Millburn's 8 & under district travel team got off to a rough start this year. This weekend had two difficult match-ups against Cranford on Saturday & Summit on Sunday. Millburn began Saturday's game with righty John Lischer on the mound, who pitched well, giving up only 2 runs in the first two innings. Cranford responded by shutting down the Millburn bats in the first inning, but in a clutch at-bat with men on 2nd & 3rd and two outs, Matthew Bigman (pictured) ripped a single up the middle for 2 RBI to even the score at 2-2. Cranford came right back with three runs in the top of the 3rd, but once again Millburn battled back in the bottom of the inning as Millburn's Alex Grapkowski smacked a double to center to lead a two-run inning. At the end of three innings, Millburn was down 5-4. Unfortunately at that point, the Cranford pitchers found their groove and shut down the Millburn bats to win 9-4.
In Sunday's battle against a tough Summit team, the Millburn bats woke up right from the start. Millburn's first four batters all scored led by a double to center by the hard-hitting shortstop Jack Dufner. Not to be outdone, they scored seven more runs in the second inning to take an 11-5 lead. In both the first & second innings, Brooke Ploetner came through with big hits. She went 3-4 for the game with four RBI. As the game progressed, Summit was unable to shut down the Millburn bats in a slugfest as Millburn won 20-10.
