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Hazleton Area comes alive, captures District 2 Class 6A baseball crown

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Early survey returns show most believe downtown headed in right direction

<p>Mark Payton has had a whirlwind of a 24 hours.</p><p>The 26-year-old outfielder had only played in a handful of extend spring training games and simulated games as he worked back from a knee injury suffered in spring training. So when he got the call Thursday at 11 p.m. that he&#8217;d be joining the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders in Indianapolis the following day he was a little bit surprised. But also ready to re-join his teammates.</p><p>After a day that started with an 8:30 a.m. flight out of Tampa, Fla., Payton went 0-for-1 with three walks as the RailRiders took the series opener from the Indianapolis Indians 4-0.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like a breath of fresh air just being out there again &#8212; running out,&#8221; Payton said over the phone Friday night. &#8220;Getting to run out there in a real game where you have a bunch of fans around, and Indy&#8217;s great place to play. It was a lot of fun. I&#8217;m just happy to be out there again.&#8221;</p><p>Despite going hitless, Payton was happy with his night at the plate.</p><p>Considering he had only between 20 to 25 at-bats while he was in Tampa, Payton would take a night where he reached base three out of four plate appearances. Not to mention, plate discipline is something the outfielder is working on this season.</p><p>&#8220;I felt pretty good at the plate,&#8221; Payton said. &#8220;I felt my at-bats were actually better than I expected them to be, not really having that many at-bats yet. No, but it felt good and I&#8217;m happy. Obviously stayed within the strike zone today, which is something I really wanted to concentrate on this year. It was good.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Obviously, I&#8217;m going to have to keep on getting these at-bats and feeling comfortable and getting the body to speed back up to the pace of play.&#8221;</p><p>The RailRiders got a nice night on the mound from Chance Adams.</p><p>The 23-year-old right-hander has struggled this season, but that was not the case against the Indians. He threw 5.2 scoreless innings, gave up just four hits and struck out seven. Adams didn&#8217;t walk a batter.</p><p>Offensively, Brandon Drury, Mike Ford and Kyle Higashioka all went 2-for-4. One of Ford&#8217;s hits was an RBI double in the fifth. He also had an RBI single in the first inning to put the RailRiders on the board.</p><p>Higashioka &#8212; fifth-inning RBI single to left &#8212; and Billy McKinney &#8212; eighth-inning solo home run &#8212; knocked in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s other two runs.</p><p>Clint Frazier continued his tear, going 1-for-4 with a double and two runs scored.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Payton </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_Mark-Payton-SWB-CMYK.jpg</photo0><caption0>Payton </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By DJ Eberle</p><p>djeberle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Mark Payton makes his 2018 debut as RailRiders beat Indianapolis