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Griffin hurls Kingston/Forty Fort into to District 31 finals

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Plains Little League outslugs South Wilkes-Barre in district semifinal

MOOSIC &#8212; Bobby Meachum lasted just one batter.After yapping at home-plate umpire James Rackley following a called third strike on lead-off hitter Roemon Fields, the Buffalo manager was tossed.He probably wouldn&#8217;t have been very happy even if he hadn&#8217;t been ejected.The Bisons outhit Scranton/Wilkes-Barre but only could score one run against Bryan Mitchell, who returned to PNC Field after a stint with the Yankees. And Billy McKinney provided the power, driving a two-run homer into the Railhouse in right as the RailRiders picked up another win over Buffalo, 3-1, Wednesday.Buffalo left runners on the corners in the ninth before Tyler Jones struck out Dwight Smith Jr. to preserve the two-run win.It was the RailRiders&#8217; seventh-straight victory over the Bisons, and they have outscored the Toronto Blue Jays affiliate 33-5 in those games.Scranton/Wilkes-Barre also jumped Lehigh Valley for first place in the IL North as the Iron Pigs lost 10-6 to Syracuse last night. Those two teams begin a three-game set Friday at PNC Field.&#8220;Honestly, with this team, it&#8217;s like a different guy every night,&#8221; RailRiders shortstop Cito Culver said. &#8220;That&#8217;s the fun thing about this team. Everyone is grinding and pulling for each other.&#8221;The story was Mitchell and his defense.Mitchell, who won his last Triple-A appearance on June 25, was masterful Wednesday. He needed just 85 pitches through seven, 60 of those for strikes, forcing 13 ground-ball outs while striking out three.He only allowed one run to cross home, and that was in the fourth as Rowdy Tellez&#8217;s grounder rolled through the left side to the outfield, enabling Michael Saunders to score from second.That was his only real trouble spot as Mitchell retired the side in three of the seven innings.&#8220;Mitch was on right from the first inning,&#8221; RailRiders manager Al Pedrique said. &#8220;His pitch count was low through the first four innings. He kept their offense off-balance all night long.&#8220;For me, personally, I don&#8217;t look at the strikeouts. I want them to throw strikes, and put the ball in play &#8212; especially when you have this defense behind you. I want to see him use all his pitchers, and he did that tonight.&#8221;Of course, it helps to have the infield he has.Culver made an amazing bare-handed stop at short to rob Buffalo of one hit. But it was Donovan Solano who had the play of the game &#8212; and maybe the season.He ranged to his right to run down a grounder up the middle. Instinctively, he flipped the ball to Culver, who fired across the diamond to rob Shane Opitz of a sure-fire single.&#8220;It&#8217;s always nice see when your pitcher is getting into a rhythm. It keeps the infield on their toes,&#8221; Culver said. &#8220;It&#8217;s funny because we had a play like that earlier in the year where he could have flipped it, but he made the play himself.&#8220;I kind of joked with him to flip me the ball so I can get into the play, too. That was fun.&#8221;Scranton/Wilkes-Barre seemed to struggle at times with Buffalo starter T.J. House and his side-arm delivery, but managed to scratch three runs across the dish.Mark Payton&#8217;s two-out single to right scored McKinney as the RailRiders took an early 1-0 lead after two.Buffalo tied it up in the fourth, snapping a 26 scoreless-innings steak against the locals, but it was a short-lived edge.Mike Ford, in his first game since his call-up from Trenton, drew a walk to start the home half of the fourth, and two batters later, McKinney drilled a slider deep into the Railhouse in right for the 3-1 lead.In six Triple-A games, the Texas product is 8 for 22 with five extra-base hits and seven RBIs.&#8220;He kind of threw it at a funky angle, so all I was doing was focusing on picking up the ball early,&#8221; McKinney said. &#8220;I put a pretty good swing on it, and let the game happen.&#8221;RailRiders 3, Buffalo 1Buffalo `AB`R`H`BIFields cf `4`0`1`0Saunders lf `4`1`2`0Pompey dh `4`0`0`0Tellez 1b `4`0`1`1Smith Jr rf `4`0`1`0Lopez c `3`0`1`0Leblebijian 3b `3`0`0`0Petit 2b `3`0`0`0Opitz ss `3`0`0`0Totals `32`1`6`1RailRiders `AB`R`H`BICave lf `4`0`1`0Solano 2b `4`0`1`0Ford 1b `3`1`0`0Andujar dh `3`0`0`0McKinney rf `3`2`1`2Culver ss `3`0`1`0Payton cf `3`0`1`1Avelino 3b `3`0`0`0Rodriguez c `2`0`0`0Totals `28`3`5`3Buffalo `000 `100 `000 &#8211; 1RailRiders `010 `200 `000 &#8211; 3E: Tellez (10), Petit (5). DP: Buffalo 0, Railriders 2. LOB: Buffalo 4, RailRiders 6. 2B: Saunders (1). HR: McKinney (3). SB: Fields (19). CS: Avelino (1)Buffalo `IP `H`R`ER`BB`SOHouse (L 6-8) `6`4`3`2`3`6Browning `2`1`0`0`0`2RailRiders `IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOMitchell (W 2-2) `7`5`1`1`0`3Jones (S 2) `2`1`0`0`0`3HBP: Rodriguez, McKinney. Umpires: HP: James Rackley. 1B: Charlie Ramos. 3B: Jansen Visconti.T: 2:07. Att: 5,558<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Tom FoxFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</shirttailMeta></div>

RailRiders continue mastery of Buffalo with 3-1 victory