PUNXSUTAWNEY – Regular season champion Punxsutawney locked up a berth in Tuesday night\’s Jefferson County Legion Baseball League Playoffs title game with an 11-4 victory over Clearfield at Rich Kuntz Memorial Field Saturday afternoon.
The Chiefs can earn another crack at the JCL\’s premier team by beating Brookville in the loser\’s bracket final Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Bison Sports Complex.
Laurel Eye Clinic stayed alive in the double-elimination tourney with a 10-4 win at DuBois Saturday evening.
The winner\’s bracket final was decided early with Punxsy scoring four runs in each of the first two innings.
A two-run single by Zach Smith got the hosts rolling in the first. A walk and a passed ball left Punxsy with runners at second and third and two outs. Then, David Pisano struck out on a wild pitch by loser Aaron Sayers, and the result was two more runs because the Chiefs committed two errors on the play.
In the second, singles by Chad Davis and Austin Furman around a double by Nick Gillung upped Punxsy\’s lead to 5-0. An error on Furman\’s single and a hit by Dustin Dubensky produced another run. Smith followed with a sacrifice fly, and Mike Smiley\’s grounder drove in the fourth run of the frame.
Smith and Smiley set up two runs with a single and double, respectively, in the fourth. The RBIs went to Pisano on a sacrifice fly and Sean Smith on a groundout.
Jacob Stump was hit by a pitch and came around to score in the fifth on Chris Reeseman\’s double and Tommy Bush\’s groundout.
Clearfield (21-9-1) got to Gillung for three runs in the fifth. A walk, a Punxsy error and James Zimmermann\’s single accounted for one. After Kyle Kline singled, Jarrin Campman drove in two runs with the third hit in a row off Gillung.
Winner Alex Cressley relieved and limited the Chiefs to one run and five hits over the last 4-2/3 innings.
Justin Hoffman singled, Michael Moyer walked and Chris Barr singled to load the bases in the eighth, and Hoffman scored when Adam Jury grounded into a double play.
Zimmermann and Campman had two hits apiece for the Chiefs.
Sayers and Hoffman each pitched four innings. Half of the 10 runs Sayers surrendered were unearned. Hoffman limited Punxsy to four hits and one run.
CLEARFIELD – 4
Adam Jury ss 5100, James Zimmermann 2b 5121, Kyle Kline 3b 4010, Jarrin Campman lf 5022, David Welker cf 4010, Aaron Sayers p-ph-rf 1000, Derek Danver dh-c 3000, Justin Hoffman rf-p 4110, Corey Bookhamer 1b 2000, Michael Moyer 1b 1000, Wil Bacharach c 1100, Chris Barr rf 2010. TOTALS: 37 4 8 3.
PUNXSUTAWNEY – 11
Nick Gillung p-cf 5220, Austin Furman lf 1211, Nick Pascuzzo lf 1000, Dustin Dubensky 3b 3111, Jacob Stumpf 3b 1110, Zach Smith 2b 2223, Chris Reeseman rf 2010, Mike Smiley cf 3121, Tommy Bush 2b 2001, Zack Martin dh 1100, Dakota Bish c 2010, David Pisano rf 2001, Alex Cressley p 2000, Patrick McKee 1b 2000, Sean Smith 1b 3011, Chad Davis ss 3110, Tyler Grayson ph 1000. TOTALS: 36 11 13 9.
Score by Innings:
Clearfield 000 030 010 – 4 8 5
Punxsutawney 440 210 00x – 11 13 4
Errors – Zimmermann, Campman, Bookhamer 2, Bacharach; Gillung, Stumpf 2, Bush. PB – Bacharach. DP – Punxsutawney 1(Davis, Bush and S. Smith). LOB – Clearfield 10; Punxsutawney 10. 2B – Gillung, Reeseman, Smiley. SF – Z. Smith, Pisano. SB – Furman, Z. Smith.
Pitching
Clearfield – Sayers 4 IP, 9 H, 10 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 4 K; Hoffman 4 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.
Punxsutawney – Gillung 4-1/3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K; Cressley 4-2/3, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K.
HB – Hoffman 1 (Stumpf). WP – Sayers 1.
W – Cressley. L – Sayers (0-1).
Umpires – Rob Murphy (home), Jim McKee (bases).
