MOUNT UNION – The Curwensville VFW Teener League 15-and-16 All-Stars didn\’t bring their \’A\’ game to the 2008 Pennsylvania State Tournament opener at the Mount Union Area High School Field Thursday morning.
The result was a 10-4 setback for the Area VI champions, as Area V runner-up Bellefonte took advantage of errors and walks for most of its scoring.
Seven of the runs charged to loser Wes McGarry were unearned because of a quartet of miscues.
The Curwensville left-hander gave up 11 hits in six innings. He walked three Bellefonte batters, and all came around to score.
\”The score is a little misleading, but we just did not play a good ball game,\” Curwensville manager Denny Johns said. \”It was a combination of physical errors and mental errors that just put us in a hole that we couldn\’t dig ourselves out of.\”
And his team had its chances, stranding 11 runners.
\”We went down in order in the first, but we left two runners on in every other inning except the sixth,\” Johns noted. \”It was there for us to take.\”
Left unsaid was the fact Curwensville just couldn\’t get the hit that would put the pressure on winner Jordan Brennan, who surrendered six hits and four walks while striking out five in six innings. Zach Moerschbacher worked a scoreless seventh, striking out the side around a pair of walks.
Bellefonte bolted to a 6-1 lead before McGarry found his rhythm.
The winners\’ only earned runs came in the second. Moerschbacher singled, moved up on a groundout and scored on two wild pitches during a walk to Zach Kosman. Nik Packer singled, and Matt Watson plated both runners with a key hit.
An error, a double by Moerschbacher and a single by Kosman put Bellefonte up by five in the top of the third.
Curwensville, which got a gift run in the second thanks to a pair of Bellefonte miscues, cut the margin to 6-3 on Jed Greslick\’s sacrifice fly in the third and his double and Garrett LaBorde\’s single in the fifth.
Then, Bellefonte salted it away with four tallies in the sixth, two errors making it 7-3 before Ryan Peters drove in two runs with a single and scored on Kosman\’s third hit.
Singles by Derek Brothers and Greslick around a balk by Brennan produced Curwensville\’s final run in the lower sixth.
Brothers pitched a scoreless inning in relief for Curwensville, which begins what it hopes will be a marathon trip through the eliminination bracket with an 11 a.m. game against Schuylkill West Friday. The consequence of the first-round loss is that Curwensville would have to reel off six consecutive victories to claim the state title.
\”I told the kids we just did not play smart, fundamental baseball, and in this tournament, the other teams will make you pay when you give them the kind of chances we did today,\” Johns said.
In Thursday\’s other games, Area IV champ Altoona scored six runs in the sixth inning to beat Area II champ Schuylkill West 9-3, Area III champ Central Penn National came up with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to nip Area VI runner-up Punxsutawney 4-3 and Area V champ and host Mount Union rode Sean Dixon\’s three-hit, seven-strikeout complete game to a 6-0 win over Area IV runner-up Hollidaysburg.
BELLEFONTE — 10
Matt Watson ss 3112, Zach Tressler ph 1000, Robert Gummo cf 5100, Jordan Brennan p-lf 4100, Jordan Schainholz 2b 3110, Eric Regel dh 3110, Brandon Grau-Reish lf-3b 0000, Zach Moerschbacher 3b-p 4221, Ryan Peters c 4112, Zach Kosman 1b 3132, Nik Packer rf 3120, Levi Knoffsinger rf 1000. TOTALS: 33 10 11 7.
CURWENSVILLE — 4
Derek Brothers c-p 3220, Wes McGarry p-cf 3000, Jed Greslick ss 3122, Andrew Redden 2b-c 4100, Shae Best cf-rf 1000, Garrett LaBorde 1b 4011, Nick Opaliski 3b 3010, Alex Holland lf 1000, Anthony Starr lf 2000, Tyler Milliron rf-2b 3000, Kyle Kyler ph 1000. TOTALS: 28 4 6 3.
Score by Innings
Bellefonte 132 004 0 – 10 11 5
Curwensville 011 011 0 – 4 6 4
Errors – Watson, Schainholz, Moerschbacher, Peters 2; McGarry, Greslick, LaBorde, Opaliski. LOB – Bellefonte 8; Curwensville 11. 2B – Schainholz, Moerschbacher; Greslick. Sac – Brennan. SF – Greslick. SB – Watson 2, Kosman, Packer; Redden.
Pitching
Bellefonte – Brennan 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K; Moerschbacher 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K.
Curwensville – McGarry 6 IP, 11 H, 10 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K; Brothers 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K.
HB – Brennan 1 (McGarry). WP – Brennan 1; McGarry 2. Balk – Brennan 1.
W – Brennan. L – McGarry (2-2).