BROCKWAY – A furious sixth and seventh inning rally gave the Curwensville Golden Tide baseball team an 8-6 come from behind win at Brockway on Tuesday against the Rovers.
The season opening victory was also a great way for new Tide head coach Denny Johns to start his tenure saying afterwards, “It’s a huge win for us under tough conditions with the wind and cold.”
Curwensville dug themselves a huge hole in the first inning against the Rovers trailing 4-1 after the first frame.
The Tide scratched out a run in the top of the second to cut the margin in half to 4-2.
Brockway would add two runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth to take what looked like a comfortable lead, 6-2. Unfortunately for the Rovers that would be the end of their sending men across the plate the rest of the way.
Now it was Curwensville’s turn to make a run. Actually they scored a bunch of runs.
In the top of the sixth, down four runs, the Tide picked up back to back singles with two outs. Juniors Shae Best and Garrett LaBorde stroked the hits that brought the Tide to within one, 6-5, after five. Best drove in two teammates with his single while LaBorde plated one.
Curwensville finished the successful comeback in the top of the seventh by adding three more to pull out the victory.
Senior Wes McGarry started the frame with a single and moved to third on a ground out and wild pitch. Brett Sutika, another senior smacked a single tying the game, 6-6, as McGarry crossed the plate. Then junior Shane Hoover singled and sophomore Boone McGary walked to load the bases.
Catcher Jonathan Michaels of the Golden Tide hit a grounder in the hole at short. An error on the throw enabled Sutika and Hoover to score to give the Tide the hard fought win.
“The kids showed a lot of heart battling back after being down 6-2 at one time”, said Johns. The he added, “In the sixth and seventh innings things just started to go our way and we took advantage of it to come out on top.”
McGarry went the distance to pick up the win and Johns was impressed with his senior hurler, “Wes (McGarry) did a great job in battling the whole game after falling behind 4-1 after one. He kept us in it the rest of the way.”
The Tide have a long layoff as their next game isn’t until April 8 at home against Ridgway at 4:15 pm.
CURWENSVILLE – 8
Derek Brothers 3b 4100, Wes McGarry p 3110, Sam Gardner cf 4021, Brett Sutika 2b 4111, Shane Hoover ss 4111, Boone McGary 1b 1200, Jonathan Michaels c 4121, Shae Best lf 3113, Garrett LaBorde dh 4011, Alex Holland rf 0000, TOTALS – 31 8 9 8
BROCKWAY – 6
Nick Anderson 1b/p/1b 4110, Ian Grecco 2b 3110, Mike Vervoort cf 3210, Houston Fairman p/rf 4212, Tom Vervoort dh 3012, Max Hrina 3b 0000, Zack Freemer ss 3000, Jake Shaffer c 3000, Phillip Esposito lf 2000, T. Snell rf/1b 3000, M. Santaniello p 0000, TOTALS – 28 6 5 4
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
CURWENSVILLE 110 003 3 8 9 5
BROCKWAY 300 020 0 6 5 3
ERRORS – Brothers, Hoover, Michaels 3, Hrina, Freemer, Shaffer LOB – CURWENSVILLE 7 BROCKWAY 4 2B – Gardner SAC – Shaffer SB – Anderson
HBP – Greco (by McGarry) McGarry (by Fairman)
PITCHING IP H R ER BB K HB
CURWENSVILLE
McGarry 7 5 6 2 3 6 1
BROCKWAY
Fairman 5 3 2 1 1 2 1
Anderson 1 1/3 5 5 5 1 0 0
Santaniello 2/3 1 1 0 2 0 0
WP – McGarry (1-0) LP – Anderson (0-1)