LaBorde started the afternoon on the hill for the Tide and gave way to freshman Kyle Johns in the bottom of the fourth. Johns ran into trouble giving up three runs to the Owls so LaBorde came back to the mound to finish the game.
The Tide was actually the visiting team on their own field as the game was scheduled to be played at Harmony, but due to poor field conditions on the Owls home field, the game was moved to Curwensville.
The offense for the Tide started quickly as they built a 4-0 lead after the first two innings and added another run in the top of the fourth to acquire a five run lead before Harmony would score those three tallies in the bottom half of inning number four.
Harmony would be blanked the rest of the way as the Owls would gather five walks and two hit batsmen for their offensive output on the day.
Curwensville would finish their scoring day with two runs in the fifth inning and a big five spot in the seventh in their best offensive showing of the season.
Denny Johns, Tide head coach, was certainly pleased to break a two game losing streak but was cautious afterwards, “It sure is nice to get back on the winning track, but we need a lot of improvement in all areas of our game. After four games we are still searching for two or three pitchers and hope that a few guys will soon step forward.”
Senior shortstop Shane Hoover had a triple and a double with three RBI’s to pace the Tide along with two hits and three RBI’s from junior Boone McGary. Hunter McCracken, a sophomore, also drove in three teammates on the day.
Curwensville stole nine bases and was issued six walks and two hit batsmen to go along with the eight hits.
Harmony losing pitcher Brandon Fox did strike out 14 Tide batters on the afternoon, something that Johns talked about, “Even though it was a losing effort the Harmony pitcher (Fox) struck out 14 of our guys showing that we need to put the bat on the ball a whole lot more.”
Johns closed with, “Garrett (LaBorde) continues to be our stopper at this point and Shane (Hoover) came up with some big hits for us this afternoon.”
The Tide return to the diamond on Monday with a trip to Brockway to battle the Rovers at 4:15 pm.
CURWENSVILLE – 12
Shae Best cf 4210, Brad Coudriet ph 1111, Hunter McCracken 2b 5113, Shane Hoover ss 5323, Boone McGary 1b 5023, Garrett LaBorde p/rf 4010, Kyle Bloom c 2001, Curt Bloom ph 1000, Jordan Russell lf 1101, Brett Gardner ph 1000, Tanner Elensky 3b 2000, Jesse Zorger 3b 1100, Kyle Johns rf/p 1100, Shelby McGarry rf 1200, TOTALS – 34 12 8 12.
HARMONY – 3
Kamden Kruise rf 3000, Larry Brink ph 1000, Bryan Yingling 2b 2100, Seth Westover ph 1000, Devon Kurtz ss 3000, Brandon Fox p 2100, Johnny Schneider 1b 2100, Nathan Young c 2000, Evan Novella cf 1000, Joseph Leyo cf 1001, Dayton Feaster 3b 2001, Austin Hugill lf 2001, TOTALS – 22 3 0 3.
SCORE BY INNINGS R H E
CURWENSVILLE 220 120 5 12 8 1
HARMONY 000 300 0 3 0 5
ERRORS – Feaster, Schneider, Yingling, Kurtz, Fox, McCracken. LOB – CURWENSVILLE – 8 HARMONY – 5. 2B – Hoover. 3B – Hoover. SB – Coudriet 2, Russell 2, Hoover, Best, B. McGary, S. McGarry, McCracken. HBP – S. McGarry and Laborde (by Fox) Fox and Hugill (by Johns).
PITCHING
CURWENSVILLE
LaBorde 6 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
Johns 2/3 IP, 0 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, 2 HB
HARMONY
Fox 7 IP, 8 H, 12 R, 8 ER, 6 BB, 14 K, 2 HB
WP – Laborde (2-1) LP – Fox