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Mount Joy Blue 12, Ephrata Lions 0 Safe Harbor Cubs 7, Hempfield Black 6 |
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Heisey's no-hitter fuels Mount Joy and Smith's homer lifts Safe Harbor; winners will meet Monday | |
| By Toby Therrien New Era Correspondent This time Mount Joy Blue coach Scott Everhart didn't have to struggle with a scoring decision, one that would decide whether or not his star pitcher, Chris Heisey, would finish with a no-hitter. That's because Mount Joy's infield barely had to move during Heisey's five-inning display of guile at Kunkle Field Monday night, when he held the Ephrata Lions hitless while striking out 10 and allowing just three walks. Heisey twirled a one-hitter just two weeks ago in Mount Joy's 1-0 Susquehanna League playoff victory over Rheems, when Everhart made what he himself called a "questionable scoring decision" on an infield grounder early in the game. Monday night the seventh-grader from Donegal Middle School also rapped three hits and drove in four runs against Ephrata on Monday, including a pair of run-scoring doubles, in Mount Joy's 12-0 win over the Lions that was called after five innings because of the 10-run rule in the quarterfinal round of Midget-Midget Division play in the New Era Tournament . The win means Mount Joy will earn a rematch against the rival Safe Harbor Cubs, dramatic 7-6 winners over Hempfield Black in the first game of Monday's doubleheader at Kunkle Field. They will square off in a semifinal game at Mount Joy next Monday. Safe Harbor beat Mount Joy, 4-3, on a suicide squeeze-bunt with one out in the last inning of the Mount Joy Midget-Midget Tournament a month ago. Heisey kept Ephrata, the Elanco National champ at 18-4, off-balance with an occasional curveball to offset his deadly accurate fastball. "He very rarely has a bad outing and it's because he throws strikes. Chris has excellent control," said Everhart. "He's a competitor. "We don't call a lot of curveballs. It's more or less his changeup. He throws a hard curveball, but we're trying to back him off and get him to throw it a little slower." Justin Kaley also smacked two doubles, scored two runs and drove in two more to propel the offense for Mount Joy, Susquehanna North champ with a 19-8 record. Daniel Royer pounded a run-scoring triple in Mount Joy's four-run second inning. Royer's replacement, Kevin Daub ripped a run-scoring double in the fourth. In the first game, Josh Smith walloped the fifth-inning fastball deep over the fence in straightaway center field, his three-run homer forging a 6-5 lead for the Cubs, Penn Manor White Section 1 champs who improved to 32-5. The shock of Smith's homer had barely faded when Andrew Johnson led off the sixth inning with a triple that wrapped around the third base bag. |
 (Click on photo to enlarge or see other photos) When Texter took the mound for Safe Harbor in the second inning with one out and a runner on third, Hempfield had already built a 5-2 lead. But Texter proceeded over the next 4 2/3 innings to strike out nine and give up just three hits and one run. Hempfield, Susquehanna South champ at 28-7, did make it interesting with a two-out rally in its last trip to the plate. Jason Enoch drew a walk before Michael Baker lined a single into right to move Enoch to third, where he later scored on a wild pitch. Texter then walked Brian Biggs before finally striking out Justin Simmons with a high fastball to end the game. Smith also drove in a run with a double in the first inning, when Safe Harbor took a 2-0 lead. He finished with four RBIs. Any thoughts of an easy win were quickly dashed, though, when Hempfield scratched out three runs in its half of the first. Corey Schwerin led with a walk, stole second and moved to third on a passed ball. Baker drew a one-out walk and stole second before Biggs slapped a double into left field to score both runners. Biggs, a seventh grader at Landisville Middle School, then scored when Simmons cue-balled a grounder past the first baseman. Baker finished with three hits, an RBI and four stolen bases. Biggs was 2-for-3 at the plate with two stolen bases. Hempfield expanded it's lead to 5-2 in the second, but Brandon Reitzel's RBI single for Safe Harbor in the fourth scored Matt Weidman from second to make the score 5-3 before Smith's smash in the fifth. |