Chiefs’ Season Ends in Region 7 Semifinal Against Homer City

CLEARFIELD – Lack of pitching depth caught up with Clearfield in the semifinal of the Pennsylvania American Legion Region 7 Tournament Wednesday.

Homer City, led by Scott Harsh’s two home runs and nine runs batted in, amassed 21 hits off six of the seven hurlers manager Sid Lansberry paraded to the Lawrence Township Recreation Park Field mound to end the Chiefs’ Cinderella run, 25-2 in seven innings.

However, Homer City (19-10) couldn’t sustain that momentum in the championship game and was trimmed 18-3 in eight innings by State College (34-8).

Clearfield had used its two top hurlers, Corey Bookhamer and Chad Zurat, to stymie State College 6-5 Tuesday after knocking out DuBois 8-7 Monday with Ronny Ogden and Zurat allowing only one run and four hits over the last 7-2/3 innings.

Lansberry hoped to get a few innings from Ogden against Homer City, but Harsh foiled Plan A with three-run blasts over the left field fence in the first and second frames.

There was no Plan B.

“We just ran out of pitching,” the Clearfield skipper said. “To win a tournament like this, you’ve gotta have five pitchers.”

The winners really put it out of reach with six runs in the fourth before the Chiefs scored their runs on doubles by Derek Danver and Bookhamer and a Homer City error.

“Everybody got a little down,” Lansberry said. “When you get that far down (on the scoreboard), it’s tough to stay up.

“They’ve got some big, strong kids that hit the ball, and if you’re not at the top of your game as far as pitching goes, they’re going to put the ball out.”

Eric Cusimano and Ryan Mlakar did just that to highlight the fourth-inning rally.

Homer Center, which also had four doubles, nearly doubled its offensive output with 11 runs off four Clearfield pitchers in the sixth inning, Harsh plating two with his third hit.

Tim Kinter and Cusimano had four hits apiece as well as five and three RBIs, respectively.

Mlakar, Evan Bencic and Matt Stewart added pairs of singles.

Harsh also was the winning pitcher, giving up seven hits and striking out three in six innings.

The Blairsville High School three-sport standout started against State College, too, and gave his team five innings before running out of steam. He logged 191 pitches in the two games.

Danver and Bookhamer each a single and a double for Clearfield, which was 3-2 in the tourney, both to Homer City, for a 20-15 season.

“I told the kids a 20-win summer is pretty good,” Lansberry said. “We played 35 games, which is an accomplishment in itself.

“And to come in as the third place team in our league and win three games at regionals, that’s commendable.

“To beat Somerset, DuBois and State College in four days, what more can you ask?”

Lansberry wanted to thank everybody who had anything to do with making the tourney a success, especially parents and supporters who kept the concession stand operating and the ground crews for having both diamonds in excellent condition.

“It’s a lot of work, but I told (Region 7 director) Jim McKee if there’s an opening in the next few years, we’ll do it again,” he noted.

“It’s a worthwhile thing to do because it exposes our kids to good baseball, and we get to play extra games.”

HOMER CITY — 25

Evan Bencic ss 4421, Tim Kinter cf 5445, Scott Harsh 6339, Ty Holderbaum c 4212, Eric Cusimano 3b 6243, Cody Trabert rf-p 4112, Matt Wilden 1b 3210, Josh Goldberg ph-1b 2111, Ryan Mlakar lf 3322, Matt Stewart 2b 3320. TOTALS: 40 25 21 25.

CLEARFIELD — 2

Jarrett Fulmer 2b-p-2b-ss-2b 4010, Derek Danver ss-p 3120, Corey Bookhamer 1b-c-1b 3121, Andrew Redden c-p-1b-c 3010, Justin Hoffman rf-2b-rf 3011, Chad Zurat cf-1b-cf 3000, Kyle Timchak dh-lf-rf-p-lf 2000, Steve Miller ph 1000, Tyler Jacobson 3b-p, 2000, Derrick Snyder p-3b, Shane Harper lf-cf-lf 2000, Kyler Kephart 2b 1000, Ronny Ogden p 0000. TOTALS: 27 2 7 2.

Score by Innings

Homer City 350 06(11) 7 – 25 21 1

Clearfield 000 20 0 0 – 2 7 2

Errors – Stewart; Jacobson, Harper. DP – Homer City 1 (Harsh, Bencic and Wilden); Clearfield 1 (Harper, Zurat and Fulmer). LOB – Homer City 6; Clearfield 5. 2B – Kinter, Cusimano 2, Trabert; Fulmer, Danver, Bookhamer. HR – Harsh 2, Cusimano, Mlakar. Sac – Stewart. SF – Holderbaum, Trabert. SB – Kinter.

Pitching

Homer City – Harsh 6 IP, 7 H, 2 , 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K; Trabert 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.

Clearfield – Ogden 1-1/3 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 0 K; Redden 3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K; Fulmer 1 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K; Jacobson 0 IP (faced 4 batters in 6th), 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K; Snyder 0 IP (faced 2 batters in 6th), 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K; Timchak 2/3 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K; Danver 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.

WP – Harsh 1; Ogden 1, Timchak 1. Balk – Harsh 1.

W – Harsh. L – Ogden (2-3).

Umpires – Joe Shick (plate); Mike Campbell (first base); Dave Neal (third base).

Chiefs’ Season Ends in Region 7 Semifinal Against Homer City

Fred Kavelak

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