BRADFORD, Pa. – Sophomore Bart McGary of Curwensville delivered the biggest hits in both games as the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford defeated Pitt-Greensburg 4-0 and 6-4 Saturday in the best-of-three play-in series for the 2008 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Baseball Tournament.
The fourth-seeded Panthers (20-16) will take a nine-game winning streak into the double-elimination tourney that starts Friday in Erie. Their first game will be against top seed and host Penn State-Behrend (30-9).
Sophomore Phil Solley of Hepburnia (Curwensville Area High School) scored on both of McGary\’s hits.
In the fourth inning of the scoreless first game, Solley and Justin Bifano singled and moved up on a sacrifice. McGary then drilled a double over the Pitt-Greensburg left fielder\’s head for two runs. He later scored on a single by Ryan Smith.
Junior Ben McCracken of Bradford pitched the shutout, allowing only four hits while striking out seven and walking three.
The Panthers were trailing 4-0 when they erupted for all their runs in the sixth inning of the nightcap.
\”That was a great rally,\” coach Bret Butler said to Bradford Era sports writer Greg Clark. \”We had two outs and nobody on, and we hit the ball in that inning as hard as we\’ve hit the ball all season. We were down 4-0 with four outs to go, and we got six big hits.\”
Solley walked after two hits produced the Panthers\’ first run. An RBI-single by Bifano and a hit batsman loaded the bases for McGary, who drilled an 0-2 pitch into right field for two runs that tied the score. Shawn Manning followed with a single to center that scored Smith and McGary.
Solley is hitting .330 and is second in hits (32) and RBIs (25) and tied for third in runs (21) and walks (15).
McGary is right behind with a .325 average on 27 hits. He\’s driven in 19 runs and walked a team-high 22 times, including three on Saturday. He\’s also been hit by a pitch four times.
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GREENSBURG, Pa. – Senior Andrew Kirsch of Clearfield ended his baseball career at Seton Hill University with his best season, closing with three hits in seven at-bats last week as the Griffins swept Walsh (Ohio) University 7-3 and 6-5 and Clarion 3-1 and 10-7 for a winning record.
The left fielder started 39 of the 42 games he played and hit a solid .291, tying for second on the team with 27 runs batted in.
He tied for the team lead in triples (2) and was third in walks (15), fourth in stolen bases (12 in 14 attempts), tied for fourth in total bases (49) and fifth in hits (34 in 117 at-bats).
Kirsch, who scored 18 runs, socked eight doubles and one home run. His slugging percentage was .419, and his on-base percentage was .393.
Kirsch was hit by a pitch six times and had 24 strikeouts.
He played in 88 games in his career, hitting .263 as a sophomore and .246 last year.
Seton Hill was 26-23 overall in its first season in the NCAA Division II West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Griffins split their 16 Northern Division games.
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LANCASTER, Pa. – Senior first baseman/designated hitter Scott Hugney of Frenchville and freshman shortstop Adam Jury of Bigler did not see action for the Slippery Rock University baseball team in last week\’s Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships at Clipper Magazine Stadium.
Both Clearfield Area High School graduates missed most of the second half of the season because of injuries, Hugney with a pulled hamstring and Jury with a broken thumb.
The Rock was ousted from the double-elimination tourney in two games for a final record of 25-23 after finishing third in the PSAC-Western Division at 12-8.
The Green and White lost 5-3 Wednesday when Millersville scored all of its runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and 5-2 Thursday when West Chester tallied three in the top of the ninth.
Hugney, who DHed in two of SRU\’s last 20 games, posted a .283 batting average in 21 games, 17 of them as a starter.
He was 15-for-53 with four doubles, seven runs batted in, seven runs scored and two stolen bases in as many attempts. He had eight walks and 10 strikeouts.
At first base, Hugney handled 111 chances with only two errors for a .982 fielding average. He was involved in 10 double plays.
Jury started five of the 13 games he played and hit .409. He was 9-for-22 with one double, two RBIs and five runs scored. He walked once and struck out four times.
He did get into three late-season games as a DH and pinch-runner.
In nine games at short, Jury helped turn four DPs and was charged with four errors in 23 chances for a .826 fielding average.
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INDIANA, Pa. – Former Clearfield Area High School thinclad Nate Shadeck of Frenchville punctuated his senior season with a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles Saturday as the Slippery Rock University men\’s track and field team won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship for the first time since 2000.
Shadeck was clocked in 54.18 seconds after posting the second fastest time in Friday\’s preliminaries, winning the third heat in 53.94 on the
Lock Haven junior Paul Martin won the gold medal in 51.42 to qualify for the NCAA Division II nationals. He was first in the preliminaries with a 51.95.
Shadeck also ran the leadoff leg for The Rock\’s 4×400 relay team that was last in the 11-team race with a 3:27.71.
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LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – Freshman Brittany Pataky of Clearfield grounded out and flied out in pinch-hitting appearances for the Lock Haven University softball team in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships last weekend.
The Lady Eagles, ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division II, rode the right arm of tourney Most Valuable Player Kristen Erb to their third consecutive PSAC crown with wins over No. 8 Bloomsburg 3-0, No. 20 Kutztown 5-0 and Bloomsburg 3-0 in the finals.
Erb, who struck out 10 in hurling her third perfect game of the season in the first Bloomsburg game, lowered her Division II-leading earned run average to 0.24. The two-time National Pitcher of the Year has a 37-6 record with 347 strikeouts in 287-1/3 innings.
Lock Haven, which has won 59 games in a row at Fitzgerald Field, is the No. 1 seed for this week\’s NCAA Division II Mid-Atlantic Regional at Kutztown.
Pataky will carry a .361 batting average into the tourney. She has 13 hits and eight runs batted in.
