6/22/2025
By George Lucas
Sergio DeCello clubbed his 5th and 6th homeruns of the year, and Jace Essig and Ben Robinson hit their 3rd and 2nd homers of the year, respectively, as the Johnstown Mill Rats clobbered the Champion City Kings 9-4 Sunday in Springfield, OH.
DeCello is tied with the REX’ Wally Diaz for the league lead in homeruns (6).
Champion City jumped out to the early lead in the bottom of the 1st and led 1-0 after one. But the Rats’ bats woke up in the 3rd tallying four runs in the inning. Johnstown then added a run in the 4th, three in the 5th, and another solo run in the 6th.
Champion City added single runs in the 3rd, 5th, and 7th innings.
DeCello (2-4) and Essig (2-5) were the only Rats with multiple hits on the day. DeCello (4) and Zach McEllroy (3) drove in seven of the Mill Rats’ nine runs.
John Hojnowski (4-0) earned the win for the Rats, pitching 5-innings in relief of starter Nick Finarelli. Hojnowski gave up two runs on 4 hits, striking out 3 and walking one batter.
Champion City starter Landen Browning (0-2) took the loss allowing 5 runs on 5 hits over 4 innings of work.
The Mill Rats regained sole control of first place in the Northeast Division with the win as they improved to 14-8. Rivals Chillicothe (13-8) and Lafayette (12-8) played an exhibition game Sunday that does not affect the Prospect League standings.
Johnstown returns home after the 6-day, 3-3 road trip, and will face the Kings on Tuesday and Wednesday at Sargent’s Stadium at the Point.