CURWENSVILLE – A measure of revenge was gained Saturday afternoon as the Curwensville high school baseball team defeated visiting Ridgway 9-3 to win their fifth straight game and improve to 12-4 on the 2010 season.
On May 4 the Elkers had rallied from two down in the bottom of the seventh inning to overcome the Tide 10-9.
Saturday was a different story as Curwensville made sure this time there would be no such rally by Ridgway in a game that actually started in the bottom of the first inning with no score. The original game at Curwensville was halted due to rain after the Elkers batted in the top of the first inning way back on April 8.
Senior Wes McGarry picked up his fifth win of the year in the complete game effort for Curwensville. McGarry now stands at 5-2 for the season.
The Tide would tally one run in the bottom of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead after two innings were in the scorebook, but it was the fourth and fifth frames that propelled Curwensville to a sweet victory.
A five run fourth stanza for Curwensville was fueled by four base on balls and some timely hitting.
Garrett LaBorde started it with a walk for Curwensville followed by a one out walk to McGarry putting runners on first and second. Sam Gardner continued his torrid hitting for the Tide as he stroked a double which brought home LaBorde and McGarry.
For the week Gardner had five extra base hits – three doubles and two triples.
With Gardner stealing third base and Brett Sutika drawing a walk the Tide were still in business, now with runners on first and third. Shane Hoover hit a sacrifice fly to left field for out number two that brought home Gardner with the third run of the inning for the Tide.
Shae Best blasted a triple to right field that plated Sutika and then scored on a single to right field by Hunter McCracken that completed the five run fourth inning.
The Tide would add three more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a commanding 9-3 margin after five, which ended up as the final score.
Greslick, Best and Gardner all had two hits for the Golden Tide who coupled ten base hits with nine walks given up by the Elkers.
A whole bunch of runners were left on base as Ridgway stranded nine while the Tide left 12 on base.
Head coach Denny Johns of Curwensville was a happy skipper afterwards, “We are certainly headed in the right direction as we are fielding well, throwing well and hitting very aggressively. If we continue to do those things well then we should be tough to beat.”
Curwensville will travel to Kane on Monday for a 4:15 pm game with the Wolves. The Tide beat Kane the first time around this year, 11-1.
RIDGWAY – 3
Ben Jacques cf 3110, Joe Chittester p/rf 3010, Sam Skraba ss/p 2100, Lou Stillwell 1b 0000, Josh Mitchell dh 3001, Derek Gaffey 3b/c 4031, Kilhoffer 2b/ss 3100, Alex Dickant rf 2000, Jesse Gardner 3b 1000, Eric Matheson c/2b 3021, Jeff Slattery lf 1000, D. J. Skraba lf 2020, TOTALS – 27 3 9 3.
CURWENSVILLE – 9
Jed Greslick lf/ss 5120, Wes McGarry p 3210, Sam Gardner cf 5222, Brett Sutika 2b 1100, Shane Hoover ss/rf 3013, Shae Best rf/lf 3221, Jonathan Michaels c 1011, Alex Holland cr 0000, Derek Brothers 3b 0000, Hunter McCracken 3b 4011, Garrett LaBorde 1b 1101, Boone McGary 1b 1000, TOTALS – 27 9 10 9
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
RIDGWAY 000 120 0 3 9 4
CURWENSVILLE 010 530 X 9 10 3
ERRORS- Kilhoffer, D. J. Skraba, Slattery, Gaffey, Best, Greslick 2 LOB – RIDGWAY – 9 CURWENSVILLE -12 2B – Chittester, S. Gardner, Michaels 3B – Best SB – S. Skraba, Kilhoffer 2, D. J . Skraba, Greslick, Gardner SAC – Mitchell, Hoover, Sutika DP – RIDGWAY – 1
PITCHING
RIDGWAY
Chittester 4 1/3 IP, 9 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 8 BB, 1 K
S. Skraba 1 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
CURWENSVILLE
McGarry 7 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 K
WP – McGarry (5-2) LP – Chittester