HYDE – Luke Wise pitched a six-hitter and drove in four runs to lead undefeated Central Mountain past Clearfield 10-3 in schoolboy baseball action at the Bison Sports Complex Monday afternoon.
The junior southpaw struck out 11 Bisons and picked off another in his complete-game effort that pushed the Wildcats’ record to 5-0 in the Mountain League Allegheny Division and 8-0 overall.
“He threw a nice game,” Clearfield assistant coach Brandon Billotte said. “He kept us off balance. We swung at a lot of pitches that were his pitches and not ours.
“We didn’t have our best at-bats of the year, that’s for sure, but you’ve gotta give him credit. He made us look that way.”
Clearfield’s lone earned run came in the sixth inning when Tanner Ogden ripped his second home run of the season down the left field line.
Two of Central Mountain’s five miscues contributed to the other Clearfield runs.
Looking for a spark with the Bisons down 3-0 and two outs in the third frame, Billotte called for the forced balk play.
Kyler Kephart, who had extended is hitting streak to nine games with a bad-hop single that sent courtesy runner Michael Wood to third, broke for second and got into a rundown. Wood broke for home and slid in safely when the throw to the plate was low.
Wood was running for catcher Jonas Kochan, who led off with an infield single to deep short.
In the seventh, Christian Flood wound up at third base when his single to center was misplayed and scampered to the plate as the Wildcats opted to go for the out via a rundown after Wise picked off Matt Josephson, who had walked.
Clearfield starter Ronny Ogden paid for issuing two free passes in the top of the second. Following the visitors’ second sacrifice bunt of the inning, Jonny Wise looped a single to short center for one run and Luke Wise belted a triple to dead center for two more.
“Ronny threw well against Tyrone in his last outing and didn’t throw too bad in the beginning of the game,” Billotte said. “He held them down pretty well (in the first three innings) and kept us in the game. That’s all we can ask from him.
“Our bats just didn’t come alive.”
Central Mountain’s bats did in the fourth inning.
The Wildcats broke it open with six runs, five of them unearned as a result of two Bison errors.
The key blow was Luke Wise’s two-run single to right center that was mishandled, allowing Jonny Wise to score, too, for a 6-1 lead.
With two outs, Von Walker and Ryan Hill slugged back-to-back doubles for RBIs, and Robby Nicodemus added a run-scoring single.
Reliever Wyatt Westen limited the Wildcats to four hits and one run over the last three innings.
The two Clearfield hurlers combined for four strikeouts and four walks while surrendering five earned runs.
“If our pitchers keep us there and we do the little things right, we have a chance,” Billotte said. “It just didn’t happen today.”
Billotte cited mental mistakes as a factor in preventing the Bisons from giving the Wildcats a better game.
“Things we work on every single day we didn’t execute at all,” he said. “I don’t know how many errors we had, but if you count the mental errors, we’re in double digits. You can’t have that. It’s that simple.
“We have three days to get on the field, work at it and clean things up.”
The Bisons, who are 2-7 with a 1-4 ML-Allegheny record, go to Wingate Friday for a non-division game against Bald Eagle Area.
Coach Donnie Shimmel’s Bison jayvees, who lost their first three games, reeled off their fifth consecutive win by rallying for four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to nip the Wildcat underclassmen 7-6. Spencer Herrington’s infield single ended it and made Nate Brady the winner.
CENTRAL MOUNTAIN — 10
Luke Wise p 5134, Cayden Stover ss 4010, Derek Moltz ph 1000, Von Walker cf 5111, Ryan Hill c 3111, Robby Nicodemus 1b 3111, Brad Walker 3b 3100, Alex quiggle lf 3220, Drew Nyman rf 2000, Justin Hummel rf 1110, Jonny Wise 2b 2210, Kyle McGregor ph 1011. TOTALS: 33 10 13 9.
CLEARFIELD — 3
Kyler Kephart 2b 3010, Cole Kephart ss 3000, Matt Josephson ph 0000, Tanner Ogden cf 4111, Ronny Ogden p-cf 3010, Coleman Kubala 3b 3010, Jon Janocko 1b 2000, Wyatt Westen lf-p 0000, Thomas Summers dh 2000, Jonas Kochan c 3110, Curtis Collins rf1000, Christian Flood lf 2110. TOTALS: 26 3 6 1.
Score by Innings
Central Mountain 030 600 1 – 10 13 5
Clearfield 001 001 1 – 3 6 3
Errors – V. Walker, Hill 2, B. Walker, J. Wise; C. Kephart 2, Collins. DP – Central Mountain 1 (Stover, J. Wise and Nicodemus). LOB – Central Mountain 8; Clearfield 6. 2B – V. Walker; Hill, Hummel. 3B – L. Wise. HR – T. Ogden (2). SB – L. Wise 2, Moltz, Stover, V. Walker 2. CS – Josephson (by L. Wise).
Pitching
Central Mountain – L. Wise 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 11 K.
Clearfield – R. Ogden 4 IP, 9 H, 9 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K; Westen 3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K.
WP – L. Wise 1; Westen 1. Pickoff – L. Wise 1 (Josephson).
W – L. Wise. L – R. Ogden (0-2).
Umpires – Scott Viehdorfer (plate) and Allen Fricke (bases).
Bison Baseball Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 3/23 | @ Norfolk Collegiate HS | 9 – 10 | 0 – 1 |
| 3/27 | BELLEFONTE | 13 – 15 | 0 – 2 |
| 3/30 | PENNS VALLEY | 3 – 1 | 1 – 2 |
| 4/02 | @ Punxsutawney | 6 – 12 | 1 – 3 |
| 4/04 | HUNTINGDON | 18 – 14 | 2 – 3 |
| 4/09 | CENTRAL | 13 – 16 | 2 – 4 |
| 4/11 | @ Tyrone | 0 – 3 | 2 – 5 |
| 4/13 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | 8 – 12 | 2 – 6 |
| 4/16 | CENTRAL MOUNTAIN | 3 – 10 | 2 – 7 |
| 4/20 | @ Bald Eagle Area |