PHILIPSBURG – After having staved off defeat with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning just before darkness enveloped Homer Maney Memorial Field Friday evening, the Clearfield Little League 11-12 All-Stars returned Saturday afternoon and ended the District 5 Northern Tier winner’s bracket final against Philipsburg-Osceola with an unearned run in the seventh frame.
The wild 20-19 win gives Clearfield an opportunity to end a long title drought Tuesday when Four-Leaf Clover visits McNamee Field for the 6 p.m. Northern Tier championship game. If Four-Leaf Clover prevails, the two teams will go at it again Thursday at Frenchville.
Philipsburg-Osceola was unable to bounce back from the tough loss to Clearfield and bowed out of the tourney in Sunday evening’s elimination bracket final, as Four-Leaf Clover avenged a 15-13 first-round setback with a 12-2 victory in five innings at Frenchville.
The Clearfield coaching staff stayed with Noah Rumsky when the suspended game resumed, and the hard-throwing right-hander stranded the potential winning run at third base with his fifth strikeout in three innings.
Then, he led off with bottom of the seventh with his third hit, and Jake Sorbera also singled off Josh Earnest, the sixth P-O pitcher. Noah Bloom’s sacrifice bunt attempt resulted in a force at third, but Michael Ternoway’s grounder was misplayed, and Sorbera scampered around third to score the winning run.
Rumsky, the winner, had relieved in the fifth inning with the score knotted at 16, two runners aboard and no outs, retiring the next three batters, but not before P-O picked up two runs on a passed ball and a groundout.
Earnest’s third single turned into another insurance run on two passed balls and a wild pitch while Rumsky was ringing up three strikeouts in the sixth.
However, one-out singles by Sorbera, Bloom and Ternoway triggered Clearfield’s do-or-die comeback in the lower sixth. One out later, walks to Ethan McGinnis, Wyatt Porter and Jeremy Learish forced in the two runs that produced the first tie in a game that saw the lead change hands five times in the first three innings.
P-O held leads of 1-0, 10-6 after erupting for nine runs in the second inning, 12-11 and 18-16.
Clearfield was up 6-1 at the end of the first frame, 11-10 after two and 15-12 after three.
McGinnis capped Clearfield’s first-inning outburst with a two-run homer moments after Eli Glass registered two of his four RBIs with a double to the fence in center field.
McGinnis and Ternoway wound up with two singles and three RBIs apiece.
Glass and Matt Collins, who socked a solo homer in the fourth, also had two hits.
The key blows in P-O’s big second inning were a two-run single by Earnest and a mammoth two-run homer to straightaway center by Gage Coudriet, who later added a pair of run-scoring singles.
Hunter Ammerman paced the hosts’ 20-hit attack on three Clearfield hurlers with four singles.
Earnest, Coudriet, Micah Martin and Brandon Kephart each had three hits.
PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA — 19
Josh Bryan ss-p-ss 5-2-1-2, Matt Johnson 2b-p-2b 4-2-1-0, Carson Jones 2b 1-0-0-0, Josh Earnest cf-ss-cf-2b-p 4-4-3-2, Mason Martin 3b-rf 3-0-0-0, Landon McDonald 3b-lf-3b 1-1-1-0, Gage Coudriet p-1b 5-2-3-4, Micah Martin lf-p-cf-lf-cf 5-3-3-1, Hunter Ammerman c-lf-rf-c 5-2-4-0, Brandon Anderson rf-p-lf 5-2-3-2, Brandon Kephart 1b 2-1-1-1, Trey Shaw 1b-3b-c-3b 2-0-0-0. TOTALS: 42-19-20-12.
CLEARFIELD — 20
Jeremy Learish lf-3b-lf 4-0-0-1, Matt Collins p-lf-cf 5-3-2-1, Noah Rumsky cf-p 5-2-3-0, Jake Sorbera c 5-4-3-1, Noah Bloom ss-2b 3-3-1-0, Alex Coval 2b 1-0-0-0, Mike Ternoway 1b 5-4-2-3, Eli Glass 3b-p-3b-ss 3-2-2-4, Ethan McGinnis rf 4-1-2-3, Matt Ryan 2b 2-0-1-1, Wyatt Porter s-3b 2-0-1-1. TOTALS: 39-20-17-15.
Score by Innings
Philipsburg-Osceola 192 061 0 – 19 20 7
Clearfield 654 103 1 – 20 17 4
Errors – Bryan 2, Mason Martin 2, Micah Martin 2, Shaw; Learish, Collins, Rumsky, Bloom. PB – Shaw 1; Sorbera 2, Porter 4. LOB – Philipsburg-Osceola 6; Clearfield 12. 2B – Anderson; Rumsky. HR – Coudriet; Collins (2), McGinnis (1).
Pitching
Philipsburg-Osceola – Coudriet 2+ IP (faced 2 batters in 3rd), 9 H, 13 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K; Micah Martin 1/3 IP, 0 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K; Bryan 1-2/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K; Anderson 1-2/3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 K; Johnson 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K; Earnest 1/3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.
Clearfield – Collins 2-1/3 IP, 10 H, 12 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 6 K; Glass 1-2/3 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 0 B, 1 K; Rumsky 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K.
HB – Coudriet 1 (Collins), Bryan 1 (Glass); Collins 2 (Earnest, Mason Martin). WP – Coudriet 3, Anderson 2; Collins 4, Glass 1, Rumsky 1.
W – Rumsky (1-0). L – Earnest.