BASEBALL
JOHNSTOWN – Clearfield Area High School graduate Adam Jury of Bigler had a hit in both games but saw his outstanding career at Slippery Rock end on a down note last week when The Rock was ousted from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships.
The Green and White lost 11-6 to Bloomsburg on Wednesday and 7-5 to Millersville, ranked No. 8 in NCAA Division II, on Thursday at Point Stadium.
Slippery Rock went into the tourney ranked No. 4 in the Atlantic Region but did not receive one of the three at-large invitations after falling to 27-19 for the season.
Jury had one hit in each game, including a run-scoring double that helped The Rock take a 5-1 lead in the elimination game before Millersville rallied.
The senior shortstop finished the season with a .281 batting average in 46 games.
He led The Rock in runs batted in with 41, tied for second in the PSAC, and shared the lead in home runs with six. He also had seven doubles and one triple among his 45 hits in a team-high 160 official at-bats for a .450 slugging average, which was third best.
The 6-1, 200-pounder drew 12 walks and was hit by a pitch three times.
He topped The Rock in assists (108) and double plays (21). His fielding average was .927 for 178 chances.
Jury started all but one of Slippery Rock’s 145 games the last three years after appearing in 13 games with five starts as a freshman.
He was 173-for-515 at the plate, a .336 average, with 38 doubles, two triples and 12 home runs that gave him a slugging average of .487. He drove in 125 runs, with identical totals of 41 the last three seasons, and scored 109 runs.
In the field, Jury participated in 44 double plays and had a .889 field average for 488 chances.
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ALTOONA – Freshman Chad Zurat of Clearfield made his first start a quality one to keep help keep No. 3 seed Penn State Behrend’s title hopes for another Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championship alive Saturday.
The hard-throwing right-hander gave the Lions’ mound staff a boost by working 6-2/3 innings against host Penn State Altoona, striking out 10 while allowing only five hits, two walks and two runs at Stewart Athletic Field.
Penn State Behrend went on to win 7-6 in 13 innings to force an extra game for the 2011 title, but Penn State Altoona beat the Lions for the second time in two days, 8-7, to earn the AMCC’s automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The Lions, now 27-11, learned Monday their season will continue this weekend at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference South Championships being hosted by No. 1 seed Neumann at Aston, near Philadelphia.
Sophomore right-hander Mike Moyer of Clearfield pitched a scoreless eighth inning for Penn State Behrend in the title game.
He was the starter and loser against Penn State Altoona Saturday, surrendering 12 hits and eight earned runs in a 12-2 setback. He struck out three, walked two and hit one.
Senior first baseman Kyle Kline of Clearfield played in Penn State Behrend’s 11-3 elimination game victory over Medaille (N.Y.) Sunday as well as the first two games against Penn State Altoona.
All three former Clearfield Area High School players saw action in the Lions’ tune-up 14-10 win over No. 24-ranked St. John Fisher at Rochester, N.Y., on May 9.
Zurat, who picked up his third win, and Moyer each pitched one clean inning and Kline had one hit in two at-bats.
Moyer and Zurat both are 3-2 in 11 appearances.
Moyer has eight starts in 11 games, working 52.2 innings with 35 strikeouts and 13 walks. He has a 4.27 earned run average.
Zurat, who also owns three saves, has a 3.05 ERA, second best on the team, for 20.2 innings. He has fanned 32 and walked six.
Kline has been in 18 games with five hits in 32 official at-bats.
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MEN’S TRACK & FIELD
MEADVILLE – Senior Michael Johnson of Clearfield ended his four-year Penn State Behrend career by placing in two events at the fifth annual Gator Invitational hosted by Allegheny College at Frank B. Fuhrer Field in the Robertson Complex Saturday.
Johnson was fourth in the high jump, clearing 1.83 meters (6 feet), and 10th in the 400-meter hurdles in a season-best 57.56.
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SOFTBALL
BLOOMSBURG – First baseman Brittany Pataky of Clearfield punctuated her remarkable senior season for Lock Haven with four hits, one a game-winner, in three games at the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Tournament last weekend.
Her two-out double to right center in the top of the seventh inning to drive in Nicole Smith gave the Lady Eagles a 5-4 win over Shippensburg in Saturday’s elimination game at Bloomsburg’s Jan Hutchinson Field. Pataky’s RBI-single had put Lock Haven in front 4-3 in the fifth.
The Lady Eagles’ season ended in the next game, a 6-1 loss to No. 19-ranked West Virginia Wesleyan. Pataky singled for one of Lock Haven’s four hits and scored on a groundout in the sixth inning.
On Friday, Pataky doubled and scored on a passed ball in the fifth inning when Lock Haven was beaten 7-1 by West Virginia Wesleyan. The Lady Eagles had only two other hits.
Lock Haven, which was third in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Central Division at 10-5, finished 26-14.
Pataky started every game and paced the Lady Eagles with a .381 batting average on 43 hits, on-base percentage at .446, sacrifice bunts with 11 and fewest strikeouts with only eight in 165 trips to the plate.
She was second on the team with 27 runs batted in, 58 total bases and a .513 slugging average.
She had eight doubles, two triples and one home run.
In addition, Pataky sported the Lady Eagles’ highest fielding average, .995, with only two errors in 379 chances, and was involved in 10 of the team’s 12 double plays.
She ranks second in the PSAC in chances and is tied for second in fielding, double plays and sacrifice bunts.
Her batting average currently is No. 11 in the conference.
Pataky played in 139 games during her four-year career, starting 92, and collected 93 hits for a .310 batting average. She had 17 doubles, two triples and three home runs, driving in 51 runs and scoring 42.
She handled 738 chances with only nine errors for a fielding average of .988.