By JIM STEELE
mckenzierebels.com

HUNTINGDON - Make no mistake, Huntingdon High School has a pretty good baseball team that doesn't make mistakes.

Monday night in the winners' bracket semifinals, McKenzie made Huntingdon look a lot better than it is after a 6-4 victory. Errors that show up in the scorebook and errors that don't show up in the scorebook proved costly as the Rebels experienced an uphill climb all game long.

"We didn't play exceptionally well on offense or defense," said McKenzie coach Lynn Yarbrough. "Our intensity wasn't very good and we continue to make baserunning errors. Now we have to come back strong."

The Rebels face an elimination game Tuesday when it takes on Hollow Rock-Bruceton Central 6 p.m. Tuesday at Huntingdon. The Tigers almost harpooned McKenzie's regular-season district title hopes on April 23. Central jumped to a 5-1 lead over the Rebels before McKenzie rushed back in the fourth inning to take the lead for good. MHS won 7-5.

For the Rebels to win the district and earn a home game in the first round of the Region 7A tournament, they must win the next three games. That means, MHS must beat Bruceton Tuesday, then beat Huntingdon in a twinbill Wednesday on Huntingdon's field.

"We have to work our way back," said Yarbrough. "We have to come back strong."

Huntingdon took a 6-1 lead over McKenzie pitcher Clint Kee, who struggled through a squeezed strike zone and some uncharacteristic errors. And once again, Huntingdon pitcher Blake Burke showed how tough he was when he pitched with a lead...for a while.

In the sixth and seventh, the Rebels shook Burke up and had chances to rally for the third time in seven games for victory. In the sixth, Nick Chappell reached on an error, Parker Jones singled and Tyler Reeder roped an RBI single to center. Luke Anderson reached on an error and Brandon Sellers looped a two-run hit. McKenzie was back in the hunt, trailing 6-3.

In the seventh, RUsty Chapman led off with a single up the middle. with one out, Chappell singled. Jones laced a base hit up the middle to score Chapman. But Chappell was hung up between second and third and was thrown out at third. Instead of first and second with one out, the Rebels were faced with a man on second and two out. Burke fanned Reeder to end the game.

"We faced a pretty good pitcher tonight," said Yarbrough. "We didn't hit the ball very well early."

The Rebels got under a lot of pitches for seven pop-fly outs and in the first five innings, when they hit the ball right on the screws, it was right at someone. Most of the time, Huntingdon made the plays. When it didn't, McKenzie often capitalized.

Huntingdon scored a run in the first when Cole McAdams singled and scored on Lucas Dill's opposite-field single. In the Rebel first, Drew Brown almost got the run back when he hit a shot to deep left center, but it was snared for the out.

In the second, Dylan Clifft singled to drive home Caleb Crocker for a 2-0 lead. The Rebels finally broke the ice in the third when Kirk singled with one out. Derek Carr singled to bring him home and Huntingdon led 2-1.

Kee retired Clifft and Kevin Smothers to get the first two outs of the fourth. Jason Laman hit a dribbler to first base, which Tyler Reeder scooped up. There seemed to be a bit of confusion on the exchange. The toss from Reeder to Kee at first was dropped and Laman was safe. Instead of being out of the inning, trailing 2-1, McAdams raked a single for a 3-1 lead.

In the Mustang fifth, Dill reached on an error and scored on Crocker's fielder's choice. Two errors in successive innings resulted in two runs. Couple that with the fact that the Rebels had a runner thrown out at the plate and at third and two errors in the second frame put a runner (who eventutally scored) on third base.

Kee, who seemed out of sorts, was saddled with the loss, his second of the season and his first in almost two months. He struck out seven, gave up nine hits, walked two and hit one batter. He threw 134 pitches and likely won't see action again until regionals, that is if McKenzie can get past Central on Tuesday. His record falls to 7-2.

"We have to get our heads up and work our way back now," said Yarbrough. "Clint did a good job and battled tonight."

Burke had good command of his three pitches. He gave up seven hits, struck out three and walked one.

Dill was 2-4 with three RBI, McAdams was 2-4 with two RBI and Clifft had a hit and an RBI to lead the Mustangs. Laman, Crocker and Hatch singled, Burke doubled.

Parker Jones was 2-4 with an RBI, Reeder and Carr each had run-scoring singles, Chapman, Chappell, Andersn and Kirk each singled. Sellers had an RBI.

McKenzie falls to 23-8 while the Mustangs improve to 22-7.