Milton Major All-Stars power to District 3 title

The Milton All-Stars set off a meteor shower of homers July 16, as the 11-12 boys used nine home runs to power to an 18-8 victory and win the District 3 title.

Malikye Wells led Milton as he went yard three times in the game. He has delivered with five homers in the last two games.

Owen Daminger hit a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to give the Milton squad a 10-run margin to garner the victory in a five-inning mercy rule.

The Nanticoke squad struck first with a six-run first inning, but the heart of the Milton team showed as they clawed their way back. Timmy Hitchcock slammed a three-run homer in the second. Wells hit a homer to bring the Milton squad close at 6-5. Andrew Criswell followed with a three-run homer to put the District 3 champs up 9-6, and it would be all they needed, but that wouldn’t be the end of the Milton slugfest.

Wells hit his second homer, a two-run smack in the third, to move Milton up to an 11-6 lead and an exit for Nanticoke’s All-Star pitcher Andrew Calloway.

Carter Breasure kept the onslaught going with a two-run blast to move Milton to a 13-6 lead.

Next it was Daminger, small in stature but carrying a big bat as he sent one out to put Milton up 14-8. Wells followed with his third of the game to boost Milton’s lead to 16-8. Tyler Jacona plowed one over to move the lead to 17-8, and with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Daminger stepped to the plate and knocked his second one of the game to end the game by mercy rule 18-8.

Daminger went 4-for-5 in the contest with two homers and two singles.

“After that first inning, we started rallying and we got a lot of energy,” said Daminger. “I had a feeling that I had a chance to hit one out and just put the bat on the ball. It was right down the middle.”

After trailing 6-0 in the top half of the first, some teams might have put their heads down, but not this Milton squad.

“The boys have been playing with so much heart all week,” said Milton manager Zach Crouch. “It showed in the first game when we were down 3-0 and we muscled back to win in extra innings. We’ve just been hitting the ball and seeing Calloway for the second time in the tournament, we felt that it was just a matter of time. We just never gave up. We’re so proud of them, how they stayed in there, dug deep and hit the ball one at a time, one at a time, one at a time. It’s very special when you have a bunch of kids that doesn’t quit. Out of the four games we’ve played, they haven’t quit one single inning.”

The Milton manager was quick to praise each and every kid on the squad. 

“It was a total team effort,” said Crouch. “The 11-year-olds came through for us too. Everyone did a great job. It was a total team effort. There’s not one person that did just one thing, a total team effort.”

Daminger, Wells, Justin Marsh, Criswell, Gage Joseph and Paris Mitchell had multiple hits for the District 3 Champs.

Carter Breasure picked up the win, striking out five in 3.2 innings pitched, allowing three earned runs. Hitchcock entered the game in relief and struck out two in 1.1 innings.

Calloway had three RBIs for Nanticoke. Nanticoke didn’t commit a single error in the field.

Milton will open its state tournament title bid Sunday, July 23, in Millsboro.