HYDE – On a perfect spring afternoon for high school baseball, the Clearfield Bisons came up with a perfect ending to their home opener and, most likely, a long rivalry with perennial Central Penn League contender State College Thursday.
A trio of juniors put a big smile on veteran coach Sid Lansberry’s face with textbook small ball in the bottom of the seventh inning, manufacturing the winning run in a 5-4 thriller at the Bison Sports Complex.
Shane Harper drew a four-pitch walk off Little Lion reliever Ben Sallade, Justyn Knepp managed to drop down a perfect sacrifice bunt on a pitch high out of the strike zone and Jarrett Fulmer stepped into the hero’s role by bouncing a 2-2 offering just fair over the third base bag for the run-scoring hit and Clearfield’s first win over State College since 1998.
The Bisons followed the blueprint Lansberry had laid out for them in preseason, highlighting a near-flawless defensive performance with two doubleplays and a pickoff in the late innings, putting the ball in play with runners at third base three times after taking 10 called third strikes in last week’s season-opening loss in Virginia, and getting a shutdown relief job from winner Chad Zurat.
“Small ball and defense, that’s what we have to do every game,” Lansberry said. “Like (assistant coach) Bear (Stewart) said, holding that team to four runs on this field is quite an accomplishment, with the hitters they have.
“It’s a big win. And that’s the last time we’re probably gonna play them, forever.
“That’s pretty neat.”
With Clearfield moving to the all-sports Mountain Athletic Conference next school year, CPL Class AAAA foes DuBois, Altoona, Hollidaysburg and Williamsport as well as State College will no longer be on the schedule.
While the Little Lions have simply overpowered the Bisons many times in the past, their series finale was a tight throughout.
It was home run or no count for the visitors with bombs by Sallade, Shane Regal and Jeff Moyer accounting for all of their runs.
However, the game’s first bomb was detonated by Bison Andrew Redden.
Fulmer was aboard via a single for the junior catcher’s two-out drive to deep left off Brad Holzwarth in the bottom of the first inning.
“That was a big blow,” Lansberry said. “That got ’em back on their heels a little bit.”
Not for long.
Regel led off the second with what Lansberry estimated was a 450-foot blast to left center that landed on the roof of a house that sits nearly 100 feet beyond the fence, and Sallade deposited a towering fly ball over the center field fence to give the Little Lions their only lead, 3-2, in the third.
Clearfield tied the score on starting hurler Trevor Flanagan’s infield single, a groundout and another clutch hit by Redden with two outs. His rope to left chased home courtesy runner Knepp from second.
The Bisons went in front for the second time in the fourth. Garrett Samsel and Harper slashed singles to right, and pinch-runner Drew Brown scored when State College couldn’t turn a DP on Knepp’s grounder to short.
Moyer’s wicked liner over the right-center fence in the fifth set the stage for the dramatic last two innings.
Zurat, who had relieved Flanagan in the fourth and got out of a two-on, one-out situation with a strikeout and flyout, pulled a real Houdini in the sixth by escaping unscathed despite giving up two walks and two hits.
He did his part by picking off pinch-runner Steve Mellott after Aaron Sallade dropped a pop-fly single behind third base.
Then, State College loaded the bases for No. 3 hitter Aaron Mock. His fly to short right didn’t appear deep enough for a sacrifice fly, but Derek Musser got the green light from the third base coach, and it took a perfect relay to prevent the go-ahead run.
First baseman Luke Peterson cut off right fielder Justin Hoffman’s throw and fired a strike to Redden for the out.
“That’s the first game Peterson ever played at first base, and that was a key play,” Lansberry said. “And Kneppy’s bunt in the seventh was a key.
“That third baseman was right there,” said Lansberry, pointing to a spot about 30 feet from home plate.
Knepp pushed his bunt to the right side, and Fulmer made the sacrifice pay off with his game-winning hit that just did stay fair.
Fulmer and Redden had half of Clearfield’s eight safeties off Holzwarth and Ben Sallade.
“We hit the ball better than I thought we would,” Lansberry said. “That game down south, we had 13 Ks, 10 looking, and those pitchers were no better than these guys.”
Zurat was rewarded for his 3-2/3 innings of solid relief, striking out two, walking one and allowing only four hits.
The senior righthander and Flanagan, who gave up six hits and two walks and hit two batters, were able to keep the Little Lions in check except for the home runs.
“Both pitched well against a pretty good lineup,” Lansberry said. “(State College) is gonna be much better, I’m sure. It’s good to play ’em early.”
Clearfield (1-1) has a week to savor the victory before visiting Bradford for a District 9 Northern Allegany League Big School Division game next Thursday. The Bisons will host CPL foe Altoona the next day.
STATE COLLEGE — 4
Nick Carothers ss 4140, Ben Sallade cf-p 3112, Austin Mock 3b 4000, Brad Holzwarth p 0000, Trey Nicosia cf 0000, Jeff Moyer dh 4111, Shane Regel c 3111, Will Sefter rf 2000, Matt Fry 2b 3010, Aaron Sallade 1b 4010, Steve Mellott pr 0000, Derek Musser lf 2010. TOTALS: 29 4 10 4.
CLEARFIELD — 3
Jarrett Fulmer 2b 4121, Derek Danver ss 2000, Justin Hoffman rf 3000, Andrew Redden c 3123, Tyler Jacobson 3b 3000, Chad Zurat cf-p 2010, Luke Peterson 1b 0000, Garrett Samsel dh 3010, Drew Brown pr 0100, Shane Harper lf-cf 2110, Trevor Flanagan p 1110, Justyn Knepp lf 1001. TOTALS: 24 5 8 5.
Score by Innings
State College 310 102 3 – 10 12 2
Clearfield 201 100 1 – 5 8 1
Errors – Danver. DP – State College 1 (Holzwarth, Carothers and A. Sallade); Clearfield 2 (Fulmer, Danver and Peterson; Hoffman, Peterson and Redden). LOB – State College 10; Clearfield 4. HR – B. Sallade, Moyer, Regel; Redden (1). Sac – Knepp. SB – Carothers, Nicosia. CS – Mellott (by Zurat).
Pitching
State College – Holzwarth 4 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 3 K; B. Sallade 2-1/3 IP,1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K.
Clearfield – Flanagan 3-1/3 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K; Zurat 3-2/3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K.
HB – Flanagan 2 (Regel, Fry). WP – Holzwarth 1.
W – Zurat (1-0). L – B. Sallade (0-1).
Umpires – Dale Shaw (plate), Al Fricke (bases).
