Mounts Make Early Lead Stand

Just as it has for much of the season, the weather made a mess of Friday’s Lancaster-Lebanon League baseball schedule. Only one game survived the morning rain, with Elizabethtown and Ephrata ready to face off atop the Section Two standings.

Just like in the teams’ first meeting this season, Ephrata took the early lead, but there would be no offensive outburst for the visiting Bears at War Memorial Field. Instead, Ephrata played small ball to plate three runs and used dominant pitching to hold on for a 3-1 victory.

The win marks the ninth in the last 10 games for the Mounts (9-3 L-L, 11-3 overall), who added another game to their section lead.

“The first time we saw them they hit us pretty good, so we knew that they were the type of offense that could battle and grind out at-bats,” Ephrata coach Adrian Shelley said of Elizabethtown. “I think our guys just really buckled down when they had to and made some key pitches. Our pitchers have really been competing out there, I love their focus.

“(Starter Zac McGillan) did an excellent job tonight,” he continued. “Even with the small lead that we had, he kept them at bay.”

Ephrata took the lead in the first inning, scoring the only two runs the squad would need after a one-out single from Nate Young. The senior would swipe second and third before coming home on a grounder off the bat of Adam Campbell.

A bunt single from Adam Maser would plate McGillan, making it a 2-0 game.

Elizabethtown (7-5, 8-6) made some noise of its own in the second as Ryan Rupp smacked a leadoff double to the fence in center field. Two batters later, Cole Patrick dropped a single into shallow right to bring in Rupp, but Ephrata answered back in the bottom half of the inning.

This time it was Young’s sac fly driving in Andrew Thomas, who had singled to lead off the inning.

From there, however, it was all pitching and defense. McGillan worked into the sixth inning, striking out eight and walking just one. After reaching 100 pitches, the righty handed the ball to Adam Schwartz, who struck out all four batters he faced to seal the win.

E-town may have dropped its fourth straight game — including an 11-inning, 1-0 loss to Cedar Crest the night before — but the Bears made big plays of their own Friday to keep the game close, including a play at the plate in the fourth.

After Young’s two-out single, the senior took off as Schwartz doubled to center. E-town’s Anthony Funk came up firing, however, hitting cutoff man Austin Denlinger, whose throw nailed the runner at the plate.

“I don’t think we played poorly, I thought we played a pretty good game,” E-town coach Bill Templin said. “(Ephrata) made one or two plays in the first inning that we didn’t. They put the ball on the ground, bunted the runner over ...

“In the grand scheme of things, (starter Chad Caley) gutted out 5.1 innings and he kept us in it, kept getting that ground ball we needed. He kept us close and we just couldn’t cash in on some of those runs.”

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