CURWENSVILLE – The Curwensville Golden Tide baseball team earned the number six seed in the upcoming District 9 Class “A” baseball playoffs that begin on Tuesday.
The Golden Tide, which finished the 2009 campaign with an overall record of 11-5, will battle the Rovers of Brockway in first round action on Tuesday at 4:30 pm at Curwensville. The Tide defeated Brockway in the first game of the year 15-9 and were to play a second regular season contest that could never take place due to weather/field conditions. Brockway enters the tournament as the eleven seed with an 8-7 mark on the year.
The Tide had seven regulars hit over .300 during the season: Jesse Hoover (.429, 4 HR’s, 21 RBI\’s), Wes McGarry (.429), Cory Bloom (.413, 15 RBI\’s), Mark Dell’Antonio (.333, 14 RBI\’s), Ben McGary (.332), Sam Gardner (.314, 15 RBI\’s) and Brett Sutika (.310). Off the bench Derek Dixon hit three HR’s and batted .389. Outfielder Jed Greslick also chipped in with 17 RBI’s for the Golden Tide offense.
On the mound it was McGary leading the way with a 4-2 record while posting a 2.35 ERA. Gardner had a 3-3 record while Hoover and Wes McGarry both went 2-0.
Other first round games, also slated for Tuesday (all at 4:30 pm) are: #9-Ridgway (11-7) at #8-Elk County Catholic (12-7); #12-DuBois Central Catholic (6-11) at #5-Johnsonburg (13-5) and #10-Oswayo Valley (10-7) at #7-Smethport (12-5).
The following top four seeds will receive first round byes: # 1-Clarion (11-1); #2-Clarion-Limestone (8-2); #3-Coudersport (13-4) and #4-Port Allegany (11-4).
The Tide split with Elk County Catholic (ECC) and DuBois Central Catholic (DCC) during the regular season. ECC won the first game 11-1 while the Tide won the second contest 10-0. Curwensville beat DCC the first time around 8-4 but lost the follow-up game 5-3.
Curwensville swept Johnsonburg during the regular season (4-2 and 15-4) while being swept by Ridgway (3-2 and 12-9).
The Curwensville-Brockway winner will meet up with Coudersport on Thursday at 4:30 pm in the quarter-finals at Coudersport.
Listen to Golden Tide baseball on Tuesday at 4:30 pm on WOKW-FM, 102.9.