Millburn Baseball On Fire

The Miller boys baseball team kept things rolling on Wednesday afternoon, defeating the Montclair Mounties, 8-2, behind pitching from Danny Frischman and hitting up and down the line up. After starting the season 0-2, the Millers have won eight consecutive games and are, without question, the hottest team in Essex County.

“You’re only as hot as you play that day,” said Miller head coach Brian Chapman. “Baseball is a game about pitching and every day you put a new pitcher out. So to say we’ve been hot, we’ve been getting really consistently good pitching is what I would say. I don‘t know if I would say that we're hot.”

Frischman allowed five hits, and just one walk to go along with five strikeouts in a two earned run performance. Meanwhile the Miller hitters, led by Clayton Elder’s near cycle (a single, double and triple, going three-for-three, with a walk and three RBI), racked up 10 hits, seven walks and struck out just once.

In the bottom of the second inning, Tim Swanson led off for Millburn with a triple crushed to deep right-centerfield. Elder knocked in Swanson in the ensuing at bat for the first of three runs scored by the Miller left fielder. Montclair pitcher, Sam Ackerman, walked Frischman later in the inning, allowing Jeff Fisher to score.

Milo Freeman, Swanson and Elder all reached base to start the third inning (two walks and a Swanson bunt single). Chris Gula drove in Freeman on a fielder’s choice to second base, and Fisher knocked in Swanson from third on a safety squeeze. Elder drove in his second run of the game in the fourth inning with a triple to right field.

“I’ve been working on my swing the whole season, and I’m just glad to get up there every chance I get and just take some hacks,” Elder said.

After four innings, the Millers were up 5-0 and that was all the run support Frischman would need. Millburn’s pitcher, who pitched all seven innings, at one point retired nine consecutive batters and got into trouble just once in the game.

“Pretty much I hit the spots I had to hit, and I was able to get the groundballs,” Frischman said. “Our defense did a great job of fielding.”

After Frischman sat down the first two Montclair batters of the fifth inning, Miles Davenport sparked a rally, lining a double to centerfield. Brett Cooper knocked in Davenport with a double of his own, also to deep center. Evan Janifer drove in Montclair’s second run of the game, slapping a single to right, making the score 5-2.

But Frischman rebounded and stranded two Mountie runners on base. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Elder drove in his third run of the game on a double to centerfield and pinch hitter Dom Dasti scalded a two-bagger to left-center, scoring Millburn’s seventh run of the game.

In their first two losses of the season, the Millers scored a total of just one run. Since then, Millburn has averaged nearly eight runs per game. To add to it, the Millburn pitchers have allowed more than three runs just once during that stretch.

“I think we’ve had the talent all along,” Elder said. “The first two games we faced some good varsity pitching and we had to get used to it a little bit. But we’ve been coming back and coming to practice everyday and working hard, getting ready for the next game.

“We still have a ways to go,” Chapman said. “We’re trying to get better every day, and I think we are. I think we’re improving. We’re starting to make a little bit more plays on defense, and offensively we’re able to string some hits together and do some things on the bases.”

Millburn will try to extend its winning streak on Thursday, when the Miller boys face Chatham.