Golden Tide Win Second Straight, Knock Off Johnsonburg 9-5

CURWENSVILLE –  What a difference three days can make.

After losing to Johnsonburg on the road Wednesday, 3-2, the Curwensville Area High School baseball team exploded for eight first inning runs to dump the Rams, 9-5, Saturday on the Golden Tide’s home field.

The Tide scored just three runs in their first four games and have now scored 28 in the last four contests.

Needless to say, Curwensville lost the first four games, but have now won three of the last four to up their 2014 record to 3-5.

Defending state champion Johnsonburg dips below .500 at 4-5 with the Saturday loss to the Tide.

The Rams struck quickly by scoring three runs in the top of the first inning but one could hardly imagine what the Tide would do in the bottom half of the first.

Curwensville head coach Denny Johns said afterwards, “To bounce right back and get eight runs in the first just after they got three in the top of the inning was huge for us today.”

Led by senior shortstop Tanner Elensky, Curwensville sent, as mentioned, eight runs home to take the steam out of Johnsonburg.

Elensky doubled on the first pitch to get Curwensville rolling as Tyler Mays, Kyle Johns and Ricky Magnuson each picked up first inning singles and Brett Gardner and Travis Lansberry each drew a walk.

Two errors by the Rams also helped the Tide score its first six runs.

The two other runs came courtesy of a two out, one on home run by Elensky who used just two swings of the bat in the first frame.

Elensky picked up a triple in the third inning and ended the day with three hits, all being of the extra base variety.

Brett Gardner also had a big day at the plate with three hits, including two doubles, while touching home plate twice on the mostly sunny day.

Curwensville picked up an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth as Gardner scored, after doubling to right center, on a two out single by Alex Olson.

A. J. Bloom pitched all seven innings for Curwensville in picking up his first win of the year.

Johns talked about the effort from Bloom, commenting, “Obviously I was hoping that A. J. (Bloom) could give us a strong four or five innings today and I was just elated that he was able to go the distance.  That was a great boost to the squad.”

Johnsonburg was paced by Cameron Grumley with two doubles.  David Sallack picked up two singles while Cole Peterson had a double to help the Rams offense.

The Tide will host DuBois Central Catholic on Monday afternoon at 4:15 pm.

JOHNSONBURG – 5

Cole Peterson ss 3110,  Cameron Grumley p 3221,  Taylor Feronti 2b 4112,  Kevin Benson 4011,  Matt Taylor pr 0000,  Eric Bevacqua c 3010,  David Sallack 3b 4021,  Mitchell Anderson lf 4000,  C. Duchi rf 1110,  Brian Feronti rf 1000,  M. Solorio rf 1010,  Nathan Field cf 2000, TOTALS  –  30  5  10  5.

CURWENSVILLE – 9

Tanner Elensky ss 4232, Tyler Mays c 4110,  Jake B. Stiles 3b 4001,  Brett Gardner 2b 3230,  Kyle Johns rf 2111,  Alex Olson lf 3011,  Ricky Magnuson 1b 4111,  Travis Lansberry 2100,  A. J. Bloom p 3000,  Noah Strickland cr 01000, TOTALS  –  29   9   10   6.

SCORE BY INNINGS R H E

JOHNSONBURG 310 000 1 5 10 3

CURWENSVILLE 800 001 x 9 10 0

ERRORS – Sallack 2, Bevacqua. LOB – JOHNSONBURG – 7;  CURWENSVILLE – 7. 2B – Grumley 2, Peterson, Sallack; Gardner 2, Elensky.  3B – Elensky.  HR – Elensky (1 on, 1st inn.); SB –  Peterson, T. Feronti, C. Duchi; Gardner, Olson.  SF – Stiles.  DP – CURWENSVILLE. HBP – Bevacqua (by Bloom).

PITCHING

JOHNSONBURG

Grumley 6 IP,  10 H,  9 R,  6 ER,  5 BB,  3 K

CURWENSVILLE

Bloom 7 IP,  10 H,  5 R,  5 ER,  3 BB,  4 K,  1 HB

WP – Bloom (1-0).  LP -Grumley.

UMPIRES – Joe Shick, Norm Bender.

Tide Scoreboard: