ST. MARYS – The tone for the District 9 Class A baseball championship game was set in the first inning at Berwind Park Thursday afternoon, and it wasn\’t good for the No. 4 seed Curwensville Golden Tide in the school\’s first finals appearance in 10 years.
Cameron County standout catcher David Lyon threw out speedy Jed Greslick on a steal attempt for the final out in the top of the frame.
A few minutes later, Sean McManigle deposited Ben McGary\’s 15th pitch over the fence near the 360-foot mark in left center for a grand-slam home run.
It was all downhill from there for the second-seeded Red Raiders as they cruised to a 13-1 victory in 4-1/2 innings for their second 9-A crown in three years.
They did everything one would expect from a senior-dominated, veteran team that was denied a repeat district title by Johnsonburg (8-3) last year but advanced to the PIAA semifinals, where they lost again to the eventual state runner-up Rams 2-1.
Cameron County (17-2) sprayed line drives to all parts of the field, with five of the 11 hits going for extra bases, got a dandy three-hit mound performance from Cameron Clingan and made every play on defense.
Curwensville coach Ryan Briskar certainly was impressed by the hitting prowess of the Red Raiders, whose batting average is hovering around .400.
\”They are an outstanding hitting team,\” he said. \”I can think of three pitches our pitchers had three inches off the ground that they hit a line drive.
\”You have to tip your hat to them. They absolutely, positively pounded the ball.\”
McGary and Wes McGarry, who relieved in the third inning, discovered there are no easy outs in the Red Raider lineup.
Only Mike Baker didn\’t register a hit, but he walked and scored twice.
The three batters at the bottom of the order – Cory Reed, Abram Zoschg and Darrick Mason – had five hits, drove in four runs and scored four.
The top of the lineup features St. Bonaventure University recruit Jordan Crane, hitting just under .550, and Lyon, a slugger with a .604 average.
They helped set the table in the first inning with sharp singles to center. A Golden Tide error on Clingan\’s bad-hop grounder put Cameron County runners at every base.
But not for long.
McManigle jumped on a full-count, high fastball from McGary for his second grand slam in the last four games.
In the second frame, Garrett Hornung whacked a two-run double to deep right center and later scored when Lyon stayed back on McGary\’s low curve and rifled it into center.
The spread widened to 9-0 in the third on a walk and back-to-back RBI-doubles by Zoschg and Mason.
Reed\’s bases-loaded single for two ribbies highlighted Cameron County\’s four-run rally against McGarry in the fourth that set up a Mercy Rule finish when Clingan kept the Golden Tide off the scoreboard in the fifth.
The senior left-hander, who missed the first half of the season because of illness, struck out five and walked two, losing a shutout on a high fastball to Jed Greslick in the fourth inning.
The Golden Tide sophomore hammered it almost 400 feet to center for a home run.
\”He hit that ball real well,\” Briskar said. \”His eye-hand coordination is great. I walked by him and said, \’Hey, why don\’t you get hold of a fastball, and that\’s exactly what he did.\”
Greslick was the lone Curwensville runner to touch second base.
\”Our kids are young, and they were a little nervous,\” Briskar said. \”But we put the ball in play. We didn\’t get any bounces to go our way. And that\’s baseball.
\”Most of the time, throughout the season, you put the ball in play out of three times, you\’re sitting pretty good.
\”But not against a team like this. This team is very, very, very sound, one through nine, the whole way through.\”
Cameron County opens its third consecutive trip to the state tourney Monday against Serra Catholic (21-2), District 7\’s third-place qualifier.
Curwensville (16-7) will be in action the same day, taking on Homer-Center (11-6), which won the District 6 title with a 15-9 victory over Juniata Valley at the Blair County Ballpark in Altoona Thursday.
\”We\’re going to go into that with our heads held high, knowing that we’re a solid ball team,\” Briskar said. \”We have confidence with what we have.\”
EXTRA INNINGS — Clingan, who worked from the stretch in every inning, logged 85 pitches in his fourth win without a loss… McGary\’s pitch count hit 60 in 2-1/3 innings. He suffered just his second loss in eight decisions in his roughest outing in two seasons… Several of the seniors played when the two teams met in the opening round in 2005. Curwensville, the No. 13, had Cameron County on the ropes 9-2, but the fourth-seeded Red Raiders pulled out a 10-9 win… Curwensville has reached District 9 finals 10 times and owns six championships, the last one in 1998 under coach Don \”Bear\” Stewart… Keystone (12-7), which was shut out 3-0 by Curwensville in the semifinals, bounced Kane (15-6) 19-6 in the first game of Thursday\’s twinbill to advance to the state tourney. The Panthers will meet District 7 (WPIAL) champ Carmichaels (20-1).
CURWENSVILLE — 1
Ben McGary p-cf 2000, Jonathan Michaels ph 1000, Wes McGarry rf-p 1000, Jed Greslick lf-rf 2111, Brett McCracken ss 2000, Trevor Horton dh 2000, Andrew Straw 3b 0000, Cory Bloom c 2010, Brett Sutika 2000, Mark Dell\’Antonio 1b 1000, Jesse Hoover ph 0000, Sam Gardner cf-lf 2010. TOTALS: 17 1 3 1.
CAMERON COUNTY — 13
Garrett Hornung 2b 3112, Jordan Crane 1b 4110, David Lyon c 3121, Cameron Clingan ph 3210, Sean McManigle rf 2214, Mike Baker lf 1200, Cory Reed ss 2012, Abram Zoschg 3b 3321, Darrick Mason dh 3122, Matt Kriner cf 0000. TOTALS: 24 13 11 12.
Score by Innings
Curwensville 000 10 – 1 1 3
Cameron County 432 4x – 13 11 0
Errors – McCracken 2, Sutika. PB – Bloom 1. LOB – Curwensville 3; Cameron County 4. 2B – Hornung, Clingan, Zoschg, Mason. HR – Greslick; McManigle. Sac – Reed. SB – McManigle, Zoschg, Mason.
Pitching
Curwensville – McGary 2-2/3 IP, 8 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 2 K; McGarry 1-2/3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 0 K.
Cameron County – Clingan 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.
WP – McGary 1.
W – Clingan (4-0). L – McGary (6-2).
Umpires – Lynn Gilham (home plate), Sam Bevak (first base), Joe Shick (second base), Scott Ditullio (third base).