throwing error, Crofton scribbled a single up the middle and Zibel walked to load the bases. Perrotta struck out Tyler Black and got Lucas Pick to ground out back to the mound. In the Cranford second, Pick made a fabulous diving snag in centerfield to keep the Cougars off the board then the Millers knotted the score in the bottom of the inning. Reed Kelley lashed a single to right-center and strutted to second on a balk. Gray Pollard hacked an infield single then alertly dashed to second when nobody was covering the bag. O’Neill then drilled a tworun double to centerfield.

Both teams were silent in the third then the Millers posed another threat in the fourth. Ryan Hado, the catcher, chopped a one-out single down the third base line and was replaced by courtesy runner Femi Ogunjuma. Pollard rapped a grounder toward shortstop Mateo Rubert, who tossed to first for the second out. Ogunjuma felt lucky and headed to third but first baseman Shane Gergich alertly fired to third baseman Mason Englese for the third out.

The Cougars rattled the Millers with four runs in the fifth for a 6-2 lead. Englese struck out but the ball was dropped and he sprinted to first. He skipped to second on Dom Testa’s sac bunt. McGarry walked but another passed ball allowed Englese to score. Matlosz slapped an RBI double past third. Rubert added an RBI ground out to short. Friedman walked, swiped second and scored on DiChiara’s single into right field.

With Crofton on first, Zibel crushed his two-run home run into the parking lot to cut the lead to 6-4 entering the seventh when Masterson drew a oneout walk, stole second base, scooted to third on a wild pitch then caught the pitcher off-guard, sprinted to the plate and was tagged out but in the process, a balk was called and the run counted.

The Millers went down 1-2-3 in the sixth.

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