CURWENSVILLE – The District 9 Class “A” baseball playoffs got underway Tuesday with the Curwensville Golden Tide earning a thrilling come-from-behind 2-1 win over the Brockway Rovers.
Junior second baseman Brett Sutika delivered a two out single in the bottom of the sixth for the Tide enabling Curwensville to advance to the quarterfinals of the District 9 Class “A” baseball tournament . The Tide will travel to Coudersport to battle the number three seeded Falcons(13-4) on Thursday at 4:30 pm.
If you like a pitching duel then this was the one you needed to see as seniors Ben McGary of Curwensville and Mark Shannon of Brockway staged a classic.
McGary picked up his fifth win of the year by scattering eight Rover hits while striking out six; and Shannon, in a heartbreaking loss, limited the Tide to just five singles and struck out eight.
Through four innings the two hurlers basically matched out for out as neither squad could find a way to get someone to touch home plate.
The Rovers did have a mini threat going in the top of the first when they had Ian Grecco on first with one out and Brandon Smith at the plate. Smith hit a single to left field with Grecco trying to move from first to third on the base hit. Tide left fielder Jed Greslick made a perfect throw to third where teammate Derek Brothers put the tag on Grecco, effectively taking Brockway out of the inning.
Brockway got Shannon to second base in the top of the second, but McGary retired the next three Rover hitters, striking out the last two, to end that threat by the visitors.
The first run of the contest was picked up by the number eleven seed Brockway Rovers in the top of the fifth inning when Craig Anderson singled with two outs. Anderson promptly stole second and then third before scoring on a triple by Grecco, who went three for three on the afternoon.
It was the last time the Rovers would mount a serious threat as McGary would only allow a harmless one out single in the seventh.
The first offensive chance the Tide had was in the bottom of the third when Derek Dixon and McGary stroked back to back, one out singles. Dixon hustled to third on the hit by McGary and then McGary made it to second on the unsuccessful attempt to gun down Dixon going to third. However Shannon got Wes McGarry to pop out to short and Sam Gardner to fly out to right field to end the inning.
Curwensville made the sixth inning the winning frame on two plays that are rarely seen in games, let alone in the same inning of a game.
McGarry led off for the Golden Tide and actually struck out; but Rover catcher Anderson let the ball get away from him on the third strike and his throw to first was too late as McGarry raced down the line to safely reach first base.
Gardner followed with a sacrifice bunt, moving McGarry to second with one out. Then came the other “rare” play.
Tide catcher Cory Bloom fouled one down the third base line but catcher\’s interference was called as Bloom’s bat hit the glove of Brockway catcher Anderson on his swing. Bloom was awarded first base with McGarry still on second with one out.
Shortstop Jesse Hoover hit a ground ball to shortstop with Brockway forcing courtesy runner Jeff Smallwood out at second. The Tide now had McGarry at third base with Hoover on first and two outs.
On a play that may haunt the Rovers for a few days Hoover took off for second base with Sutika at the plate. Brockway let Hoover, with two outs, take second uncontested. It was a fatal decision for Brockway.
With the count one ball and two strikes, Sutika became the offensive hero as he stroked a single up the middle driving in McGarry and Hoover that proved to be the winning runs for the Tide.
Sutika paced the Tide with two of their five hits.
Head coach of Curwensville Ryan Briskar picked out a few of his players to praise following the nail biter, “Brett (Sutika) came up big with his bat and his glove. He made a nice over the shoulder catch for the first out in the seventh that could have spelled trouble for us. And of course his two out single that drove in the winning runs was terrific.”
Then Briskar added, “Ben (McGary) threw exactly 100 pitches, hitting the corners all day long. He was very effective and did what he had to do for us.”
One more player Briskar singled out was his third baseman, “Derek (Brothers) made two big defensive plays at third that don’t show up in the scorebook other than outs, but they were as huge as any.”
About his 2009 Golden Tide team came one more comment from Briskar, “These guys just don’t give up, ever.”
Listen for Curwensville-Coudersport quarterfinals action on WOKW-FM, 102.9 on Thursday starting at 4:15 pm.
BROCKWAY – 1 Craig Anderson c 4110, Ian Grecco 2b 3031, Brandon Smith lf 3010, Mike Vervoort cf 3000, Mark Shannon p 3010, Houston Fairman rf 3010, Ben Kuhar 3b 3000, Aaron Shaffer dh 3010, Ryan Martini 1b 0000, Zack Freemer ss 3000. TOTALS – 28 1 8 1
CURWENSVILLE – 2 Ben McGary p 2010, Wes McGarry rf 3100, Sam Gardner cf 2000, Cory Bloom c 3010, Jeff Smallwood cr 0000, Jesse Hoover 3100, Brett Sutika 2b 2022, Shae Best pr 0000, Mark Dell’Antonio 1b 3000, Derek Brothers 3b 2000, Jed Greslick lf 0000, Derek Dixon dh 2010. TOTALS – 22 2 5 2
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
BROCKWAY 000 010 0 1 8 0
CURWENSVILLE 000 002 X 2 5 0
ERRORS -None. LOB – BROCKWAY – 6 CURWENSVILLE – 6. 3B – Grecco. SB – Hoover, Shannon, Anderson 2. SAC – Gardner.
PITCHING
BROCKWAY Shannon 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K
CURWENSVILLE McGary 7 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
WP – McGary (5-2) Shannon (2-5)