DUBOIS — A three-run homer by Jake Miknis in the first inning and shutout relief pitching by Derren McKee and Clayton Read enabled No. 3 seed DuBois to get past the Clearfield American Legion Post 6 baseball team 5-3 Friday evening at Showers Field in the first round of the Central Penn League Championship Playoffs.
The Chiefs will try to stay alive in the double-elimination tournament Saturday morning when they host Clarence at 11 o’clock at the Bison Sports Complex. The Mounties were dropped into the elimination bracket by Beech Creek, 12-0.
McKee, Read and Miknis haunted Clearfield from start to finish as the trio at the top of the DuBois lineup accounted for seven of the nine hits allowed by Brandon Orsich, drove in four runs, scored four runs and were involved in two double plays.
Miknis’ blast to deep left field came after McKee’s high pop-up fell right behind first base and Read slashed a single to right.
Orsich shook off the rough start to keep the Chiefs in the game, though.
“You give up three runs like that, it’s hard to settled down, but he did,” manager Sid Lansberry said. “He pitched well the rest of the way, good enough to win.”
The right-hander struck out six and issued only one walk.
Clearfield (9-12) tied it up in the third against Jake Felix, who had just relieved starter Justin Sleigh.
Josh Sorbera rapped a single to right center, Josh Kennedy was hit by a pitch and Logan Puit beat out a bunt to fill the sacks. Spencer Herrington’s single to deep short, Sawyer Rowles’ sacrifice fly to left and Cole Kephart’s line single to left knotted the count.
“We had a couple clutch hits there, but we didn’t get any later.”
After being set down in order by McKee, the winning hurler, in the fourth and fifth frames, the Chiefs mounted threats against Read in the last two innings but failed to capitalize.
They had two on and no outs in the sixth when McKee fielded Zach Timchak’s bouncer near second base to initiate a twinkilling and had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh when Read closed out the save via a flyout and a strikeout.
“We needed one bit hit to turn that game around,” Lansberry said. “But we’ve been that way in a lot of games this spring (high school) and this summer (legion). Our close games have continued into the summer.”
Kephart topped Clearfield with three singles and Herrington chipped in with a pair.
Miknis set up the winning run in the third inning by hustling out of the box to turn a poke off the left field wall into a triple. He scored one out later on Sleigh’s grounder to short.
An error and two-out singles to left by McKee and Read produced the insurance tally in the next inning.
CLEARFIELD — 3
Logan Puit lf 3110, Spencer Herrington ss 4021, Sawyer Rowles cf 3001, Curt Collins 2b 3000, Cole Kephart 3b 3031, Jon Janocko 1b 3000, Zach Timchak rf 3000, Josh Sorbera c 3110, Josh Kennedy dh 2110. TOTALS: 27 3 8 3.
DUBOIS — 5
Derren McKee 3b-p-ss 4130, Clayton Read ss-p 4121, Jake Miknis 2b 4223, Jake Felix 1b-p-1b 3000, Justin Sleigh p-1b-3b 3011, John Mohney cf 3010, Phil Myers lf 3000, Dom Goldbach c 3100, Colin Read rf 3000. TOTALS: 30 5 9 1.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 003 000 0 – 3 8 2
DuBois 301 100 x – 5 9 1
E – Janocko, Orsich; Cl. Read. DP – DuBois 2 (McKee, Miknis and Felix; McKee and Felix). LOB – Clearfield 7; DuBois 8. 3B – Miknis. HR – Miknis. SF – Rowles. SB – McKee, Mohney.
Pitching
Clearfield – Orsich 6 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 K.
DuBois – Sleigh 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K; Felix 1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 K; McKee 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K; Cl. Read 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.
HB – Felix 1 (Kennedy); Cl. Read 1 (Collins). WP – Sleigh.
W – McKee. L – Orsich (3-4). Sv – Cl. Read.
Umpires – Mike Campbell (plate) and Rob Murphy (bases).