ST. MARYS- The Clearfield Area High School baseball team did a little extra celebrating at Berwin Park after upending St. Marys 16-3 in their PIAA District 9 Class AAA semifinal Thursday.
The Bisons gathered around Coach Sid Lansberry while Captain Shane Davis presented him with a specially-designed clock, courtesy of the school district, as a memento of this 500th victory.
Lansberry, fortunately, was able to dance away from a water and ice cube shower.
Obviously happy to join a rather exclusive club of Pennsylvania scholastic diamond coaches, Lansberry preferred to talk about the players on his 35th team.
\”The important thing is getting a chance to win districts, and I think these seniors deserve that shot,\” he said. \”That was the focus today. Nobody talked about 500.
\”This is a good group of seniors,\” he added. \”They\’ve worked hard, and I\’m glad they can play for a championship.\”
Clearfield, seeded third, parlayed nine hits with nine walks and five hit batsmen to advance to the title game against top-seeded Punxsutawney Wednesday. The site and time will be announced later.
Trey Wallace turned in a route-going performance, limiting the second-seeded Flying Dutch (15-6) to five hits.
The senior left hander, who struck out five and walked four, lost a shutout in the fifth inning when the host prolonged the inevitable by scoring all their runs.
Clearfield (11-8) answered with its second six-run outburst of the game, called after six innings because of the Mercy Rule.
Junior James Zimmerman paced the Bisons with two hits, one a double, and three runs batted in. Junior Adam Jury also had two hits, including an RBI-double.
Three of the four St. Marys pitchers hit Davis. That makes 13 times the big first baseman has plunked this season, which the coaches believe is the Clearfield record.
Visit http://www.clearfieldbaseball.com
Editors note: Both Clearfield baseball and
softball teams will play Wednesday, May 31, at 4:30 p.m. in Brockway vs. Punxsutawney for their
respective D9 titles.
