WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — The bats are back.
Two days after being shut down at the plate, the Mill Creek offense returned to form Monday, pounding Hagerstown, Md., 15-5 at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
The game was stopped after five innings in accordance with the mercy rule.
“The boys did a great job,” Mill Creek manager Scott Mahlum said. “They didn’t swing at too many bad pitches. I think that was the key”
Mill Creek, which averaged 13.3 runs per game in sweeping the Northwest Regional earlier this month in San Bernardino, Calif., was held to just three hits in a 5-1 opening-round loss to South Lake Charles, La., on Saturday.
But faced with elimination from championship contention, the Washington state champions turned to the long ball, hitting four home runs in a 16-hit attack, including a pair of HRs by left-handed slugger Alec Kisena.
The power surge helped Mill Creek improve to 1-1 in pool play, which concludes today. South Lake Charles leads the pool with a 2-0 record, followed by Mill Creek, Hagerstown (1-1) and Jeffersonville, Ind. (0-2). The top two teams after pool play advance to the U.S. semifinals.
Mill Creek plays Jeffersonville at 11 a.m. today.
After striking out 15 times in Saturday’s loss, the Mill Creek players came into Monday’s game wanting “to show everybody what we were capable of doing,” Mahlum said.
And they wasted no time doing so.
Mill Creek jumped on Hagerstown’s No. 2 starter, Zane Schreiber, in the top of the first inning, scoring five runs on six hits.
Derrick Mahlum, the coach’s son, started the first-inning rally with a one-out single, and Jason Todd followed with a double. Cleanup hitter Joakim Soderqvist then singled to give Mill Creek a 2-0 lead.
After Alex Jondal walked, Kisena belted a high, two-strike fastball over the right-field wall for a three-run home run to make it 5-0.
“When I hit my first home run, I knew I was down two strikes,” said Kisena, who added a two-run shot in the fifth. “I just had to put the ball in play.”
Hagerstown, which won its opener against Jeffersonville despite being no-hit, responded with three hits and three runs off Derrick Mahlum, Mill Creek’s starter, in the bottom of the first.
But Mill Creek answered in the second inning.
Dan Kingma got picked off third after leading off with a double, but a walk to Derrick Mahlum and a single by Todd kept the pressure on. Mill Creek used some aggressive base running, putting on a delayed steal that allowed Mahlum to score from third. An error on the same play allowed Todd to score, extending the lead to 7-3.
Derrick Mahlum hit his team-imposed 45-pitch limit in the second inning and gave way to Soderqvist. Soderqvist gave up a wild pitch that allowed a run charged to Mahlum to score, but struck out the side to get out of the inning.
Mill Creek added another run in the third when Casey Dawes singled and scored on Todd’s second double of the game.
Soderqvist struck out the side again in the third but had to come out in the fourth while facing Hagerstown’s Andrew Yacyk because of arm soreness. Kisena took over on the mound and gave up a home run to Yacyk on his first pitch.
The rest of the game, though, was all Mill Creek.
Mill Creek blew the game open in the top of the fifth, scoring seven runs. Todd, who went 4-for-4 and scored three runs, belted a three-run homer to right. Kisena added a two-run shot and Alek Baumgartner hit a solo blast.
“We’ve been waiting for him, and he finally got a hold of one and it happened to be here in Williamsport,” Scott Mahlum said of Baumgartner.
With a comfortable 10-run lead, the biggest concern for the Mill Creek players was retrieving their home run balls. After the game, Kisena clutched one of his two shots, but the other balls were unaccounted for. The team hoped fans would be willing to part with them in exchange for collectible pins.
“Somebody’s got them. We’ll do some trading,” Scott Mahlum said.
Derrick Mahlum picked up the win, pitching one inning and giving up four hits, four runs, one earned, walking two and striking out one.
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