DISTRICT 7-3A SEMIFINALS: Cumberland County Takes Game One At Upperman, 7-3

By Michael Lindsay

The #5 Cumberland County Jets opened their best-of-three District 7-3A tournament semifinal series with a win at Upperman on Wednesday, 7-3.

“I’ve got a group of guys that are going to fight and fight until somebody knocks them out, and we were able to stay in the game,” said Cumberland County head coach Tyler Thompson. “That’s a really good team over there. They’re the one seed, and I think everybody was waiting for them to break it open. Titus Ostrander toed the rubber and continued to pitch even when he didn’t have his stuff and we played well behind them.”

Wednesday’s win follows their 4-3 victory over Stone Memorial in the play-in game on Tuesday, where the Jets were down to their final out in the seventh inning before rallying.

Titus Ostrander earned the complete-game victory on the mound with 3 strikeouts and also went 2-3 with 2 runs scored at the plate.

“Titus didn’t have all of his best stuff, but he kept us in it. When we had our opportunity, we came through, and that’s just huge.”

Cumberland County’s Isaiah Shelton went 3-4 with a double and 4 RBIs in the win.

Upperman took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning before the Jets answered with two runs in the top of the third.

A Braden Green grounder in the bottom of the fourth inning tied the game at 2-2 before Dawson Mullins stole home in the bottom of the fifth to give Upperman a 3-2 advantage.

Cumberland County knotted the game back up at 3 runs each in the top of the sixth as Elijah Yegenian scored on a wild pitch.

After a scoreless bottom-half of the sixth inning, the Jets opened the top of the seventh with four consecutive singles to drive in one run and load the bases for Shelton, who delivered a bases-clearing double to give Cumberland County a 7-3 lead.

The Jets retired Upperman in order in the bottom of the seventh to preserve their 7-3 victory.

The teams are scheduled to meet for game two on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Cumberland County.

“These guys are fired up,” said Thompson. “The last two days have been huge for for them. There’s no worry about them being ready to go; that’s still the one seed and we still have to beat them. And I’m sure they’re going to show up fired up.”