ORWIGSBURG - Collin Hashin's objective was simple: Put the ball in play.
The Minersville junior was 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts as he stepped to the plate with two runners on base in the bottom of the sixth inning.
"I was trying to put the ball in play," Hashin said. "I didn't want to strike out, didn't want to leave those baserunners out there."
He accomplished his goal and a lot more.
Hashin's two-out, two-run double broke a sixth-inning tie and lifted the Miners to a 5-3 victory over Schuylkill Haven in Friday's Schuylkill League Division II wild-card tiebreaker at Blue Mountain's Allen Greenawalt Field.
The victory advances Minersville (15-6) to Tuesday's Schuylkill League semifinals, where the Miners will take on Division I champion Pottsville (11-8) at 7 p.m. at Pine Grove's Stump Stadium.
Division II champion Tri-Valley (16-4) will face Division I wild card Tamaqua (13-5) in the other semifinal at 4:30 p.m.
"This is a game of if a team gets two-out hits, they end up winning," Minersville coach Del Hauck said. "They got all of their runs on two-out hits, and we got four out of our five.
"Hashin had a tough day at the plate, but he came through with the big hit."
Hashin was the unlikely hero in a game that mirrored the two previous contests between the Miners and Hurricanes. The game was close the entire way, and it had plenty of drama late.
Minersville opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when Aaron Fritz walked and scored on Matt Roberts' triple to center field. The Miners made it 2-0 in the third inning when Fritz tripled and scored one out later on a triple by Luke Heffron.
Fritz's triple was the 100th hit of his high school career.
Schuylkill Haven (15-6) sliced the deficit to 2-1 in the fifth on Alec Bailey's two-out RBI single, then took a 3-2 lead with two runs in the top of the sixth. Vinnie Fanelli started the rally with a two-out double, Zavier Webb walked and both scored when Danny Blugis' blooper to right field fell in for a double.
Up until that point, sophomore left-hander Dylan Stephen had kept the Hurricanes in check. Stephen's numbers weren't overly impressive - 7 innings, 8 hits, 3 runs, all earned, 5 walks, 4 strikeouts - but he prevented Schuylkill Haven from putting together a big inning.
Schuylkill Haven left the bases loaded in the fourth, stranded two runners in the fifth and another runner in scoring position in the sixth. Ten of the Hurricanes' 21 outs came on pop-ups to the infield or short outfield.
"Coach (Joel) Motuk, our pitching coach, told me to just throw strikes and I did," said Stephen, who improved to 8-1 on the season with the win. "I tried to keep the ball down to get either groundouts or flyouts, and I did a pretty good job at that."
Trailing 3-2, Heffron began Minersville's sixth inning with a single up the middle off losing pitcher Blugis. He moved to second on Zack Brown's sacrifice bunt, then stole third.
Mitch Haney followed with a walk. Dave Pedron then tied the game with a single to left, with pinch runner Spencer Tobin stopping at second.
Blugis bounced back to strike out Jon McBreen, and threw a first-pitch strike to Hashin. The diminutive second baseman, who was hitting .272 at that point with just eight RBIs, then lined the next pitch into the right-center field gap to score Tobin and Pedron and give the Miners the lead.
"I wanted to go opposite field. I was looking to get the run in any way I could," Hashin said. "I just poked it out there, and it worked out.
"It felt great. It felt awesome. I'm just glad for the team."
It's the second straight year the Miners are in the Schuylkill League semifinals as the Division II wild card. Last year, Minersville lost 10-9 to North Schuylkill in the semifinals.
"This has really been a journey," Stephen said, as Roberts dumped water on his head. "We didn't know how good we'd be this year. And now we're going to play Pottsville in the league playoffs. It's awesome." Game Summary