Elk County Catholic Defeats Golden Tide 6-2

CURWENSVILLE – Another strong pitching performance against the Curwensville Area High School baseball team on Thursday afternoon sent the Tide down to a second straight defeat, this time by Elk County Catholic (ECC), 6-2.

Crusader pitcher Brandon Schlimm notched his second win of the year, tossing a three hit, 11 strikeout performance at the Golden Tide while surrendering just one earned run.

ECC, 6-2, broke open a scoreless game in the top half of the third inning when it pushed across two unearned runs against Tide starter, sophomore Kyle Johns.

The Crusaders made it 3-0 in the top of the sixth inning when they added a tally thanks to four singles off of Johns who actually did well in not giving up more runs to the visitors from St. Marys.

Curwensville would score both of its runs in the bottom of the sixth inning as Tanner Elensky would lead off the inning with a single and later score on a throwing error by Crusader catcher Vincent Jacob.

Tide first baseman Boone McGary also singled in the inning and he later came home thanks to a sacrifice fly by Jesse Zorger to right field.

Elk County Catholic put the game away in the top of the seventh inning by adding three more runs by using just one single along with four walks and a hit batsman.

Curwensville head coach Denny Johns spoke afterwards, “We just have to start swinging the bats more effectively because we have scored only two runs in the last 14 innings. But defensively, I thought we played very well except for the third inning when Elk County scored two unearned runs.”

Elensky had two hits for the Golden Tide while Joe McLaughlin, Brock McCullough and Ben Cortina all had two hits for ECC. McLaughlin had the lone extra base hit in the game, a second inning double to left center field.

Johns took the loss for Curwensville and pitched well for most of the contest giving up just four hits through the first five frames before things turned.

Coach Johns spoke about his sophomore pitcher, “Kyle (Johns) did throw well until he started to tire out some in the later innings. But, for the most part, I thought he was somewhat effective this afternoon.”

Next up for Curwensville, now 2-7, will be a trip on Monday to DuBois to play DuBois Central Catholic. The first pitch is slated for 4:15 pm.

Actually, over the next two weeks the Golden Tide will play seven scheduled games, with six of the contests on the road.

ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – 6

Vincent Jacob c 3111, Pat Brennen 2b 1100, Dan Singer ss 3011, Ivan Wortman cf 3110, Joe McLaughlin rf 3121, Joe Herzing 1b 3001, Brock McCullough lf 3121, Ben Cortina 3b 3021, Brandon Schlimm p 3100, Shea Meyer ph 1000, TOTALS – 26 6 9 6.

CURWENSVILLE – 2

Tanner Elensky ss 3120, Kyle Johns p/lf 2000, Curt Bloom p 0000, Boone McGary 1b 3110, Jesse Zorger 3b 3001, Kyle Bloom c 3000, Brett Gardner 2b 3000, Brad Coudriet lf 1000, Hunter McCracken ph 1000, Jordan Russell cf/p 2000, Jason Bloom ph 1000, Alex Holland rf 2000, TOTALS – 24 2 3 1

SCORE BY INNINGS R H E

ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 002 001 3 6 9 1

CURWENSVILLE 000 002 0 6 3 2

ERRORS – Jacob, McGary, Elensky. LOB – ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC – 9 CURWENSVILLE – 3. 2B – McLaughlin. SB – Jacob, Elensky, Johns. SAC – Brennen, Singer. SF – Jacob. HBP – Brennen (by Johns), McCullough (by Russell).

PITCHING

ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC

Schlimm 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 11 K

CURWENSVILLE

Johns 6 1/3 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 1 K, 1 HB

Russell – – 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 1 HB

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

WP – Schlimm (2-0) LP – Johns (1-3)

UMPIRES – Scott Viehdorfer, Jay Siegel

Tide Scoreboard: