CURWENSVILLE – The Curwensville Teener League 15-and-16 All-Stars fell just short of overtaking Punxsutawney with a seventh inning rally Friday evening and bowed 4-3 in Area VI Tournament action at the Curwensville Area High School Field.
The game had been suspended Thursday evening because of rain with Punxsy leading 2-0 with one runner on base in the top of the third inning.
Both teams came right back with their starting pitchers and both were outstanding, registering complete games.
Winner Tommy Bush wound up with a six-hitter, striking out 12 and walking five.
Loser Wes McGarry posted a five-hitter with three strikeouts and five walks.
The Curwensville lefty didn\’t get off to a good start when the game was resumed. He walked Tyler Grayson. A wild pitch moved the runners to second and third, and Bush followed with a single to pad Punxsy\’s lead to 4-0.
McGarry, whose pitch count was 32 Thursday, bounced back to set the visitors down in order the next three innings and allow only one runner in the seventh.
\”I was a little concerned when he walked the first batter,\” Curwensville manager Denny Johns said. \”You never know what you\’re going to get when they\’ve thrown that many pitches, but he really settled down and pitched well.\”
Unfortunately for the home team, Bush was equally difficult to hit, matching McGarry with nine consecutive outs in innings four through six. And six of those Curwensville batters went down on strikes.
\”I give Bush a lot of credit,\” Johns said. \”He threw very well. He throws hard and has a nice curve ball. He just kept us off balance until the seventh.\”
Curwensville, which had left the bases loaded in the first and third innings, filled the sacks again in the last inning on singles by Nick Redden and Cory Bloom and a two-out walk to Brett Sutika after Derek Brothers had lined out to third baseman Tyler Wingard.
McGarry drove in two runs with a single, and pinch-runner Andrew Starr scored another run when Punxsy catcher Dakota Bush misfired on a pickoff attempt at third on ball four to Ben McGary.
With the tying and winning runs on base, Jed Greslick hit what Johns described as a \”wicked one-hopper\” that second baseman Dylan Kachmar knocked down and made the play to first for the final out.
\”I was proud the way the kids battled back,\” Johns said. \”They didn\’t quit. They could have the way he handled us in the fourth, fifth and sixth, but they fought right to the end. They hit the ball very hard. Two of the three outs were hit right on the nose.
\”We\’ve learned a hard lesson the last two nights,\” he added. \”We had five walks, and three led to runs. And we had three errors on plays we generally make that led to their first two runs (Thursday). Tonight, we played strong defense.\”
All three teams in the Area VI tourney now are 1-1.
Curwensville travels to Punxsutawney Sunday for a 5 p.m. game and finishes at home against Philipsburg-Osceola Tuesday at 5. The tourney finale is Thursday, Punxsy at P-O.
PUNXSUTAWNEY – 4
Christian Muth ss 2000, Kyle Mann ph 1000, Tommy Bush p 3012, Dakota Bush c 3010, Tyler Wingard 3b 2000, Jacob Stumpf cf 3000, Chase Tibbs eh 1110, Dane Kopas rf 3121, Sean Smith 1b 2000, Kyle Neal ph 1000, Dylan Kachmar 2b 1100, Tyler Grayson lf 1100. TOTALS: 23 4 5 3.
CURWENSVILLE – 3
Ben McGary 1b 2010, Jed Greslick lf 4010, Sam Gardner cf 3010, Jesse Hoover ss 2000, Nick Redden 3b 2110, Cory Bloom c 3110, Derek Dixon rf 3000, Tyler Johns eh 2000, Derek Brothers ph 1000, Brett Sutika 2b 1000, Andrew Starr pr 0100, Wes McGarry p 3112. TOTALS: 26 3 6 2.
Score by Innings:
Punxsutawney 022 000 0 – 4 5 2
Curwensville 000 000 3 – 3 6 3
Errors – Muth, D. Bush; Gardner, Bloom, Sutika. DP – Curwensville 1 (Redden, Sutika and McGary). LOB – Punxsutawney 3; Curwensville 8. 2B – Gardner. SB – Kopas.
Pitching
Punxsutawney – T. Bush 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 12 K.
Curwensville – McGarry 7 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 3 K.
WP – McGarry 1.
W – T. Bush. L – McGarry.
Umpires – Garry Shirey (home), Mark Michelucci (bases), Rich Harris (bases).
