On a hot and sunny Saturday afternoon at Independence High School Stadium the Shelby Junior Legion team had a come from behind victory over Mint Hill.  Starting pitcher Leo Hoffer for Mint Hill pitched 4 innings giving up 2 earned runs on 3 hits.

Meanwhile, the boys from Mint Hill scored first when lead-off hitter Drew Roberts singled to start the inning.  On a pick-off attempt by the Shelby pitcher he threw wildly and the speedy Roberts took off for second and third.  The first baseman tried to gun him down, however, his throw skipped by the third baseman as Roberts scored easily on the two errant throws for a 1-0 Mint Hill lead.

Shelby bounced back in the top of the fourth inning on two singles and a double to take a 2-1 lead.  In the bottom frame Mint Hill’s Travis Ziefert singled, the Shelby pitcher was called for two consecutive balks putting Ziefert on third base.  John Orlowski promptly singled to tie the score.  With Orlowski now on second base Jason Eason singled to drive in the runner.  Liam Kennedy followed with another base hit, after a balk and wild pitch Eason scored giving Mint Hill a 4-2 lead.

In the fifth inning Jacob Laplant came in to pitch for Hoffer.  He allowed one base on balls and had an easy 1-2-3 inning.  However, in the sixth after two quick outs matters changed dramatically.  Two fielding errors, a balk and a hit batsman in between two hits ended up putting 4 unearned runs on the board for Shelby who now took the lead 6-4.

Shelby brought in a new pitcher who was tapped for 2 runs in the home frame of the sixth by Mint Hill.  Jacob Eason led off with a single, Liam Kennedy followed with his second hit, Jacob Wilhoit was hit by a pitch to load up the bases.  Then a hard grounder was hit by Drew Roberts deep in the hole between second and third base for an infield hit to score Eason.  The Shelby shortstop made an errant throw getting by the first baseman to score Kennedy to even the score at 6-6.

However, with Travis Ziefert who relieved Laplant to get the final out in the sixth was not as fortunate in the seventh for Mint Hill.  The visitors with runners on second and third with two outs Shelby’s Davon Marble smacked a double into the left center field gap to drive in the winning runs for Shelby.  Mint Hill went down quietly in the home half of the inning securing the win for Shelby 8-6.