Central Outlasts Bisons, 16-13

HYDE – In a game where the teams combined for 29 runs on 26 hits, 14 walks, four hit batsmen and nine errors, Central outlasted the Clearfield Area High School baseball team Monday afternoon on the Bisons home diamond, 16-13.

Clearfield once again showed that it can get down early in games but has the ability to come back. This time, however, there just weren’t enough innings to pull out the win.

Central scored in each of the first five innings and had margins of 7-3 after three innings and 14-13 after five innings.

It was a giant game for Scarlet Dragon Logan Stern as the second baseman had four hits including a double and a fifth inning grand slam that enabled him to collect seven RBI’s on the night.

Down 2-0 going into the bottom of the first, the Bisons put a lone run on the board as Cole Kephart, who lead off the inning with a single, scored on a ground out by Ronny Ogden.

Central added two more in the top half of the second but Clearfield came right back with two of its own in the bottom of the inning.

With two outs Wyatt Westen and Curtis Collins came up with back to back singles to be followed by Cole Kephart getting hit by a pitch to load the bases for Clearfield.

Bison starting pitcher Kyler Kephart then stroked a two run single to left field driving in both Westen and Collins.

Back came Central as the Scarlet Dragons added three runs each in the top of the third and fourth innings to widen the margin in their favor to 10-3 before the Bisons batted back in the bottom of the fourth.

Clearfield used three hits, two walks, one hit batsman and one error to push across five runs in its half of the fourth to inch closer at 10-8. Tanner Ogden had the big hit for Clearfield, a two run double to right center field.

Unfortunately the Scarlet Dragons had their biggest inning in the top of the fifth due to Stern crushing his grand slam home run over the left center field fence to give Central a little breathing room at 14-8. Breathing room they would need.

The Bisons again scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning utilizing just one hit, five walks, another hit batsman and a Central error to cut the deficit to 14-13 in favor of the Dragons.

It would be the last time Clearfield would cross home plate while the Dragons added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning to get the wild 16-13 victory.

The win leaves Central at 3-4 on the year while the Bisons are now 2-4.

Assistant Coach Brandon Billotte of Clearfield talked about the key element in the loss, “The obvious big stat that jumps out is the fact that we committed seven errors. You don’t usually win when that happens and tonight was no different.”

Then Billotte added, “I thought we had great at bats all night. The kids, as usual, battled at the plate. This team gets down but has the capability of coming back and making a game out of it. We have proven all year that we are able to stay in the game. The kids deserve a lot of credit for never giving up.”

The Bisons travel to Tyrone on Wednesday for their next game.

The Clearfield junior varsity ran it’s record to 2-3 on the year by defeating Central 5-4. Devon Jones was the winning pitcher with Josh Kennedy scoring two runs for the Bison youngsters.

CENTRAL – 16

Austin Cunningham ss 5331, Logan Stern 2b 5447, Kasy Hamm 5121, Bradi Moore cf 5220, Cole Kreider 3b 3021, Brandon Negley lf 4000, Brandon Nisewonger ph 0000, Zach Slagenweit rf 0000, Mike Mock dh/p 3222, Ian Ebersole 1b 3100, Zach Croft p, 2220, Ethan Lewis p/rf 1100, TOTALS – 36 16 17 12

CLEARFIELD – 13

Cole Kephart ss 2310, Kyler Kephart p/2b 3212, Tanner Ogden cf 5122, Ronny Ogden lf 5123, Coleman Kubala 3b 3100, Jon Janocko 1b 3000, Jonas Kochan c 0000, Thomas Summers dh 4111, Wyatt Westen 2b/p 2211, Curtis Collins rf 3210, TOTALS – 30 13 9 9.

SCORE BY INNINGS R H E

CENTRAL 223 340 2 16 17 2

CLEARFIELD 120 550 0 13 9 7

ERRORS – Cunningham 2, R. Ogden 3, K. Kephart, T. Ogden, Kochan, C. Kephart. LOB – CENTRAL – 4 CLEARFIELD – 9. 2B – Stern, Hamm, Moore, Kreider, T. Ogden. HR – Mock (3^rd, solo), Stern (5^th, Grand Slam). SB – Cunningham 2, Stern 2, Moore, Kreider. HBP – Kreider (by Westen), C. Kephart 2 ( by Croft 2), Summers ( by Lewis).

PITCHING

CENTRAL

Croft 3 2/3 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 3 ER, 1 K, 2 BB, 2 HB

Lewis 1 IP, 1 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 K, 6 BB, 1 HB

Mock 2 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 K, 2 BB, 0 HB

CLEARFIELD

K. Kephart 3+ IP, 12 H, 10 R, 8 ER, 4 K, 0 BB, 0 HB

Westen 4 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 3 K, 4 BB, 1 HB

WP – Lewis LP – K. Kephart (1-2)

UMPIRES – Dave Neal, Sam Bevak

Clearfield Bison Scoreboard: