"It was just an honor for me to coach these boys"

It wasn't to be.

​Franklin got spanked by St. Mary's the first time they met. There's really no sugar coating that. Coach Scott Milliron may have said it best when he said "we needed a wake up call."

And a wake up call it was. They returned to the kind of ball they were used to playing the following night with explosive hitting and solid early pitching.

They staved off  late surge by  the Erie county FLAG team 13-10 to earn a rematch against St. Mary's.

This team was poised and ready for the next challenge. But when you reach this level you meet other teams also poised and ready.

The game was relatively uneventful for the first two innings. Both teams got a sprinkling of runners on but unable to plate any.

In the top of the third Greyson Milliron had a one out single followed by a Barrett Smith walk. Both would touch home plate, Milliron on a wild pitch and Smith on a fielder's choice on a Chase Barrett grounder.

But that ended up being all the scoring they could muster. St. Mary's pitcher Jonathan Chapman and the defense behind him kept Franklin scoreless down the stretch.

St. Mary's countered in the third adding a run after Cael Stauffer laced a double scoring Rory Wendel who got on with an infield fielders choice.
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In the fourth St. Mary's tied the game on a bases loaded walk.

The game was even going into he fifth inning. It was down to who was going to take charge or take advantage of a mistake.

Not much happened in the fifth. Franklin was stifled completely and St. Mary's got one on but they left him there.

In the sixth Franklin's Cam Greksa drew a base on balls but could not advance.

On to the last half of the inning, they were tie and needing to stop St. Mary's to force extra innings.

St. Mary's got a lead off runner on base, but a double-play attempt on the next batter went awry allowing the runner to move into scoring position with one out.

The next batter dribbled one back to the pitcher who threw to first for what should've been the second out as the runner on second dashed to third, but the throw was high and over the first baseman's head allowing the game winning score to cross home-plate.

Just one of those things that happens in baseball, but it just happened at the wrong time.

"The loss tonight stings," coach Scott Milliron admitted at the end of the game. Though disappointed with the result, he was not disappointed with his player's efforts.

"These boys put in so much work this summer, I mean to put it in perspective, we're still playing little league ball in the third week in July.  These boys have done something right," Milliron said.  "I give them all the credit, all the hard work , the  sweat and tears they've put in, they give it their all."

"We came up short tonight, but w​going forward from this, they don't even realize what they've done this summer, they're like 'we're just playing ball,' it's so fantastic. ​

Ball is far from over for these player who most of them play for the Firestorm 3 travel ball team. They have two big tournaments coming up in Warren County and in West Virginia. "I'm excited for this group as they get older, even the twelve year old team - they're going to be special." 

Milliron said he's happy to go back to assistant coaching the Firestorm 3 team with friend Matt Carll who stepped in to help coach this team's district final when Milliron was at a wedding. He said it has been a fun ride as the teams get together after games to have a bite to eat and socialize. "It's great, baseball really brings people together, we lost today but we now cheer for (St. Mary's) to win states."

"The boys are sad, but I told them to hold their heads high, I'm so stinking proud of everything they've done this summer," Milliron said.

"Hopefully what they get out of this is the hard work they put in that anything they put their minds to, they can achieve through hard work and effort" Milliron said. "These boys are heart and soul, they absolutely love playing ball. It's just been amazing to see the effort they've put in."

Its just an honor coaching these kids.