Bison Fall to Rams 8-4 in Home Finale

HYDE — The home finale for the Clearfield Area High School baseball team turned to be a microcosm of the fast-fading 2013 season.

For the 10th time in 17 games, the Bison were saddled with a loss in a game they held a lead as Penns Valley came on strong in the late innings to win the Mountain League make-up 8-4 at the Bison Sports Complex Tuesday.

Clearfield (5-12, 4-9 ML) managed only six hits off three Penns Valley (9-9, 4-8) right-handers, who were able to limit the damage despite issuing nine free passes.

The Bison, who have had six or fewer hits in the last four games and nine games overall, stranded 11 runners, six of them in scoring position. The double-digit LOB total is their seventh.

In addition, three of Clearfield’s five errors resulted in three unearned runs.

“It’s a young team, and we continue to make mistakes that hurt ourselves,” coach Sid Lansberry said. “There were plays that weren’t made that should have been made.

“We’re still doing a lot of good things, but we give up too many runs that shouldn’t be given up.”

Jon Janocko and Josh Sorbera had two singles apiece for the Bison, while freshman Logan Puit doubled and drove in two runs in his varsity debut.

Wyatt Sharp slugged three doubles, drove in three runs and scored three for the Rams, who collected 10 hits off Devin Jones, losing hurler Wyatt Westen and Thomas Summers.

Penns Valley took a 2-0 lead against Jones on Cody Luse’s RBI triple to deep center in the first inning and Sharp’s double and a Bison misplay in the third.

Clearfield got one run back in the lower third when courtesy runner Zach Timchak stole home when Curtis Collins broke from first and drew a throw to second base.

After Cole Kephart led off the fourth with a  walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch, Puit drilled his two-bagger to deep right to knot the score. Puit moved up to third on an errant throw to the plate and scooted to the plate on Westen’s groundout.

Westen protected the 3-2 lead for one inning before the Rams drew even in the fifth on two walks, a dropped fly ball and Cameron Tobias’ single through the left side.

The visitors struck for the go-ahead run in the sixth with two outs as Sharp doubled into the left field corner and winning pitcher Adam DeGarmo slapped a ground single into left field.

In the seventh, Penns Valley loaded the bases with no outs and got what proved to be the winning run on a misplayed fly ball before Sharp delivered the final blow, a three-run double to right center.

Walks to Summers and Kephart around Janocko’s single to center gave the Bison some hope, but they added only one run on Puit’s groundout.

After pinch-hitter Josh Kennedy walked to re-load the bases, DeGarmo wrapped up the win with a pop-up and a groundout.

In the junior varsity game, courtesy runner Christian Rumery scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Clearfield a 1-0 victory and an 8-8 record.

Winning pitcher Brandon Orsich racked up 11 strikeouts.

The Bison will end the season with two road trips.

They will return to Philipsburg-Osceola Thursday for the completion of an ML game suspended Friday with the Mounties ahead 6-2 in the top of the fourth inning and then visit Punxsutawney Friday.

PENNS VALLEY — 8

Taylor Collison 2b 4210, Cody Luce ss-p-ss 5111, Wyatt Sharp rf 4333, Kevin Butts 1b 2000, Dakota Schrenkel 3b 0000, Adam DeGarmo p 2011, Maxwell Bair p-1b 5010, Cameron Tobias 3b-ss-3b 3011, Davey Keller cf 0000, Anthony Montressor dh 2000, Andrew Deardorff ph-dh 2000, Logan Courson lf 1000, David Fox ph-lf 2110, Colton Treaster c 3110.  TOTALS: 35  8  10  6.

CLEARFIELD — 4

Spencer Herrington 2b 2000, Curtis Collins lf 4000, Thomas Summers rf-p 2100, Zach Timchak rf 0000, Jon Janocko 1b 3020, Kaleb Taylor pr 0000, Cole Kephart ss 2100, Devin Jones p 0000, Sawyer Rowles cf-rf 0000, Logan Puit dh 3112, Wyatt Westen cf-p-cf 3001, Josh Kennedy ph 0000, Erik Seller 3b 4010, Josh Sorbera c 4120.  TOTALS: 27  4  6  3.

Score by Innings

Penns Valley 101 011 4 – 8  10  1
Clearfield        001 200 1 – 4   6  5
E – Collison; Timchak, Janocko, Kephart, Rowles 2. PB – Treaster. LOB – Penns Valley 12; Clearfield 11. 2B – Sharp 3, Puit. 3B – Luse. SB – Collison, Bair 2; Timchak.

Pitching

Penns Valley – Bair 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K; Luse 2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 K; DeGarmo 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 2 K.
Clearfield – Jones 3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K; Westen 3-1/3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K; Summers 2/3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.
WP – Luse 2. Balk – DeGarmo.
W – DeGarmo. L – Westen (2-3).
Umpires – Mark Michelucci (plate) and Norm Bender (bases).

Bison Scoreboard: