PUNXSUTAWNEY — The Curwensville Golden Tide baseball team moved up in class to face the AAA Punxsutawney Chucks in their regular season ender on Friday afternoon. Despite outhitting the Chucks 15-13, the Tide found themselves on the short end of the scoreboard 14-7.
First year Head Coach Denny Johns and the number five seeded Tide (13-6) now head to the District 9 A playoffs on Tuesday May 25 when they host number twelve seeded Keystone at 4:30.
Curwensville jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Wes McGarry hit his first home run of the season over the right field fence.
The Chucks answered right back with a four spot in the bottom of the first.
The Tide came right back to set the score at 4-3 with two runs in their second at bat. Shae Best, Jonathan Michaels and Boone McGary each singled to produce the first run while the second scored on a Garret Laborde fielder’s choice that got thrown away allowing Michaels to score.
Another four runs in the second and a run in the third inning by the home team opened the Chuck lead to 9-3.
With the playoffs looming, the Tide was not going to lay down. Instead they came out swinging and closed the gap to 9-6 heading to the bottom of the fifth.
With one out, Jed Greslick blasted his team-leading fourth home run of the season over the center field fence. Wes McGarry kept things going with a double to left center and scored on a Sammy Gardner single. Brett Sutika continued his hot stick by plating Gardner with a run-scoring double.
Unfortunately for the Tide, Punxsutawney was able to plate five runs to the Tide’s single run over the last two innings to set the final at 14-7.
CURWENSVILLE — 7
Jed Greslick ss 4111, Wes McGarry cf 3331, Sam Gardner 1b-rf 4132, Jason Bloom 1b 0000, Brett Sutika 2b 4031, Shane Hoover 3b-p 3011, Shae Best lf 3110, Alex Holland lf 1000, Jonathan Michaels c-3b 4110, Boone McGary rf-1b 2010, Jesse Zorger 1b-rf 1010, Garrett LaBorde p 2000, Kyle Bloom c 1000, TOTALS 32 AB, 7 R, 15 H, 6 RBI
PUNXSUTAWNEY — 14
Kyle Neal 2b 5230, Jordan Mesoraco c 5234, Braedon Pennington cf 2200, Tyler Skerkavitch 1b 4222, Dane Kopas rf 2001, Easton Renwick rf 0100, Tyler Wingard 3b 2123, Joe Pisano 3b 0000, Dylan Kachmar lf-p 3011, Taylor Neal lf 1011, Bradie Lowmaster p 0000, Dom Bevak dh 3200, Devean Neal p 0000, Zak Dickey ss 3212, TOTALS 30 AB, 14 R, 13 H, 14 RBI
Score by Innings
Curwensville 120 301 0 7 15 4
Punxsutawney 441 023 x 14 13 2
Errors – Gardner 2, Greslick, Hoover. DP – Curwensville 1. LOB – Curwensville 5, Punxsutawney 7. 2B – McGarry, Sutika; Mesoraco 2. HR – McGarry (solo, 1st), Greslick (solo, 4th); Dickey (solo, 6th). Sac – Hoover.
Pitching
Curwensville – LaBorde 3 IP, 7 H, 9 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
Hoover 3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 0 k
Punxsutawney – Lowmaster 3.1 IP, 12 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Kachmar 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
D Neal 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
WP – Kachmar. LP – LaBorde (2-1)