ST. MARYS – The bats that made so much noise in the Clearfield Area High School baseball team’s nine victories, as well as several losses, were hushed by the St. Marys pitching and defense in their District 9 Class AAA semifinal game at Berwind Park Wednesday afternoon.
The third-seeded Bisons mustered only four hits, two by Drew Brown, but were clinging to a 2-1 lead until the Flying Dutch went in front 3-2 in the third inning and then pushed across five runs in the fourth to prevail 8-3.
No. 2 seed St. Marys (11-9) will try to deny Punxsutawney (13-7) an eighth consecutive crown June 1 at a site and time to be determined. The No. 1-seeded Chucks brushed aside Bradford (5-13) 10-1 in the other semi.
Clearfield closed the books on a 9-11 campaign.
As tough as winner Kevin Hoy, who toiled six innings, and Ryan Uhl were on the Bisons, Clearfield coach Sid Lansberry cited the Flying Dutch’s play in the field as the difference.
“In my mind, the key was their defense,” Lansberry said after a post-game chat with his 40th Bison squad. “I thought we hit the ball hard at times, but they made the fundamental plays, and they made outstanding plays, too.”
None was bigger than spectacular catch Luke Nicklas made to defuse a potential Clearfield rally in the fifth inning.
After Kyler Kephart doubled to the fence in right and Jarrett Fulmer reached base on an ill-advised St. Marys fielder’s choice play, Derek Danver launched a rocket to right center that was intercepted by the leaping Nicklas, who speared the slicing liner only because he is left-handed.
“We could have had a real big inning there,” Lansberry said. “We might have got three or four runs.”
The Bisons had to settle for one on Andrew Redden’s forceout for his 34th RBI of the year.
They posed threats again in the last two frames but stranded five runners.
A walk and Brown’s second single gave Clearfield life in the sixth, but Hoy still had enough in the tank to hold off the Bisons via a comebacker, his third strikeout and Kephart’s sharp grounder to first.
With one out in the seventh, Danver walked and Redden smoked a one-hopper over second baseman Dalton Kline’s shoulder. Following a pop-up, Trevor Flanagan walked to fill the sacks. Uhl missed on his first three pitches to Brown but bore down to zero in on the strike zone four times in a row and finally get the final out on a grounder to the right side.
Clearfield also had an opportunity to rock the Flying Dutch in the first inning.
Hoy was reluctant to uncork his fastball and had trouble locating his curve, issuing free passes to Fulmer, Danver and Redden on a total of 22 pitches.
However, he snagged Tyler Jacobson’s one-hopper to start a 1-2-3 double play and gave up a pair of runs only because Flanagan’s grounder was booted and Brown slapped an RBI-single to right.
“That double play killed the inning,” Lansberry said. “And without the error, we don’t get a run.”
Hoy settled down to retire nine of 10 Bisons over the next three innings en route to his second win in four decisions.
“You have to give Hoy credit,” Lansberry said.
Though Brown held his own against Hoy, the first five batters in the Clearfield lineup were 0-for-11 against him after entering the game with averages ranging from .333 to .519. Redden’s single off Uhl was their only hit in 14 official at-bats. They did receive six walks.
In contrast, the top five Flying Dutch batters combined for eight hits, six RBIs and five runs scored.
Shortstop Jordan Weinzierl shook off the pain of a broken nose suffered during batting practice to spark the Flying Dutch with three singles.
After Justin Quiggle chased Bison starter Flanagan with a two-run single in the fourth inning, Weinzierl greeted reliever Fulmer with a liner to right for two more runs for a 7-2 lead and then scored on Uhl’s liner into left center.
Quiggle, who had two hits, and Weinzierl singled and eventually crossed the plate on Clearfield misplays in the third.
Weinzierl scored when the Bisons botched a relay after center fielder Shane Harper made an outstanding catch on Uhl’s deep fly ball.
“That ball came in and we didn’t stop the ball,” Lansberry said “We could have got out of that inning 2-2 instead of 3-2.
“Psychologically, that makes a difference.”
Not as much as the St. Marys defense on this day.
Bailing out Hoy on balls that were scorched in the early going were middle infielders Weinzierl, who knocked down Danver’s shot for a forceout in the second inning and Kline, who backhanded Brown’s bid for a base up the middle in the fourth.
Flanagan (4-3) allowed two walks and two hits in the first inning, but he picked off Weinzierl at second to prevent the Flying Dutch from scoring more than the run the got on Bob Vollmer’s single.
Three of the six runs charged to him in the third and fourth frames were unearned.
Fulmer gave up four hits and one walk but only one unearned run in his 2-2/3 innings on the hill.
“It’s been a tough year because of the weather,” Lansberry said. “We played five games one week, four the next week and then had 10 days off. And before that we had 10 days off. It was terrible.”
He noted the Bisons were able to practice on their home diamond less than five times.
“A lot of stuff we couldn’t do,” he said. “Offensively, we had a pretty good year. We hit .333.
“We knew going in we didn’t have pitching depth.”
Flanagan, Fulmer (2-4) and Jacobson (2-2) handled most of the mound chores this season.
Danver had a banner season to cap his four-year career. He became a member of the .500 Club (28-for-56), drove in 27 runs, walked 20 times and scored 34.
Redden led the Bisons in hits with 30 for a .429 average and RBIs and matched Danver in home runs with five and doubles with seven.
