M/T Nationals top FT Shockers

When opportunity knocks on the door, one's got to let it in.

In case of the Franklin Township Shockers, they were the ones holding the door wide open a few times for McAdoo/Tresckow Nationals last night.

The Nationals scored single runs in three seperate innings, but it was a four-run third and a three-run fourth which helped propel the hosts to a 10-4 Keystone Senior Babe Ruth League win over Franklin Township.

"It was opportunities," Franklin Township head coach Donnie Rehrig said. "We sort of gave it to them in that inning. A couple of walks here and a couple of mental mistakes there. We were making plays we shouldn't be making when we're 11 games into the season.

"They came and took advantage of those opportunities coming up after an inning when they had some big hits in holes we couldn't defend."

The Shockers took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the third, the Nationals quickly responded.

Nick Mischision led off with a single and Drew Sherkness followed with a double to put runners on second and third. Zack Motil and Kyle Minzola hit back-to-back RBI singles to take a 3-2 lead.

Jared Lucheta plated Motil on a sacrifice fly and Jared Smigelski pushed Minzola across home plate with an RBI-single for a 5-2 lead.

The Nationals got some help from the Shockers in the bottom of the fourth as an error, a passed ball on a strike out and a couple walks led to three more runs.

The Shockers' starting pitcher Parker David struck out Ryan Buchman, but the ball got by catcher Jeff Horwitch and allowed Buchman to reach base. The Nationals' lead-off hitter Joe Katona popped a fly ball to left field and it was dropped by Jacob Stauffer, which then put runners on first and second. Corey Ryba walked to load the bases.

Mischision delivered a fielder's choice RBI to score Buchman. After Sherkness walked, Motil drilled a two-run single to left-center scoring Katona and Ryba to make it an 8-2 game.

The Shockers' Nick Kern snagged a line drive off the bat of Minzola and caught Sherkness leading off third for an unassisted double play to end the inning.

The Nationals added a run in each of the next two innings.

"We made some big plays when we needed to with some key hits in there," McAdoo/Tresckow manager Al Ryba said. "But, a couple of miscues by them made it a lot easier for us to score the runs. But, we helped ourselves with a couple of key hits along the way."

The Shockers took the early lead when Jayden Hensley scored on a wild pitch in the second. They took a 2-1 lead in the third when Jesse Bieber scored on a Nationals' miscue, but the hosts answered with their big third inning.

Franklin battled back once, getting within a run at 5-4 in the fifth. The pair of runs came from an AJ Wenrich RBI-double, which scored Matt Schaeffer. Wenrich later scored on a double steal.

The Shockers loaded the bases with two out in the top of the seventh inning, but it was too late.

"Going into the inning being down 10-4, we were just looking for baserunners," Rehrig said. "We started that rally with two outs and then we just couldn't come up with the big hit here and there."

FT Shockers 011 020 0 - 4 7 4

McA/Tresckow 014 311 x - 10 8

David, Horwith (6) and Horwith, Hensley (6); Sherkness, Motil (7) and Smigelski. W - Sherkness. L - David.