DIST. 3-AAAA BASEBALL: Chambersburg puts it together to hand Mechanicsburg 6-2 loss

DILLSBURG >> Slowly but surely, the Chambersburg baseball team has been getting its act together.

The Trojans may have played their best game of the season Thursday – putting up 10 hits, making some quality defensive plays and getting a five-hit complete game from Austin Suders – and it resulted in a 6-2 victory over Mechanicsburg in a District 3 Class AAAA quarterfinal game at Northern York.

"I'd say the hitting has been coming around for the past 10 games or so and the defense has been better lately," Chambersburg coach Bob Thomas said. "I've been telling these guys that if you play good ball, it's all there for you to take."

It's the Trojans' first appearance in the district semifinals since 2009. The semifinal will be played Tuesday against Warwick (18-4), which beat Central Dauphin 6-2. Site and time will be announced Friday morning.

Chambersburg has won nine of its last 12 games to boost its record to 14-8. Coming back to beat Lower Dauphin on Tuesday gave the team a huge lift.

Suders said, "We found out up at Lower Dauphin what kind of team we can be the way we battled back, and that raised our confidence for facing the No. 2 seed tonight."

The Wildcats (20-4) had trouble solving Suders except for the fifth inning, when he allowed three hits, walked a batter and threw two wild pitches. Jeff Allen stroked a two-run single, but that's all Mechanicsburg could muster.

"We just didn't figure him out," Wildcat coach Clay McAllister said. "We hit a lot of balls off the handle and put a lot of balls on the ground, and they made the plays."

The ground balls were by design.

Trojan catcher Trent Ebersole said, "Their top four or five batters are big pull hitters, so we tried to get ahead in the count and then work the outside of the plate."

Suders, who threw 95 pitches, said, "I was able to hit my spots, except for the fifth inning, which is always my bump inning. Once I got through that and only gave up two runs, I felt better."

He also felt better working with a lead, which was a rare occurrence for him this season.

In the third inning against Mechanicsburg starter Heyden Seig, the first two batters made outs before things went awry for Seig. He walked Carlin Christian, and he promptly stole second base. Matt Stonesifer then dropped a hit into rightfield to score Christian. Drew Betz followed with another hit, then Tristan Daywalt coaxed a walk to load the bases. Hunter Brindle then lined a base hit to right-center to score two runs and put his team up 3-0.

McAllister said, "It all started with that two-out walk, then Hayden got some balls up and they put some good swings on them."

The Trojans added on in the fourth. Manning Brookens belted a triple to the gap in right-center and scored when Ebersole looped a base hit to right. Christian reached on a fielder's choice, stole second base again and scored when Stonesifer grounded a hit to left to make it 5-0.

Ebersole said, "We've all been feeling more confident at the plate, and we're hitting with guys in scoring position."

The final run came in the top of the seventh when Brindle produced his third hit of the night and pinch runner Johnnie Myers scored on a two-out error.

The Wildcats got a leadoff hit from Kodi Shatzer in the bottom of the seventh, but Suders bore down and notched two straight strikeouts, then induced a grounder to himself to end the game.

Thomas said, "Austin makes you hit the ball, and he usually gets a lot of ground balls because he has a little tail on his ball."

NOTES >> Christian did not have a hit, but reached base all four times up and scored twice ... He also created the best defensive play of the game when a grounder toward third deflected off of Bryce Fiegl's glove to him at shortstop and he threw the runner out.

Chambersburg 6 Mechanicsburg 2

ChambersburgMechanicsburgabrhbabrhbChrstian ss2200Herring lf3000Stonsifr cf3122Allen 1b3012Betz 2b3110Hershey 2b3000Daywalt rf3000Seig p2000Brindle 1b4032Diehl cr0000Myers pr0100Cody 3b3000Fiegl 3b3010Archbld cf3010Suders p4000Shatzer c3010Brokens lf4110Apa cr0100Ebersole c4021Heenan dh2000Crbaugh cr0000Beatty rf0000Bonner ph1000Herbein ss3120Totals306105Totals26252

Chambersburg0031001—6Mechanicsburg0000200—2

E: Chbg 1, Mech 2; DP: Mech 1; LOB: Chbg 9, Mech 6; 3B: Brookens; SB: Christian 2; CS: Diehl; SAC: Fiegl.

Chambersburg Pitching

Mechanicsburg Pitching

Seig (L)475531Herring3310 1 2

HBP: by Suders (Seig), by Seig (Christian); WP: Suders 2, Herring 2.

T: 2:09.