Fulmer posted a .365 average on 23 hits, scored 32 runs and drove in 17, while Flanagan and Jacobson hit .323, two points higher than Brown.
Those six, Harper and Steve Miller wore the Red and Black for the final time.
“Those are eight pretty good kids, good young men,” Lansberry said. “They’ll definitely be missed. Most of them have been in the program for four years, so they put in a lot of time.”
EXTRA INNINGS – The Bisons ended their first season in the Mountain League with a 3-7 record in the Allegheny Division and a 4-2 log against Nittany Division opponents… Lansberry pointed out the Bisons were among nine of the 12 ML teams that entered district playoffs… Lansberry expressed his thanks for the efforts of varsity assistants Chris Peacock, Brandon Billotte and Ed Yeager and junior varsity coaches Don Shimmel and Shane Davis.
CLEARFIELD — 3
Jarrett Fulmer 2b-p 3000, Derek Danver ss 2100, Andrew Redden c 3111, Tyler Jacobson 3b 4000, Drew Brown lf 4021, Shane Harper cf 1000, Coleman Kubala dh 2000, Tanner Ogden lf-2b 3000, Christian Lezzer ph 1000, Kyle Kephart 1b-rf 3110. TOTALS: 27 3 4 2.
ST. MARYS — 8
Justin Quiggle lf 4222, Jordan Weinzierl ss 4232, Kevin Hoy p-3b 3110, Ryan Uhl 1b-p 2011, Bob Vollmer cf 3011, Brandon Vollmer c 0000, Rocco Harshbarger dh 3100, Nate Geist 3b-1b 2010, Dalton Kline 2b 2100, Luke Nicklas rf 3110. TOTALS: 26 8 10 6.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 200 010 0 – 3 4 4
St. Marys 102 500 x – 8 10 2
Errors – Danver, Redden 2, Kephart; Geist 2. DP – Clearfield 1 (Danver, Ogden and Flanagan); St. Marys 1 (Hoy, Brandon Vollmer and Uhl). LOB – Clearfield 9; St. Marys 6. 2B – Kephart; Quiggle. Sac – Geist.
Pitching
Clearfield – Flanagan 3-1/3 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 1 K; Fulmer 2-2/3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.
St. Marys – Hoy 6 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 K, 4 BB; Uhl 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 K, 2 BB.
WP – Flanagan 1; Hoy 4. PO – Flanagan 1 (Weinzierl).
W – Hoy (2-2). L – Flanagan (4-3)
Umpires – Joe Shick (plate), Sam Bevak (first base), Jim McKee (second base) and Lee Krull (third base).
Clearfield Baseball’s 2011 Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 3/25 | INDIAN VALLEY | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
| 3/28 | @ Bellefonte | 6 – 17 | 0 – 1 |
| 3/30 | LEWISTOWN | ppd. | 0 – 1 |
| 4/01 | @ Penns Valley | ppd. | 0 – 1 |
| 4/04 | INDIAN VALLEY | ppd. | 0 – 1 |
| 4/06 | @ Huntingdon | ppd. | 0 – 1 |
| 4/07 | INDIAN VALLEY | ppd. | 0 – 1 |
| 4/08 | @ Huntingdon | ppd. | 0 – 1 |
| 4/11 | TYRONE | 4 – 9 | 0 – 2 |
| 4/13 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | ppd. | 0 – 2 |
| 4/14 | @ Penns Valley | 13 – 6 | 1 – 2 |
| 4/15 | @ Central Mountain | 6 – 7 | 1 – 3 |
| 4/18 | BALD EAGLE AREA | 9 – 7 | 2 – 3 |
| 4/19 | @ Huntingdon | ppd. | 2 – 3 |
| 4/20 | @ Juniata | ppd. | 2 – 3 |
| 4/25 | BROOKVILLE | ppd. | 2 – 3 |
| 4/27 | HUNTINGDON | 10 – 2 | 3 – 3 |
| 4/28 | BROOKVILLE | 15 – 2 | 4 – 3 |
| 4/29 | CENTRAL | 22 – 36 | 4 – 4 |
| 4/30 | INDIAN VALLEY | 2 – 10 | 4 – 5 |
| 5/02 | @ Tyrone | 10 – 9 | 5 – 5 |
| 5/03 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | ppd. | 5 – 5 |
| 5/04 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | 1 – 6 | 5 – 6 |
| 5/05 | PUNXSUTAWNEY | 8 – 13 | 5 – 7 |
| 5/06 | @ Juniata | 15 – 0 | 6 – 7 |
| 5/07 | PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA | 9 – 20 | 6 – 8 |
| 5/09 | CENTRAL MOUNTAIN | 16 – 5 | 6 – 9 |
| 5/10 | LEWISTOWN | 11 – 3 | 7 – 9 |
| 5/11 | @ Central | 1 – 3 | 7 – 10 |
| 5/12 | @ Huntingdon | 13 – 0 | 8 – 10 |
| 5/16 | @ Brookville | ppd. | 8 – 10 |
| 5/19 | @ Brookville | cancelled | 8 – 10 |
| 5/20 | @ Bradford | ppd. | 8 – 10 |
| 5/21 | @ Bradford | 11 – 9 | 9 – 10 |
| DISTRICT 9 PLAYOFFS | |||
| 5/25 | @ St. Marys | 3 – 8 | 9 – 11 |
