HYDE – Brookville\’s 7-0 start was too much for the Clearfield Legion baseball team to overcome Sunday afternoon at the Bison Sports Complex, and the season ended for the Chiefs with a 13-9 setback in the loser\’s bracket final of the Jefferson County League Playoffs.
The Laurel Eye Clinic team will go to Punxsutawney Tuesday for the 5:30 p.m. championship game. If Brookville is victorious, another game will be played Wednesday.
Clearfield scored four runs in the third inning to chop its deficit to 7-4 but never got any closer.
\”It\’s tough to come back when you get that far down that early,\” Chiefs manager Sid Lansberry said. \”We made a good comeback, I thought. We kept fighting the whole game.
\”We played four days in a row with the rainout (suspended game Thursday), and we just ran short on pitching. We had tired arms and sore arms.
\”I thought, going in, that might happen with the nine-inning games. We haven\’t had much pitching depth throughout the summer. I knew we might be in trouble from that aspect.\”
Corey Bookhamer, who beat Laurel Eye Clinic 4-1 on a seven-hitter on June 28, got the starting nod after pitching four innings against DuBois Thursday, and the southpaw just wasn\’t sharp, though six of the 10 runs he allowed were unearned.
Brookville scored two runs in the first inning without hitting the ball out of the infield. Winning pitcher Joe Galbraith beat out a slow roller past the mound and Tyler Ross\’ sacrifice bunted turned into a base hit. After Jeremy Aharrah sacrificed, Greg Sobol grounded out for a run batted in and Ross dashed home on a passed ball.
Two innings later, back-to-back misplays opened the door for Brookville, which also benefited from two walks. A two-run double by Jacob Means was the key hit. Nick Bishop had a sacrifice fly. Two runs scored on wild pitches.
\”Not executing bunt coverage twice hurt us early,\” Lansberry pointed out. \”And we gave up too many walks again.\”
Clearfield loaded the bases on two walks and Adam Jury\’s single in the bottom of the third. Galbraith hit Kyle Kline to force in a run and Jarrin Campman\’s chopper to third resulted in an RBI-single. David Welker grounded into a forceout for a ribbie, with Kline scoring when the ball was thrown away at first base.
Brookville tallied four runs with two outs in the fifth. Galbraith\’s two-run single prompted Lansberry to call on Michael Moyer, who had worked five innings against DuBois Friday. After the third of the Chiefs\’ four errors, Sobol looped a single to right for two RBIs and an 11-4 lead.
Jury whacked a two-run double to deep left field in the sixth, but Laurel Eye Clinic countered with two in the eighth off Jury on two walks and another two-run single by Galbraith.
Clearfield got back into the game again with three runs in the lower eighth. Aaron Sayers doubled, Jury walked and James Zimmermann doubled to the fence in left for an RBI. The final two runs scored on a Brookville infield error.
Jury and Zimmermann each had three hits for the Chiefs.
\”Adam\’s hit the ball consistently all season, Lansberry said. \”It was good to see Zimmermann get his stroke back today, because he was in a little bit of a slump lately.\”
Clearfield finished 21-10-1 after sitting 8-7-1 with a 4-6 JCL record halfway through the regular season. The Chiefs came on strong to claim second place at 13-7.
\”I think we had a really good year considering we went in with a pretty young team and we lost three arms due to injuries and other factors,\” Lansberry said. \”We were missing key players at different times because of vacations, but overall we played pretty good. And we came from behind to win several games. \”I was proud of how the season turned around for us, coming in second like that. We weren\’t sure we were even going to make the playoffs at one point.
\”We won our own Clearfield Tournament and also ended 2-1-1 in the Bellefonte Bandits Tournament, the first time we were ever in it.
\”Probably the biggest positive out of this summer is that a lot of younger kids played a lot of innings. And our pitching staff was pretty young, so it\’s encouraging for the future.\”
Lansberry also expressed his thanks to assistant coaches Donnie Shimmel, Jerry Linsenbigler, Tom Danver and Bear Stewart.
BROOKVILLE – 13
Joe Galbraith p-3b 6334, Tyler Ross 3b-p 4310, Justin Harmon rf 1010, Jeremy Aharrah dh 1100, Greg Sobol 1b 4113, Jacob Means c 6112, Nick Bishop ss 4101, Jess McCullough lf 3210, Shane Heschke ph-lf 1000, Michael Lindermuth 4020, Dan Hetrick 2b 3100. TOTALS: 37 13 10 10.
CLEARFIELD – 9
Adam Jury ss-p-ss 4232, James Zimmermann 2b 4231, Kyle Kline 3b-ss-3b 4101, Jarrin Campman lf-3b-lf 5011, David Welker cf-p 2001, Derek Danver rf-c 5100, Michael Moyer 1b-p 3000, Justin Hoffman lf 1000, David Ryan cf 1000, Corey Bookhamer p-1b 1000, Chris Barr dh 3110, Wil Bacharach c-rf 1100, Aaron Sayers rf 2110. TOTALS: 36 9 9 6.
Score by Innings
Brookville 205 040 020 – 13 10 2
Clearfield 004 002 020 – 9 9 3
Errors – Ross, Bishop; Jury, Kline 2, Bookhamer. PB – Bacharach 2. DP – Punxsutawney 1 (Hetrick, Bishop and Sobol). 2B – Means; Jury, Zimmerman, Sayers. Sac – Ross, Aharrah, Lindermuth. SF – Bishop. SB – Galbraith, Means.
Pitching
Brookville – Galbraith 8+ IP (faced 1 batter in 9th), 9 H, 9 R, 6 ER, 6 BB, 2 K; Ross 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K.
Clearfield – Bookhamer 4-2/3 IP, 7 H, 10 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 1 K; Moyer 1-2/3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K; Jury 1-2/3 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K; Welker 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K.
HB – Ross 1 (Kline); Bookhamer 1 (Hetrick), Moyer 1 (Harmon). WP – Ross 1; Bookhamer 2, Jury 1.
W – Galbraith. L – Bookhamer (6-5).
