The bats are back.
Two days after being nearly shut down at the plate, the Mill Creek offense exploded in a 15-5, five-inning win over the Mid-Atlantic champions, Hagerstown, Md., Monday at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
Mill Creek jumped all over Hagerstown’s No. 2 starter Zane Schreiber in the top of the first inning, scoring five runs on six hits.
“The bats came alive,” Mill Creek manager Scott Mahlum said after the game in a press conference. “Very, very proud of these guys. That was our biggest fear after the first game (a 5-1 loss to South Lake Charles, La.), (that) playing our three or four games back here or whatever we get to play, that we wanted to show everybody what we were capable of doing.”
Mill Creek faces Jeffersonville, Ind., the Great Lakes’ champions at 11 a.m. PDT on Tuesday. Mill Creek’s ace, Jason Todd, is the probable starter. A Mill Creek win would likely vault them into a U.S. semifinal game on Wednesday.
Against Hagerstown, Derrick Mahlum started things off with a one-out single, followed by a double by Todd. Then cleanup hitter Joakim Soderqvist singled to give Mill Creek a 2-0 lead.
After Alex Jondal walked, Alec 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, Ind. despite being no-hit, responded with three hits and three runs off Mahlum, Mill Creek’s starter in the bottom of the first inning.
But Mill Creek’s offense stayed in high gear in the second inning as well.
Dan Kingma got picked off third after leading off with a double, but a walk to Mahlum and single by Todd kept up the pressure. Mill Creek used some aggressive base running, putting on a delayed steal that scored Mahlum from third while Todd raced around from first after an error, to make the score 7-3 Mill Creek.
Mahlum, Mill Creek’s starter, hit 45 pitches in the second inning and gave way to Joakim Soderqvist. Soderqvist gave up a wild pitch that allowed a run charged to Mahlum to score, but struck out the side to get out 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. Alec Kisena came in and gave up a home run to Yacyk on the first pitch.
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 tacked on 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.
Mill Creek finished with 16 hits, including four doubles and four home runs after only mustering three hits against South Lake Charles.
“The boys did a great job,” Mahlum said. “They didn’t swing at too many bad pitches. I think that was the key.
Obviously, Maryland, they threw a lot of offspeed at us, a lot of different guys at us, a lot of different looks.”
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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