HOUTZDALE — It has been a challenging season for the Curwensville Golden Tide baseball squad. Rain outs, a victory to start out the season, followed by a streak of 10 losses has been tough on the team. In the last four days, the team saw themselves get 10-ruled, pick up their second win of the season, and an extra-inning thriller.
Friday night, the team was back in action in Houtzdale as they would take on the Black Knights of Moshannon Valley.
The contest would not make it to extra innings, but it still was a game that the fans in attendance would enjoy watching. The back-and-forth affair would come down to the final inning, and that is when the Black Knights were able to pull it off. A walk-off hit with two outs already on the board would be the difference as Mo Valley would take the 6-5 victory over Curwensville.
Each team would be strong on the mound. For the Black Knights, Clayton Stewart was solid. The Tide would manage 10 hits off of him, but he would not be pulled out of the game at any point. He would only give up runs in three innings, pitching the complete game and tossing eight strikeouts to earn the victory.
On the opposite site, Noah Strickland pitched an equally intense six innings of work, giving up five runs on six hits, but striking out eight. Jake Terry would come in for relief in the seventh inning, but would earn the loss as he would give up the final run.
The Tide were the first ones to get on the board, bringing home three runs in the opening inning. It started when Terry scored on a wild pitch, then Hunter Lancaster came home on an RBI-double by A.J. Bloom.
R.J. Olson would then bring Bloom in on an RBI-single to short right field.
In the bottom of the frame, the Black Knights answered back with four runs to grab a 4-3 lead. Jacob Ferlitch hit an RBI-double to bring in Nick Kitko. Ferlitch would then score on a fielding error, and later Caleb St. Louis rounded the bases to tie the game. The final run came as Kameron Swoope scored on an RBI-single by Owen Campbell, who was later tagged out as he was caught going for second.
Curwensville tied the game in the next inning as Austin Butlin was plated by a fielder’s choice.
The game stayed tied until the bottom of the third inning in a big way. St. Louis took the 3-0 pitch from Strickland, and connected right on the sweet spot of the bat. The ball went back…and back…and back even more. It would clear the back fence in left field, as the solo-home run would put Mo Valley back up 5-4.
It would stay that way until the final inning.
In the top of the seventh inning, Olson singled into shallow-center, but it was enough of a hit that Terry would make his way around from second to get home in time. That made the score 5-5, but Stewart would get out of the inning with no more damage when a batter later a fielder’s choice would be the third out.
Terry would then come to the mound for the final inning, knowing that the night before, he and his teammates were in the exact same situation, but was gunning for a different result.
It all started well, as a line-out by Stewart would kick off the inning. Kitko would then walk, and then advance to second on an error. Suddenly a wild pitch by Terry would move him onto third. Ferlitch would eventually fly out to right field to record the second out.
Then St. Louis came to the plate. First pitch he saw, he went swinging.
He would connect and the ball went over second base, which was all that Kitko needed to get to the plate, as he would tag home and the team would greet St. Louis with the walk-off single to give the Black Knights the victory.
The Tide (2-12) get a break until they take the field again as they will celebrate Cinco de Mayo on the road as they travel to face the Kane Wolves, whom they also faced on April 18 in a 5-4 loss.
SCORE BY INNINGS
Curwensville 310 000 1 – 5 10 2
Mo Valley 401 000 1 – 6 7 2
Curwensville-5
Shaw 4010, Terry 4230, Lancaster 4121, Bloom 3111, Olson 4031, Timko 4000, Strickland 3000, Butlin 3100, Newkirk 3000. TOTALS 32 5 10 3.
Moshannon Valley-6
Kitko 2200, Ferlitch 4110, St. Louis 4233, Dillen 3000, Smith 3010, Swoope 3100, Campbell 3011, Baker 3000, Stewart 3010. TOTALS 28 6 7 4.
SB: Lancaster-2; St. Louis-2, Swoope.
Pitching
Curwensville: Strickland-6 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO; Terry-0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO.
Mo Valley: Stewart-CG, 10 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO.
WP-Stewart. LP-Terry.
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 3/27 | @ Brookville | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
| 3/31 | @ St. Marys | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
| 4/01 | ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC | ppd. | 0 – 0 |
| 4/06 | HARMONY | 9 – 8, 8 inn. | 1 – 0 |
| 4/08 | GLENDALE | ppd. | 1 – 0 |
| 4/10 | KANE | ppd. | 1 – 0 |
| 4/11 | JOHNSONBURG | 0 – 11 | 1 – 1 |
| 4/13 | WEST BRANCH | 4 – 9 | 1 – 2 |
| 4/14 | @ DuBois Central Catholic | 6 – 7 | 1 – 3 |
| 4/15 | @ Brookville | 7 – 11 | 1 – 4 |
| 4/16 | BROCKWAY | 5 – 6 | 1 – 5 |
| 4/18 | KANE | 4 – 5 | 1 – 6 |
| 4/20 | PUNXSUTAWNEY | ppd. | 1 – 6 |
| 4/21 | PUNXSUTAWNEY | 1 – 9 | 1 – 7 |
| 4/22 | @ Johnsonburg | ppd. | 1 – 7 |
| 4/24 | CLEARFIELD | 0 – 13 | 1 – 8 |
| 4/27 | ST. MARYS | 2 – 14 | 1 – 9 |
| 4/28 | @ Elk County Catholic | 1 -11 | 1 – 10 |
| 4/29 | GLENDALE | 13 – 3 | 2 – 10 |
| 4/30 | @ St. Marys | 3-4, 10 inn. | 2 – 11 |
| 5/01 | @ Mo Valley | 5 – 6 | 2 – 12 |
| 5/05 | @ Kane | ||
| 5/07 | DUBOIS CENTRAL CATH. | ||
| 5/11 | @ Clearfield | ||
| 5/12 | @ Brockway |
