BROOKVILLE – Clearfield got the better of Brookville in a wild ninth inning to pull out a 5-4 victory in Jefferson County Legion League baseball action under the McKinley Field lights Monday.
Starting pitchers Corey Bookhamer of the Chiefs and Jared Heschke of the Laurel Eye Clinic, who combined for 26 strikeouts, dueled through four scoreless innings after the hosts tied the score 3-3 with two runs in the third.
In the ninth, Bookhamer worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam after Chad Zurat doubled home the go-ahead run off LEC reliever Dustin Dombrowski and then scored what proved to be the winning run on a suicide squeeze play.
Luke Peterson led off the ninth with an infield hit and was sacrificed to second by Troy Danver before Zurat came through with his clutch two-bagger to right center. After Zurat moved to third on a wild pitch, manager Sid Lansberry decided to go for the insurance run with the suicide squeeze, and Justin Hoffman did his job by getting the bunt down.
LEC (4-5, 3-4 JCL) got one run back on hits by Nick Bishop and Ryan Zimmerman and two walks.
Bookhamer promptly notched his 14th strikeout before getting Heschke on a grounder to the right side for his complete-game win. He gave up seven hits and 10 walks.
Heschke was even more effective, hurling a two-hitter with 12 strikeouts before giving way to Dombrowski. Heschke walked five Chiefs and hit two.
A hit batsman and a free pass led to two Clearfield runs in the third, one scoring on Hoffman\’s groundout and the other on an LEC miscue. The Chiefs tacked on an unearned run in the fourth on a two-out throwing error.
C.J. Beitz cracked a solo home run in the second inning for LEC, which tied the game in the third on a walk, a two-out error and the second of Zimmerman\’s three hits.
Reynoldsville requested a postponement of Tuesday evening\’s game with Clearfield (5-6, 4-2), so the Chiefs\’ next outing will be Thursday when league-leading DuBois visits the Bison Sports Complex.
As one of the hosts teams for the wood bat Bellefonte Bandits Showdown, the Chiefs will meet the Toronto Cardinals at 1 p.m. and the Ohio BB Rooners at 6 p.m. Friday at the Lawrence Township Recreation Park Field. The Cardinals and BB Rooners will play at 3:30.
Four games are booked for Saturday, with Clearfield going against Tyrone at 10 a.m. and Kiski at 5:30 p.m. The Nor-Gwyn Hawks take on Tyrone at 12:30 and Kiski at 3.
CLEARFIELD — 5
Justin Hoffman rf-2b 4002, Trevor Flanagan 1b 0000, Kyle Timchak dh 4010, Corey Bookhamer p 4010, Derek Danver ss 3000, Andrew Redden c 2100, Aaron Sayers cf 3000, Luke Peterson 2b-3b 3210, Tyler Jacobson 3b 1100, Shane Harper rf 1000, Troy Danver rf 0000, Chad Zurat lf 2111. TOTALS: 37 5 4 3.
BROOKVILLE — 4
Dustin Dombrowski ss 5100, Nick Bishop rf-2b-ss 3120, Ryan Zimmerman cf 5031, Chase Lyle 2b-3b-1b-2b 0000, Garrett Spence dh 1000, Michael Lindenmuth lf 3011, Dakota Singleton 3b-c-3b 4000, Jared Heschke p-1b 5000, C.J. Beitz 1b 1111, Pat Brush pr 0100, Christian Gerg pr-rf 1000, Tyler Dombrowski c-p 2000, Ethan Harmon rf 2000. TOTALS: 31 4 7 2.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 002 100 002 – 5 4 3
Brookville 010 200 001 – 4 7 2
Errors – Bookhamer, Jacobson, Harper; Singleton, T. Dombrowski. DP – Clearfield 1 (Bookhamer and Flanagan); Brookville 1 (T. Dombrowski and Singleton). LOB – Clearfield 7; Brookville 12. 2B – Zurat. HR – Beitz. Sac – Hoffman, Bookhamer, Sayers, T. Danver, Zurat; Singleton, Harmon. SB – D. Dombrowski, Bishop, Zimmerman. CS – Timchak (by T. Dombrowski); Bishop (by Bookhamer).
Pitching
Clearfield – Bookhamer 9 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 10 BB, 14 K.
Brookville – Heschke 8 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 12 K; D. Dombrowski 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K.
HB – Heschke 2 (Redden, Peterson). WP – Heschke 1, D. Dombrowski 1. Balk – Bookhamer 1. PO – Bookhamer 1 (Lindenmuth).
W – Bookhamer (2-1). L – D. Dombrowski.
