BASEBALL
CHANDLER, Ariz. – Senior catcher Phil Solley of Grampian and senior right fielder Bart McGary of Curwensville continued their red-hot hitting pace as Pitt-Bradford concluded its annual spring trip to the Southwest by winning three of five games last week.
Solley cracked two-run singles in consecutive innings in a 16-10 loss to Swarthmore on March 9, had three hits and two RBIs in a 17-11 win over Presentation (S.D.) College the next day and then singled twice, walked twice and drove in one run in an 8-2 victory over Swarthmore Thursday.
His average was a sizzling .714 before he wore the collar in a 9-5 loss to Presentation Friday but still leads the 3-4 Panthers with a .526 average (10-for-19) and 11 runs batted in. Solley has two doubles and three runs scored.
McGary enjoyed a trio of two-hit games, including the 9-5 nightcap win over Swarthmore Thursday, and added a single in the Panthers’ getaway game against Presentation to set his average at .423 (11-for-26), fourth highest on the team.
He’s had five multi-hit games, with two doubles, as well as six games with at least one RBI.
Freshman lefthander Ben McGary of Curwensville went to the mound in two games against Swarthmore, working one-and-a-third innings on March 9 and one inning with three strikeouts in the second game Thursday.
In three appearances, McGary has logged 5.1 innings with a 6.75 earned run average. He’s given up 13 hits and 11 runs, only four of which were earned, while striking out seven batters, walking one and hitting one.
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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – Junior Kyle Kline of Clearfield collected six hits for a .375 average in five games for Penn State-Behrend on its spring break trip.
The Lions won their first seven games before losing 13-8 to Manhattanville (N.Y.) at the Lawnwood Complex Saturday.
Listed as a second baseman on the Lions’ roster, Kline has seen all his action at first base, including four starts.
The 6-3, 185-pounder registered the first three-hit game of his career in an 11-5 win over Ursinus on March 7 and drove in a pair of runs with a single and a double against Manhattanville.
Overall, Kline sports six hits, three of them doubles, in 16 official at-bats. He’s scored two runs and driven in four.
Penn State-Behrend was picked by the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference coaches to win the championship for the third year in a row.
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SAVANNAH, Ga. – Clearfield Area High School graduate Adam Jury of Bigler and his Slippery Rock teammates experienced a rough start to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Division schedule Saturday and Sunday as California won a pair of doubleheaders to close the 2010 Savannah Invitational hosted by Armstrong Atlantic (Ga.) State.
The Vulcans, picked to finish third in the PSAC-West, knocked off the preseason favorites 8-3, 8-4, 13-8, and 8-6 on historic Grayson Field for their first series sweep of The Rock since 2006.
Jury singled twice in 16 at-bats and drove in three runs during the series.
Earlier in the week, the junior shortstop had just his second multi-hit game of the season with two singles in a 10-7 win over Charleston (W.Va.) on March 9 at Lakeland, Fla.
He was 3-for-9 the last three games Slippery Rock, now 6-10, played on its spring break trip to the Sunshine State.
Jury, who has started every game, is hitting an uncharacteristic .186 (11-for-59) with two doubles, two sacrifice flies and seven RBIs.
He’s received three walks, been hit once and scored eight runs.
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SOFTBALL
KISSIMMEE, Fla. – An 11th-inning sacrifice fly by Brittany Pataky of Clearfield gave Lock Haven an 8-7 victory over Caldwell (N.J.) College in its Rebel Spring Games finale at the Osceola County Sports Complex Saturday.
The junior first baseman’s RBI with the bases loaded and no outs ended a scrap against the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference favorites that saw the teams trade runs in the eighth and 10th innings.
Pataky also had a clutch at-bat earlier against C.W. Post earlier in the day.
She broke up a scoreless tie with a singled up the middle in the top of the ninth inning, but the Lady Eagles were victimized by a walk-off home run in the bottom of the frame and lost 2-1.
Defending NCAA Division II champion Lock Haven, ranked No. 25 in the pre-season poll, was 3-5 on the spring trip, beating No. 13 Saginaw Valley (Mich.) 4-3 in eight innings March 8 and Truman (Mo.) State 7-0 the next day.
Pataky had a run-scoring double and a single against Saginaw Valley for the second multi-hit game of her three-year career.
Lady Eagle season statistics are incomplete.
