HYDE — James Zimmerman, who led off the bottom of the seventh inning with his third hit of the day, dashed home on Doug Kephart\’s one-out, bases-loaded grounder to give Clearfield an 8-7 victory over rival Curwensville in a very entertaining schoolboy baseball game at the Bison Sports Complex Tuesday afternoon.
Lengthy periods of sunshine made the chilly temperatures a little more bearable for players and fans alike, but the football-like weather didn\’t affect the first five batters in the Clearfield lineup. They combined for 11 hits and seven runs batted in.
Leadoff hitter Zimmerman did his job of setting the table with two doubles and a single, while Adam Jury, Brandon Evans, Kyle Kline and Kephart contributed two safeties apiece. Kephart drove in four runs, Jury homered and doubled for a pair of RBIs, and Kline came through with a big home run that tied the game after Curwensville had erased a 6-2 deficit with a five-run outburst in the sixth inning.
Equally important in the Bisons\’ second win in five games were another good defensive effort, highlighted by a pair of doubleplays and two gems by first baseman Lucas Malloy, and effective pitching by Evans and Andrew Janocko except for two innings.
That combination allowed coach Sid Lansberry to wear a smile after the Bisons\’ third consecutive game decided in the final frame, the previous two having ended in defeat.
\”It was good win,\” said Lansberry, who admitted the teacher-pupil factor was a pre-game topic since two of his former players were in the visitors\’ dugout – Ryan Briskar in his first season as Golden Tide head coach after two seasons as an assistant and Mike Davidson in his first year as pitching coach.
\”We were talking we had three things going against us,\” Lansberry continued. \”Number one, we\’re playing Curwensville, which is always tough. Number two, we\’re playing against former players, which adds a little incentive. And when you\’re one-and-three, you\’re struggling for a win.\”
Lansberry added the Golden Tide, off to a 3-0 start under Briskar, surprised him even though he had input from longtime Curwensville head coach Don \”Bear\” Stewart, who joined the Clearfield staff this spring.
\”I was impressed with them,\” Lansberry said. \”They\’re feisty. They hit the ball. They\’re certainly not intimidated by us, and they shouldn\’t be. With Briskar and Davidson coaching them, I knew they\’d be well prepared.\”
A three-run triple by Brandon Hess was the big blow for the Golden Tide, which played errorless ball. Ben McGary had two singles and two RBIs, and Justin McGary added two singles and one RBI.
\”It was a great game,\” Briskar said. \”Everybody played part of it. Playing Clearfield, I knew what we were going to be up against. Coach Lansberry and his staff down here, they always have a good program.
\”We followed our game our game plan. We got the pitch count up on their ace. It just didn\’t fall the way we wanted it to.\”
Clearfield jumped in front 2-0 after Erik Martell, making his first start, had retired the first two batters. Evans singled through the left side, Kyle Kline walked, and Kephart came through with a clutch single to right for his first two RBIs.
The Golden Tide tied the score it in the second inning. Trevor Horton walked, Justin McGary lined a single to right center and Hess reached safely on the game\’s lone miscue to load the bases. Evans then walked Ben McGary and Mark Dell\’Antonio to force in runs. The senior righthander escaped further trouble when shortstop Jury turned Brett McCracken\’s hard grounder into a double play.
That was Evan\’s 53rd pitch, but he was a different pitcher after Jury whacked a solo homer to left center in the bottom of the inning to regain the lead for the Bisons. Evans cruised through the next three innings, retiring nine batters on 24 pitches.
Meanwhile, Clearfield expanded its lead to 6-2 in the fourth. Zimmerman\’s fly ball fell just inside the right field line for a double and Jury lined a shot off third baseman Justin McGary\’s glove for an RBI-double. After Evans singled to left and Kline drew Martell\’s fifth walk, Briskar summoned Ben McGary from centerfield to relieve his senior lefthander.
\”That was very uncharacteristic of him to walk guys,\” Briskar said. \”Usually, he\’s right on the plate, but I think the emotions played on him.\”
Kephart greeted McGary, also a lefthander, with a liner to left for an RBI and Drew Hipps followed with a sacrifice fly to center.
In the sixth, Evans logged his 11th consecutive out before the momentum shifted after he walked pinch-hitter Nate McGary. Horton slapped a ground single to right and Cory Bloom dropped a single into right center to load the bases. After Justin McGary lined a single to center for one run, Hess fell behind 0-2 in the count and fouled off two pitches before hammering a bases-clearing triple to right center to tie the game.
