HYDE — What has became an all-too-familiar scenario for the Clearfield Area High School baseball team played out again Monday at the Bison Sports Complex.
Unbeaten DuBois wiped out a 5-2 deficit with four runs in the third inning and got five innings of shutout pitching from reliever Josh Hayes to spoil the Bison’s home opener, 6-5.
Since opening the season with a victory, the Bison have dropped five games in a row in which they have been unable to hold a lead.
Derek Heckathorne lifted a two-run homer over the left field fence for the Beavers in the first inning, but the Bison got one back on Spencer Herrington’s bases-loaded roller to the right side and then took advantage of three walks by Ryan Walker to score four runs in the second.
With two outs, Curtis Collins popped a single into short center field to plate Sawyer Rowles with the tying run.
Thomas Summers walked to load the bases, and Jon Janocko promptly unloaded them with a two-strike double to deep left center.
“That was the biggest clutch hit we’ve had this year,” Clearfield coach Sid Lansberry said.
Unfortunately, the Bison couldn’t get another one and stranded the tying run 90 feet away on two occasions.
“You’ve got to credit Hayes for doing that,” Lansberry said.
The Beavers’ senior left-hander certainly wasn’t overpowering, rather relying on his breaking pitch and the ability to throw strikes when behind in the count to stymie the Bison, allowing only three hits and one walk while striking out three.
He induced two infield pop-ups after Janocko hammered his second double to deep center and courtesy runner Kaleb Taylor moved to third on Herrington’s bouncer to the right side in the fifth.
Then, he ended the next frame with a strikeout following a walk, Cole Kephart’s ground single into right field and a wild pitch that had courtesy runner Josh Sorbera stationed at third base.
Falling behind early didn’t faze the Beavers, now 5-0 for the first time in former Bison Todd Stiner’s 10 seasons as head coach.
They responded to Clearfield’s go-ahead rally with their own four-spot that included run-scoring singles by Devon Walker and Ian Yount and an RBI-grounder by Jon Mohney.
The final run, and the game-winner, scored on one of the Bison’s three miscues in the inning.
“Every game we’ve played we’ve had one bad inning,” Lansberry said. “We made some good plays defensively, but we hurt ourselves a little bit there.”
Two of the DuBois runs were unearned and cost Janocko, who prevented any further scoring before being relieved in the sixth inning because of his pitch count. He struck out one and walked four.
Lansberry said, “Jon hung in there. He kept us in the game. You can’t fault his pitching today.”
Three of the Beavers’ nine hits never left the infield.
Rowles finished up and had one strikeout and one walk in his first varsity appearance.
Kephart singled three times as he and Janocko accounted for all but one of the Bison safeties.
For DuBois, Nick Bontempo beat out grounders for two of his three hits and Heckathorne had a single to go with his long ball.
Clearfield will be back on the BSC diamond Tuesday for a Mountain League game against Philipsburg-Osceola.
DUBOIS — 6
Darren McKee 3b 5010, Clayton Read ss 3100, Derek Heckathorne c 4222, Nick Bontempo lf 4130, Evan Bush 1b 4010, Devon Walker 2b 4111, Ryan Walker p 0000, Josh Hayes p 0000, Jon Mohney dh 3101, Ian Young rf 3011, Garrett Brown cf 1000. TOTALS: 31 6 9 5.
CLEARFIELD — 5
Cole Kephart ss 4130, Curtis Collins lf 4111, Thomas Summers 1b-cf 3100, Jon Janocko p-1b 3023, Spencer Herrington 2b4001, Zach Timchak rf 0000, Josh Kennedy dh 4000, Erik Sellers 3b 3000, Sawyer Rowles cf-p 2100, Jonas Kochan c 1100, Josh Sorbera c 0000. TOTALS: 28 5 6 5
Score by Innings
DuBois 205 000 0 – 6 9 1
Clearfield 140 000 0 – 5 6 4
E – Bush; Kephart, Sellers 2, Rowles. DP – DuBois 1 (McKee and Bush); Clearfield 1 (Rowles, Sellers and Janocko). LOB – DuBois 10; Clearfield 7. 2B – Janocko 2. HR – Heckathorne. Sac – Yount. SB – Bontempo, Brown.
Pitching
DuBois – R. Walker 2 IP, 3 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 4 K; Hayes 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K.
Clearfield – Janocko 5-2/3 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 1 K; Rowles 1-1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.
WP – Hayes 1; Janocko.
W – Hayes (2-0). L – Janocko (0-2).
Umpires – Mark Michelucci (plate) and Scott Viehdorfer (bases).
Bison Scoreboard:
Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
3/25 | @ Central | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
3/28 | @ Huntingdon | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
3/30 | @ Huntingdon | 18 – 7 | 1 – 0 |
4/01 | @ Central | ppd. | 1 – 0 |
4/03 | @ Bald Eagle Area | ppd. | 1 – 0 |
4/04 | @ Bald Eagle Aea | 3 – 8 | 1 – 1 |
4/05 | @ Bellefonte | 6 – 15 | 1 – 2 |
4/08 | @ Tyrone | 4 – 5 | 1 – 3 |
4/10 | @ Punxsutawney | 3 – 8 | 1 – 4 |
4/11 | PENNS VALLEY | ppd. | 1 – 4 |
4/12 | @ Central | ppd. | 1 – 4 |
4/15 | DUBOIS | 5 – 6 | 1 – 5 |
4/16 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | ||
4/19 | CENTRAL | ||
4/22 | HUNTINGDON | ||
4/25 | BALD EAGLE AREA | ||
4/26 | @ Central | ||
4/29 | @ Central Mountain | ||
4/30 | BELLEFONTE | ||
5/03 | TYRONE | ||
5/06 | BROOKVILLE | ||
5/07 | @ Penns Valley | ||
5/10 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | ||
5/13 | @ Bradford | ||
5/14 | PENNS VALLEY | ||
5/17 | PUNXSUTAWNEY |