MILTON - Shamokin-Mount Carmel's 10-11 All-Stars jumped on Juniata County early and made it stand for a 6-3 win Thursday to reach the championship round of the District 13 tournament.
Shamokin-Mount Carmel will play Berwick, the only team it has lost to in the tournament, Saturday at 1 p.m. at Milton. A win in that game would force another game with Berwick, which is unbeaten.
Jacob Carpenter and Matt Dimmick had the big hits for Shamokin-Mount Carmel (3-1). Carpenter's two-run home run over the left field fence in the third inning upped the lead to 6-0, which became important, because Juniata reliever Trevor Watts came in and shut down the offense, and Juniata rallied for three runs and left two runners on base in the bottom of the sixth.
Shamokin-Mount Carmel's four-run second inning was highlighted by a two-run double by Dimmick.
"We started the tournament really swinging the bats well," Shamokin-Mount Carmel manager Chris Carpenter said. "We beat this team 21-4 the first time we played them, so kudos to them for their effort tonight. We have to hit the ball (to be successful). We haven't been hitting the last couple of games, but defensively we've been very consistent. Jacob's home run tonight really turned out big because we started out hitting the ball well today but then we got shut down a little bit."
Max Tillett and Dakota Albertson also drove in runs in the second, Tillett with a single and Albertson with a sacrifice fly.
Starting pitcher John Ayers had no problems for 2.2 innings, but was lifted because of pitch count for Dimmick. Dimmick worked the next 2.1 innings and also was lifted because of pitch count, but was also in some trouble in the sixth inning at the time. Juniata's Payne Shirk and Bryce Leonard singled and walked, respectively, to start the inning, and Jack Chapman came in to pitch. He retired the first batter he faced on a grounder to second but the next batter, Chase Kepner, singled in a run, and Zeb Ames followed with a two-run double. Chapman got another out, walked a batter, then struck out Watts looking to end the game.
Watts, in 3.2 innings of relief for Juniata, allowed no hits or runs, struck out six and walked one. He was also the only player in the game with two hits.
Game Summary
SHAMOKIN-MOUNT CARMEL (AB-R-H-BI) - Dimmick 3-0-1-1, Wills 3-0-1-0, Chapman 3-0-0-0, Reisinger 3-1-1-0, Carpenter 2-2-1-2, Ayres 1-1-0-0, Tillett 2-1-0-1, Rollman 1-0-0-0, Albertson 1-0-0-1, Grabowski 1-0-0-0, Berkoski 1-1-0-0, Demko 1-0-0-0. Totals 22-6-4-5.
JUNIATA COUNTY (AB-R-H-BI) - Watts 4-0-2-0, Harper 3-0-0-0, Shirk 3-1-1-0, Leonard 2-1-1-0, Myers 3-0-0-0, Kepner 2-1-1-1, Zook 1-0-0-0, Dalpiaz 1-0-0-0, Ames 2-0-1-2, Morder 3-0-0-0, Ewell 2-0-0-0. Totals 26-3-6-3.
Sham-MC 042 000 - 6 4 4
Juniata 000 003 - 3 6 2
Extra-base hits: 2B - Dimmick; Ames. HR - Carpenter.
IP H R ER BB K
Sham-MC
Ayers (W) 2.2 2 0 0 0 4
Dimmick 2.1 2 2 2 1 2
Chapman 1 2 1 1 1 1
Juniata County
Myers (L) 2.1 4 6 6 3 1
Watts 3.2 0 0 0 1 6