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MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Sophomore second baseman Alanna Luzier of Frenchville (Clearfield Area H.S.) and freshman third baseman/outfielder Jenessa Stiles of Curwensville helped Penn State-DuBois go 5-2-1 at the 2010 Fastpitch Dreams Spring Classic, the best start by a Lady Lion team since 2001.
The losses were by identical 1-0 scores to undefeated LaRoche, which scored the lone run in each game in the top of the seventh inning.
The tie occurred in Thursday’s spring break trip finale that was halted because of rain after Keystone scored six runs in the bottom of the seventh frame for a 10-10 finish at Huckabee Park.
Luzier singled in both LaRoche games, singled home a run in a 3-2 squeaker over Keystone on March 9 and had two hits in a 10-2, five-inning win over Wentworth (Mass.) Institute of Technology on March 10.
Stiles started games at third base, in right field, in left field and as designated hitter. She had an RBI-single in the tie with Keystone.
Complete season statistics are not available.
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MEN’S TRACK & FIELD
CONWAY, S.C. – Junior John Bowman of Clearfield broke his own Penn State-Behrend outdoor hammer throw record for the second week in a row Friday at the Coastal Carolina University Invitational.
Bowman’s throw of 37.07 meters (121 feet, 7 inches) erased his previous week’s effort of 34.64m (113-7 3/4) at the Salisbury (Md.) University Spring Classic.
He placed 34th among 46 entries and then hurled the javelin 48.87m (160-4) to finish 22nd among 52 participants.
On Saturday, Bowman wound up 28th in the discus with a throw of 34.49m (113-2). The event had 52 entries.
Junior Michael Johnson of Clearfield placed 33rd among 44 hurdlers in the 400-meter race with a time of 1:00.97.
The meet attracted more than 1,400 athletes from 32 schools.
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MEN’S GYMNASTICS
BERKELEY, Cal. – Freshman Scott Rosenthal of Clearfield placed fourth on the still rings in No. 6-ranked Penn State’s 354.650-344.30 loss to No. 9 California Saturday.
Travel problems prevented No. 8 Nebraska from reaching the West Coast for the scheduled tri-meet.
Rosenthal’s 14.450 score just missed tying teammate Noam Shaham and Cal’s Dennis Manhart for second place; they matched 14.500 performances. Nittany Lion Felix Aronovich won with a 14.650.
Penn State is 4-4 for its final dual meet Saturday night in Rec Hall against No. 2 Okalahoma.
Rosenthal currently ranks No. 12 in the country with a 15.017 average for his top three scores.
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WRESTLING
HAMPTON, Va. – Penn State-DuBois 184-pounder Shawn Hall of Clearfield split his four matches and 133-pounder Jeff Smallwood of Curwensville was 1-2 at the 2010 National Collegiate Wrestling Association National Championships in Hampton University’s Convocation Center Arena last week.
Both freshmen won their opening bouts before losing in the second round of the 32-wrestler brackets.
Hall dominated Taylor Thiem of Wayne (Neb.) State for a 17-1 technical fall and then was beaten 6-2 by South Carolina’s Ben Brummel (19-4), who advanced to the finals where he was nipped 2-1 by Ian Stephens of Tennessee-Temple.
In the wrestlebacks, the Mid-East Conference champion pinned Toledo’s Constantinos Charalambos in 2:50 and lost 3-1 to Grand Valley (Mich.) State’s Derek Marshall, who placed sixth.
Smallwood advanced with a 14-10 victory over New Hampshire’s Sean Mooney before being handed a 13-4 loss by Kekura Musa of Maryland-Baltimore.
The Mid-East Conference runner-up beaten 12-3 by Brennan Leeuwenburg of Grand Valley State in his first consolation match.
Hall finished 12-4 and Smallwood 8-9 after joining the first-year Penn State-DuBois team in mid-season.
Heavyweight James Mosher of Sheffield also was 2-2 in the 79-team national tourney for the Lions.
With the trio earning 17.5 points, Penn State-DuBois tied for 16th in Division II, which had 54 club teams.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a former NCAA Division III program making its NCWA debut, easily won the championship with 64.5 points.
Penn State, led by Rob Vollrath’s fifth-place showing at 133, was 10th with 23.5 points.
The 25 schools with full programs competed in Division I, and Central Florida claimed the title with 128 points.
