HYDE – Baseball is a game of numbers and streaks, and the statistics the Clearfield Area High School team posted this week added up to three consecutive convincing wins.
On a perfect summer-like afternoon at the Bisons Sports Complex Saturday, the Bisons banged out 14 hits, got a complete game from pitcher Brandon Evans and turned two double plays in a game for the fourth time this season in defeating District 9 Class AAA rival Bradford 9-3 to climb above .500 at 5-4.
James Zimmerman hammered a pair of two-run doubles, Adam Jury had three more hits to raise his average to .655 and Evans blasted a two-run home run to pace the attack. Seven hits and six runs from the bottom of the lineup were a bonus that the made Evans\’ job on the mound easier.
The senior righthander finished strong, retiring eight of the last batters Owls he faced with the aid of an around-the-horn DP in the sixth inning. Evans struck out five and walked three while five-hitting the Owls for his second win in three decisions.
\”We practice in the mud for six days and come out and finally play and rose to the occasion,\” Clearfield coach Sid Lansberry. \”Three in a row. That\’s a good week, no matter what. Things are gonna get tougher next week, but I\’ll take this.\”
He\’ll be even happier when he reviews the totals of the wins over Juniata (12-4), Huntingdon (14-0 in five innings) and Bradford, which were a combined 12-6.
All the Bisons did was hit .447 (38-for-85), score in 13 of 17 innings, pitch three complete games with a 2.37 earned run average, surrender just nine hits in 19 innings, turn four DPs and commit only four errors, including two against the Owls the were the result of bad hops.
Jury led the week\’s hit parade with 10 in 11 at-bats. The senior shortstop extended his streak of consecutive hits over five games to nine with a first-inning single before finally making an out on a sharply-hit grounder to short to end the second frame.
Evans followed Jury\’s liner to right in the first with a homer over the 340-foot mark in right center, and Lansberry was quick to point out those opposite-field drives and the rising batting averages are the result of the Bisons buying into new assistant coach Bear Stewart\’s hitting philosophy.
\”I have to mention some of it is the influence of Bear, because he\’s got the hitters more patient, not afraid to hit the opposite way,\” Lansberry complimented the former Curwensville head coach. \”That\’s what he preaches, so I\’ve gotta give him credit. That\’s made a difference. They\’re not swinging at a whole lot of bad pitches like we were at the beginning.\”
After mustering only three hits in 42 at-bats in the first six games, Bisons hitting in the seventh, eighth and nine spots have collected nine hits and six RBIs while scoring seven runs in the last three.
\”We\’re getting production out of the bottom of the order, and that makes big difference,\” Lansberry said.
After Evans staked the Bisons to the early 2-0, the Bisons continued to peck away at Bradford starter Nick Foster. Zimmerman didn\’t let singles by Drew Hipps and Lucas Malloy go for naught in the second inning, hammering a two-out double to deep center. Kyle Kline hustled into second for a double when Bradford leftfielder Taylor O\’Brien lost the fly ball in the high sky, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored Clearfield\’s fifth run on Doug Kephart\’s sacrifice fly to right in the third.
The Owls, who had won two games after an 0-4 start, made it interesting with all of their runs in the fourth, two on Jim Millbrandt\’s homer over the 370 mark in center and the other when Alex Faucher looped a single to right and O\’Brien slugged a double into left center.
\”You don\’t see too many home runs hit to dead center at this field,\” Lansberry said. \”That\’s what scared me when he came up in the fifth inning. It was only 6-3 and they had a couple guys on.
Millbrandt got under a 2-2 offering and skied the ball to center, and Evans ended the threat by whiffing E.J. Moore on his way to sealing the victory.
\”Brandon pitched well,\” Lansberry said. \”He didn\’t have great stuff, but he was tough. We have to remember he caught two days in a row. He threw strikes, and he used his defense.\”
Andrew Janocko\’s seeing-eye single through the right side, a walk and Jury\’s liner to left made it 6-3 in the lower fourth, and the Bisons put the non-league game away in the fifth on a walk, David Ryan\’s infield single, Malloy\’s sacrifice fly, Wil Bacharach\’s single and Zimmerman\’s ringing double into the left field corner.
\”These guys are better than I thought,\” Lansberry said of the Owls. \”I don\’t know how District 9 will come out. It\’s early yet, but definitely Punxsy is the team to beat.
\”This is a good time to be playing well, going our toughest week on the schedule, without a doubt.\”
The Bisons will travel to Williamsport Monday and State College Wednesday and host streaking Bald Eagle Area Friday.
Clearfield\’s junior varsity earned its fifth win in six games, 8-6. Jarrin Campman doubled for the game-winning hit in the sixth inning and then scored on Josh Rippey\’s single. Isaac Butler singled and doubled for the Bisons. Parker Herrington, who worked two innings, picked up the victory in relief of Corey Bookhamer.
BRADFORD — 3
Mike Pascarella 3b 3000, Ryan LaBrozzi ss 2000, Nick Foster p-2b 4110, Jim Millbrandt 2b-rf 3112, E.J.Moore cf 3010, Alex Faucher 1b 3110, Taylor O\’Brien lf 2011, Lou Jones c 3000, Kevin Pautzer rf 2000, Steve Butler p 1000. TOTALS: 26 3 5 3.
CLEARFIELD – 9
James Zimmerman 2b 3024, Adam Jury ss 4131, Brandon Evans p 4112, Kyle Kline 3b 3110, Doug Kephart cf 3001, Drew Hipps rf 2120, David Welker pr-rf 1110, Tanner St. Clair lf 2000, David Ryan ph-lf 1110, Lucas Malloy 1b 2111, Alex Billotte ph 1000, Wil Bacharach c 1110, Andrew Janocko dh 2110. TOTALS: 29 9 14 9.
Score by Innings:
Bradford 000 300 0 – 3 5 0
Clearfield 221 130 x – 9 14 2
Errors: Kline 2. DP – Bradford 1 (Jones and Millbrandt); Clearfield 2 (Jury, Zimmerman and Malloy; Kline, Zimmerman and Malloy). LOB – Bradford 6; Clearfield 8. 2B – O\’Brien; Zimmerman 2. HR – Millbrandt; Evans. SF – Kephart, Malloy. SB – Welker.
Pitching
Bradford – Foster 4-2/3 IP, 12 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 3 BB, 3 K; Butler 1-1/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO.
Clearfield – Evans 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 HB, 5 K.
HB – Evans 1 (Pascarella). WP – Foster 2.
W – Evans (2-1). L – Foster (0-2).