Belated Father’s Day Tournament featured tons of local talents

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: June 27, 2021

Belated Father’s Day 12U Tournament Championship
West Perry 8, Mifflin County 7 (8 innings)
Belated Father’s Day 11U Tournament Championship
Jack’s Mountain 16, Hailstorm 10
LEWISTOWN – It was one thing after another as both West Perry and Mifflin County traded blows with one another before eventually West Perry took advantage of a key mistake to take the Belated Father’s Day 12U tournament championship by the final score of 8-7 in extras.
Mifflin County got on the boards first in the top of the first inning where Carson Cherry hit a double to center field that scored Jake Knable to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
However, West Perry would respond in the bottom of the second where Christian Stump grounded out to short but managed to bring home Evan Shepard to tie the game at one apiece.
The Eagles took back the lead in the top of the third inning where Karl Shirey hit an infield single that scored Knable and gave Mifflin County a 2-1 lead.
Things when quiet for a little bit before West Perry got the bats going in the bottom of the fifth dropping four runs in the frame. Trent Hockenberry got it started with a double to left field scoring both Stump and Eli Lyons giving the West Perry a 3-2 lead. Colten Fry then reached on an error which allowed Hockenberry to score extending the lead to 4-2. Aiden Shepard then singled to center where the centerfielder lost the handle of the ball and which brought home Fry making a 5-2 West Perry lead.
But the Eagles refused to lose and answered in the top of the sixth inning where Lucas Hartung singled in Cherry to cut the lead to 5-3. Karl Shirey scored on an error and then later Hartung scored on a passed ball tying the game 5-5. Colten Busch then hammered a double to centerfield bringing home Parker Feltenberger to them a 6-5 lead.
West Perry showed their never give up attitude in the bottom half of the sixth inning where Ryan McCurdy singled to center that brought home Drew Brandt to five the game at six apiece and forcing extra innings.
Then in the top of the seventh, Mifflin County took back the lead when Cherry singled to left center scoring Knable giving the Eagles a 7-6 lead.
But again, West Perry answered in the bottom of the seventh where Aiden Shepard singled in Fry to tie the game 7-7.
But finally in the bottom of the eighth inning, West Perry came out with an interesting strategy having the first two batters bunt leaving Evan Shepard on second base. With only one out and Christian Stump at the plate, a wild pitched moved Shepard to third leading to a squeeze play where Stump dropped a bunt down perfectly allowing not only himself to reach first, but also for Shepard to hustle his way down to home plate for the walk-off victory.
Carson Cherry went 3-for-4 at the plate for Mifflin County with a double and a RBI. Karl Shirey was 1-for-4 with an RBI, Colten Busch went 1-for-4 with a double and also Parker Feltenberger went 1-for-4 at the plate.
West Perry was led by Aiden Shepard who was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Evan Shepard was 2-for-3 while Colten Fry and Eli Lyons both were 2-for-4 at the plate. Christian Stump was 1-for-4 with two RBIs including the game winner.
Lucas Hartung got the start for Mifflin County pitching the first two innings of the game and had a strikeout and a walk each. Kole Strawser pitched the next two while walking two before handing the ball over to Carson Cherry who pitched the next two innings with no strikeouts or walks and then finally Thad Gerwick was the final pitcher for Mifflin County and had zero strikeouts and no walks.
Eli Lyons got the call to start for West Perry and had two strikeouts and no walks through two innings of work. Colten Fry pitched the next two innings and had three strikeouts and a walk before Aiden Shepard took over and had a strikeout. Christian Stump got the win for West Perry and pitched two innings with no strikeouts and zero walks.
This was not the only intense baseball game going on in the afternoon as Jack’s Mountain took on Hailstorm for the 11U championship game where both teams found themselves in a shootout where ultimately Jack’s Mountain came out on top defeating Hailstorm by the final score of 16-10.
Jack’s Mountain had five batters who had two or more hits in the game. Four of those batters had two more runs batted in and three of those hitters had at least an extra base hit. Luke Strawser was 2-for-2 with a double and four RBIs, Colton Aumiller was 4-for-4 with two doubles, a triple and five RBIs, Brayand Aurand was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs, Caleb Phillps was 2-for-2 with three RBIs and Jordan Kerns was 3-for-4.
Jamieson Parkes pitched one and two-thirds innings for Jack’s Mountain and collected three strikeouts and three walks. Aurand pitched one and a third inning with two strikeouts and two walks before Noah Wray took pitching a third inning with a strikeout and a walk. Kooper Walters pitched two-thirds inning with two strikeouts and a walk before Aumiller finished the job going two innings with two strikeouts and a walk.
Congratulations to all the teams that have competed in the tournament. And congrats to both West Perry and Jack’s Mountain for winning their respective championships.