all conditions. In winning their sixth straight and stopping Warwick's victory streak at six, the Section Two leaders improved to 5-1 in the L-L and 8-1 overall.

 

"It boosts our confidence," Griffith said of beating the Section One front-runner. "We just have to keep playing like we are now."

 

With 100 runs scored this season, Ephrata is averaging a whopping 11 runs per game. Its lineup -- Matt Herbener (.571), Brandon Miller (.536), Bobby Nye (.500), Paul Larusso (.464), Colin Albright (.393), Trevor Seibel (.364), Andre Good (.316), Josh Gehman (.308) and Nate Cummings (.304) -- reads like a Murderer's Row.

 

The Mounts settled matters early Monday, scoring a run in the first, four in the third and two more in the fourth.

 

Miller and Albright provided punch with run-scoring doubles and Nye doubled and scored as well. When the Mounts weren't muscling pitches, they were playing small ball.

 

Larusso got it started in the first when he worked a leadoff walk from Adam Rohrbach and then sailed into second on a wild pitch. He was sacrificed to third and scored on a sac fly.

 

Ephrata put its leadoff runner on base four times and scored in each of those four innings.

 

"Our concern was getting some offense (Monday)," Mounts coach Adrian Shelley said. "Coming from Section Two into crossover games, you're hoping to manufacture some runs."

 

Warwick (5-1, 7-3) had manufactured tons of runs of late, scoring 60 in their six-game win streak.

 

Monday was another matter.

 

"We seemed a little flat," said Locker. "The baseball season is a funny thing. You go through these cycles.

 

"(The Mounts) are a very good team and it was their kind of game. We have to learn from this and come back."