\”I thought he was getting stronger until that one inning,\” Lansberry said of his No. 1 starter. \”He kind of lost it there. You saw some fat pitches there, so he probably was a little bit tired. He hasn\’t pitched for a whole week. We come out here and practice every day in the cold, but it\’s not the same. You can\’t throw off the mound. It\’s hard to keep your rhythm.\”
\”We put Brandon Hess in the nine hole, kind of like a second leadoff, because he always hits the ball hard,\” Briskar said. \”And he can run. I wasn\’t going to hold him up at second in that situation.\”
That proved to be a very important when Ben McGary bounced Janocko\’s first pitch up the middle to put Curwensville in front 7-6.
But Kline countered with his dramatic homer to left center to square the count again. The Bisons then loaded the bases, but McGary struck out the next two batters.
\”I\’ll tell you what, Ben McGary\’s going to be good the next two yeas,\” Lansberry said. \”I\’m not looking forward to facing him. You can just tell the way he carries himself. He\’s got a real smooth motion. He\’s a classic lefty.\”
In the seventh, Jesse Hoover drew a leadoff walk for the Golden Tide, but Janocko notched his second strikeout before Zimmerman smoothly grabbed Horton\’s grounder and flipped to second to start a double play that showcased Jury\’s strong arm.
\”That was the play of the game, I think,\” Lansberry said. \”When it\’s hit in the hole at second, the 4-6-3 is hard to turn.\”
Clearfield, which had stranded 11 runners, then made Janocko a winner.
Zimmerman cracked a double to left center, Briskar ordered intentional walks to Jury and Kline after McGary fell behind in the count and Curwensville couldn\’t get the force at home on Kephart\’s grounder just to the left of the mound as shortstop McCracken\’s off-balance throw was wide of the plate.
\”We had a lot of hard hit balls right at \’em,\” Briskar said. \”I think we put three right back at (Evans) that he gloved during the fourth and fifth innings. We hit two balls to the third baseman that the first baseman (Malloy) made great plays on. It\’s baseball. Sometimes you catch a break, sometimes you don\’t. The baseball gods weren\’t with us on a couple of those plays.\”
On back-to-back plays in the fourth, Malloy leaped for a high throw from Kline and made a sweeping tag on Bloom and then scooped up a low throw to retire Justin McGary.
\”We have been playing pretty good defense,\” Lansberry said. \”We haven\’t had too many errors this year.\”
Both teams play again today, Clearfield at home against defending District 9 Class AAA champion and Central Penn League rival Punxsutawney and Curwensville at St. Marys against Elk County Christian. The Bisons will host Somerset Friday and the Golden Tide will entertain Brookville in a 1 p.m. makeup game Saturday.
The undefeated Curwensville junior varsity eked out a 2-1 win, its fourth, with Derek Dixon delivering the game-winning hit. Wes McGarry pitched six innings to earn the victory,and Tyler Johns worked the seventh to post the save. For Clearfield, Matt Shiner was pinned with the loss despite hurling a three-hitter and striking out 11. Justin Hoffman had three hits for the Bisons.
CURWENSVILLE — 7
Ben McGary cf-p 3022, Mark Dell\’Antonio 2b 1001, Brett McCracken ss 4000, Jesse Hoover 1b 3000, Joe Bloom lf 3000, Nate McGary ph 1000, Erik Martell p 0000, Sam Gardner cf 0000, Trevor Horton ph 3110, Evan Olson pr 0100, Andrew Starr cf 0000, Cory Bloom c 3110, Justin McGary 3b 3221, Brandon Hess rf 3113. TOTALS: 26 7 7 7.
CLEARFIELD — 8
James Zimmerman 2b 5230, Adam Jury ss 4222, Brandon Evans p-1b 5220, Kyle Kline 3b 2221, Doug Kephart cf 4024, Drew Hipps lf 1011, Andrew Janocko rf-p 2000, David Welker ph 0000, Lucas Malloy 1b 1000, Justin Karp dh 3000, David Ryan 4f 0000, Alex Billotte rf 0000, Tyler Kirkwood c 3000, Jarrin Campman ph 1000. TOTALS: 31 8 12 8.
Score by Innings
Curwensville 020 005 0 – 7 7 0
Clearfield 210 301 1 – 8 12 1
One out when winning run scored in seventh inning.
Error – Zimmerman 1. DP – Clearfield 2. LOB – Curwensville 5; Clearfield 14. 2B – Zimmerman 2, Jury, Hipps. 3B – Hess. HR – Jury, Kline. SB – Kephart 2.
Pitching
Curwensville – Martell 3-1/3 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 3 K; B. McGary 3 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB (2 intentional), 3 K.
Clearfield – Evans 5-1/3 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 3 K; Janocko 1-2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K.
WP – Martell 1; Janocko 1.
W – Janocko (1-1). L – B. McGary (1-1).