WAYNESBORO – Braden Zeigler pitched 6 1/3 mostly solid innings, and Waynesboro American Legion Post 15 held off a Shippensburg Post 223 rally in the top of the seventh to preserve a 6-4 Franklin County American Legion League senior division baseball game at Robinson Field, Thursday.
Ziegler shook off a shaky top of the first inning that saw Shippensburg score two runs and left a runner on third after Ziegler struck out one batter and induced a fly out to centerfielder Gunner Shifflett to end the inning.
Waynesboro got a run in the bottom of the first inning as Ethan Hotchkiss walked and later scored on a single by Dustin Wagaman.
Ziegler settled down over the next five innings. He faced the minimum batters in each of the second, third, fourth, and sixth innings and faced four batters in the fifth frame.
With Ziegler and the Post 15 defense keeping the bats at bay, Waynesboro continued to push across runs. Post 15 took a 3-2 lead in the second stanza. Garrett Scheeler led off with a single. He stole second base, and after that, Zach Bowers also singled. Caiden Shacreaw got aboard with a base hit. He stole second and third bases and scored on a ground out by Ziegler.
A three-run third inning gave Waynesboro a 6-2 lead. Hotchkiss reached second base on a throwing error and stole third base to inch closer to home. Hotchkiss scored on a passed ball. Ryan Jenkins walked, stole second, and advanced to third on a passed ball. Wagaman drove in Jenkins with a single. Wagaman scored on a Shacreaw single.
Ziegler essentially coasted into the seventh inning, but there were cracks in the armor, and a dropped third strike allowed Brady Carr to lead off the top of the seventh safely. Ziegler got the next batter to fly out to left fielder Riley Eaton. Ziegler struggled with control and ended up walking the next two batters to load the bases.
Ziegler gave way to Eaton, who walked the first batter he faced to force in a run. Brayden Ochs was the beneficiary of an infield error that also sent home Ayden Mentzer, who walked.
Suddenly, it was 6-4 with one out and the bases were loaded. And, suddenly, a switch flipped, and Eaton struck out a batter for the second out. Hotchkiss gloved a soft pop fly near first base to end the game.
Waynesboro (9-4-1), currently in third place in the FCALL, will host second-place Greencastle on Monday in the regular-season finale.
