Bison Nip Bearcats 4-3 on Summers’ Homer, Sellers’ RBI Single in Fifth Inning

HYDE — Outstanding pitching and timely hitting have fueled the Clearfield Area High School baseball team’s terrific start to the season, and the formula proved decisive in another victory Tuesday at the Bison Sports Complex.

Thomas Summers hurled a six-hitter while Sawyer Rowles and Erik Sellers drove in runs with two-out singles as the Bison squeezed past Huntingdon 4-3 to remain atop the Mountain League at 6-1.

Sellers fisted a Hunter Price fastball into very short right field for the game-winning hit in the fifth inning, chasing home Cole Kephart.

“Sellers did that over at P-O, and it was the same type of hit,” Clearfield coach Sid Lansberry noted.

Huntingdon (3-5, 3-4 ML) had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the inning with its third unearned run, but Summers quickly got the Bison even by depositing a towering fly ball behind the 318-foot marker in the left field corner for his second home run of the spring.

“That got us back in the game, and everybody got fired up,” Lansberry said.

Price relieved Nate Gearhart after Kephart singled to center, issued a one-out walk to Rowles and wild pitched both runners into scoring position.

Then, Sellers came through to give Summers the opportunity to log his fifth win in six decisions.

The senior lefthander went over the 100-pitch count in the final inning when the Bearcats threatened on Gearhart’s leadoff double into left center and Hudson Speck’s second infield hit that turned the lineup over.

However, Summers induced an infield popup and a forceout for his fourth complete game in five starts. He struck out five and walked five while lowering his earned run average to 1.14.

“What’s impressive about him is, in the fifth inning it looked like he might be done and he came back strong in the sixth and seventh, pitching two of his better innings,” Lansberry said. “He did the same thing down at Bald Eagle Area. You think he’s getting close to 100 pitches, and he comes back strong. He showed a lot of heart.

“The difference is his endurance, his conditioning. He worked hard over the winter. He’s in very good shape, so he can do that, unlike a lot of high school kids.”

Summers also frustrated the Bearcats by catching three runners straying too far off first base with his excellent pickoff move.

Frustrated is what Lansberry was after the Bison got only two runs out of six hits, a walk and a hit batsman and left the bases loaded in the first and second innings.

“That really upset me because we’ve gotta get that killer instinct whenever we can take advantage of opportunities like that,” Lansberry said. “The second inning, especially, we had three-four-five up and nobody out. Gearhart’s not a bad pitcher, though, and he pitched out of it.”

Rowles did get the Bison on the board in the first inning with his two-out liner to center after hits by Spencer Herrington and Summers and a walk filled the sacks.

Gearhart, who has a 7-0 win over Bellefonte to his credit, got in hot water again when Tommy Hazel ripped a single to center, Noah Cline was hit by a pitch and Josh Sorbera’s bunt became a hit with first base not covered.

Herrington followed with a flare to right for an RBI single, and the Bison seemed poised to break it open. But Gearhart slammed the door with a strikeout and two infield fly balls.

The failed opportunities came back to haunt the Bison, for the Bearcats capitalized on a error to tie the score on Chris Alleman’s two-run single with two outs in the third frame.

They went in front 3-2 in the fifth on a throw that hit Jonathan Wagner heading for third after being caught off second base by catcher Sorbera.

The Bison rallied, though, to pull out their seventh win in nine outings for a sweep of the Bearcats.

“To beat Huntingdon twice in one year is something we don’t do very often,” Lansberry said. “They’re a good team.”

Sorbera, Herrington and Summers, the top three batters in the lineup, each had two of Clearfield’s 10 hits.

Summers’ homer and Sorbera’s fourth-inning double were the first extra base blows in six games for the Bison, who will return to the BSC Thursday to host Bellefonte.

Mountain League standings — Clearfield 6-1, Central 5-1, Bellefonte 3-3, Philipsburg-Osceola 3-3, Huntingdon 3-4, Penns Valley 2-3, Bald Eagle Area 2-5, Tyrone 1-5.

HUNTINGDON — 3

Jonathan Wagner ss 4110, Hunter Price 3b-p 2000, Chris Alleman lf 3012, Alex Kyper 1b 0000, Kodiak Heaton dh-3b 2000, Logan Fisher rf 1000, Leif Brown c 3010, Nate Gearhart p-1b 3010, Brian McLaughlin 2b 3100, Hudson Speck cf 3120. TOTALS: 24 3 6 2.

CLEARFIELD — 4

Josh Sorbera c 4020, Spencer Herrington ss 4121, Thomas Summers p 3121, Cole Kephart 3b 3110, Will Myers 2b 0000, Brandon Orsich dh 2000, Sawyer Rowles cf 2011, Erik Sellers 1b 3011, Tommy Hazel rf 3110, Noah Cline lf 1000, Dan Collins ph 1000. TOTALS: 26 4 10 4.

Score by Innings

Huntingdon      002 010 0 – 3   6  1
Clearfield          110 020 x – 4 10  2
E – Price; Herrington, Kephart. DP – Huntingdon 1 (Fisher and Wagner). LOB – Huntingdon 5. 2B – Gearhart; Sorbera. HR – Summers (2). CS – Price (by Summers); Fisher (by Summers).

Pitching

Huntingdon – Gearhart 4+ IP (faced 2 batters in 5th), 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K; Price 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K.
Clearfield – Summers 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 5 K.
HB – Gearhart 1 (Cline). WP – Price 1; Summers 1. PO – Summers 1 (Heaton).
W – Summers (5-1). L – Gearhart.

Umpires – Keith Lepionka (plate) and Rob Morgan (bases).

Bison Scoreboard: