MILL HALL – Williamsport scored during its first two at-bats Monday afternoon against Central Mountain but was ultimately shutdown the rest of the way as it fell, 5-2 on the road.

Wildcats’ pitcher Ashton Probst–who pitched 6 1/3 innings–was excellent in his first start of the season. The senior struck out six and was two outs shy of a complete game. After Probst reached the pitch-count limit in the seventh, teammate Kevin Grenninger came in for the close.

Probst allowed four hits during the first two innings as the Millionaire lineup pushed two runs across early on. The final four complete innings from Probst were dominant. The righty allowed just three hits the rest of the way behind five strikeouts.

“I would’ve loved to see him finish that ball game because he deserved to finish the game,” Wildcats coach Mike Kramer said about Probst following Central Mountain’s 10th win of the season. “He pitched extremely well against a solid hitting team. I knew it was going to be a challenge, but I also felt very confident in what Ashton does.”

Williamsport got a solid performance out of its starting pitcher as well as Kydreece Burks went 5 1/3 innings. Burks allowed seven hits and five runs.

“He’s our senior guy, he struggled a bit. He threw fine, I think not having the offensive support behind you really makes you pressed as a pitcher. For the outcome I thought he did fine, today was a lesson for all of us. We knew they (Central Mountain) would be a solid team,” Williamsport coach Kyle Schneider said regarding Burks’ day on the bump.

The Millionaires’ lineup produced early but struggled as the game progressed to push runs across. In total, Williamsport left eight runners on base.

“We had a stretch of a couple wins coming in, guys were feeling really good. I think we got a little bit complacent with ourselves. The pitcher they threw against us kept us off balance, the curve ball was nice, I think our guys played into that. Our energy wasn’t the best, our energy has been much better. Baseball’s all about energy, I think that was the recipe for the loss. We didn’t have the energy or the balance,” Schneider said.

Central Mountain–who suffered just its second loss of the season Friday–bounced back in a big way against a good team. The Wildcats used a three-run third and a couple of insurance runs in the middle innings to avoid their first losing streak of the season.

Senior Aaron Miller went a perfect 3 for 3 at the plate to lead the Wildcats and put on a display on Senior Day.

“Aaron’s attacking baseball and getting good solid contact and coming up with clutch hits for us. He works hard and it’s good to see he’s coming alive right now,” Kramer said.

WILLIAMSPORT 110 000 0–2 7 1

CENTRAL MOUNTAIN 122 110 X–5 7 0

Williamsport top hitters: Xavier Taylor 1-3, 2B, RBI; Owen Berry 2-3; Adam Aldenderfer 2-3.

Central Mountain top hitters: Aaron Miller 3-3, RBI; Ashton Probst 2-3, 2 RBI.

W- Ashton Probst L- Kydreece Burks

Records: Williamsport 8-3, Central Mountain 10-2.