BEECH CREEK – The Clearfield American Legion baseball team saw a first-round upset of East Division champion Beech Creek slip away in the late innings of its Central Penn League Playoffs debut Wednesday evening.
The Post 6 Chiefs, who finished fourth in the West Division, kept the Crickets battling from behind until the fifth inning, when the hosts nudged ahead 6-5 with two runs.
Clearfield (11-10) tied it up in the top of the seventh on Andrew Redden’s single and Coleman Kubala’s double, but two walks and two errors in the bottom of the frame gave Beech Creek an 8-7 win, the winning run crossing the plate with one out.
The tough loss forces the Chiefs to make another long road trip Friday for an elimination bracket game against Mifflin County, which was beaten 5-2 at Philipsburg Wednesday.
Clearfield defeated Mifflin County 10-4 on June 10.
Jon Janocko gave the Chiefs a quick 2-0 first inning lead with a one-out single up the middle after Justin Houser hit Kyler Kephart and walked Derek Danver and both runners advanced on Redden’s fly to deep center.
The Crickets responded with four of their 10 hits off Ronny Ogden and a sacrifice fly by Clayton Butler, knotting the score.
Neither starter could cool off the bats in the second inning as Danver singled for two RBIs and scored on the first of three hits by Redden for the Chiefs while Cole Hanley had a run-scoring single following an RBI groundout by Chuck Probst for the Crickets.
Clearfield upped its lead to 6-4 as Redden doubled to drive in Kephart in the fourth frame, but Beech Creek matched that singleton when Drew Nyman singled and scored for the second time on a Probst grounder.
The Crickets finally overtook the Chiefs in the fifth on an error and singles by Devin Stacey and Butler around a wild pitch by Ogden that allowed Nyman to score the tying run and Stacey to move into scoring position.
Clearfield prolonged the game in the seventh, but Ogden’s third walk, an error and a walk by reliever Danver filled the bases with Crickets, and Houser scored the deciding run on the Chiefs’ fourth error in the last three innings.
Probst, the third Cricket hurler, picked up the victory after failing to save it for Holter, who limited the Chiefs to three hits and one run while striking out four in 3-1/3 innings. Probst fanned two and gave up one run on two hits.
Ogden was charged with the loss, departing after facing one batter in the seventh. He surrendered six earned runs.
Kephart had a pair of hits for the Chiefs, while Hanley, Stacey and Nyman each had two for the Crickets, who will host Philipsburg Friday.
CLEARFIELD — 7
Kyler Kephart rf-2b 3-2-2-0, Derek Danver ss-p 3-2-1-2, Andrew Redden c 4-1-3-2, Jon Janocko 1b 3-0-1-2, Ronny Ogden p-rf 4-0-1-0, Coleman Kubala 3b 3-0-1-1, Tanner Ogden cf 4-0-0-0, Cole Kephart 2b-ss 3-1-1-0, Curtis Collins 1-1-1-0, Wyatt Westen lf 1-0-0-0. TOTALS: 29-7-10-7.
BEECH CREEK — 8
Chuck Probst cf-p 4-1-1-2, Cole Hanley 2b 3-1-2-1, Kyle McGregor ss 4-1-2-0, Devin Stacey c 4-1-2-0, Clayton Butler 3b 3-1-1-2, Justin Houser p-lf 3-0-1-0, Drew Nyman lf-rf-cf 4-2-2-0, Trever Reed 1b 1-1-0-0, Bryce Hanley 1b 0-0-0-0, Phil Holter rf-p 1-0-0-0, Ethan McGill rf 1-0-0-0. TOTALS: 28-8-10-6.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 230 100 1 – 7 10 4
Beech Creek 220 120 1 – 8 10 1
Errors – Danver 2, Kubala 2; Houser. LOB – Clearfield 5; Beech Creek 5. 2B – K. Kephart, Redden, Kubala; Probst. Sac – Janocko, Kubala; Butler, Houser, Holter 2. SF – Butler. SB – K. Kephart.
Pitching
Clearfield – R. Ogden 6+ IP (faced 1 batter in 7th), 10 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K; Danver 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, o ER, 1 BB, 0 K.
Beech Creek – Houser 1-2/3 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K; Holter 3-1/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K; Probst 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K.
HB – R. Ogden 1 (Reed); Houser 1 (K. Kephart). WP – R. Ogden 1.
W – Probst. L – R. Ogden (3-3).