MARTINSBURG — The Clearfield Area High School baseball team’s offense remained in low gear for the third game in a row with only four hits off two Central pitchers in an 8-2 Mountain League road loss Saturday afternoon.
Thayne Morgan broke up Brady Nicewonger’s no-hitter with a two-out single in the fifth inning, and the Bison used the other three hits for their runs in the sixth.
Back-to-back singles by Zane Morgan and Tommy Hazel turned into tallies on a sacrifice fly by Will Myers and an error on Jake Sorbera’s hit.
The Scarlet Dragons, boasting eight returning starters among 23 lettermen from a 17-8 team, already had five runs in the hopper, though, with two in the first on two walks and a Bison misplay and three in the third on two hits, a walk and two more errors.
All were charged to Myers, who struck out two, walked three and hit three batters.
Hazel relieved and got outs against nine of the next 10 Scarlet Dragons he faced before Larry Corle’s triple and Alex Hoenstine’s single with one out in the sixth frame prompted Bison coach Sid Lansberry to make another pitching change.
Eli Glass finished up, allowing two hits and one run.
Corle and Jacob Muthler had two hits apiece for the undefeated Scarlet Dragons, who moved a half game ahead of Philipsburg-Osceola and Bellefonte with their third win in a game that was postponed four times the previous week.
Nicewonger earned the ‘W’ in his first start, working six innings before Preston Karstetter came on to mop up in the seventh with one strikeout and two walks.
The Bison, who slipped to 1-2, will try to even their record Monday when they meet Bald Eagle Area at Wingate.
CLEARFIELD — 2
Thayne Morgan 2b 4010, Reese Wilson cf 3000, Zane Morgan c 4110, Tommy Hazel lf-p-lf 4110, Alec Graham cr 0000, Seth Bumbarger 1b 2000, Will Myers p-ss 1001, Jake Sorbera 3b-lf-3b 3010, Eli Class ss-3b-p 2000, Jarrit Wagner ph 1000, Ty Bender rf 2000. TOTALS: 26 2 4 1.
CENTRAL — 8
Larry Corle 2b 3220, Alex Hoenstine ss 3111, Josh McKnight 3b 2110, Chase Smith cf 2111, Hunter Liebal lf 4110, Mike Speck rf 4111, Brady Nicewonger p 2100, Preston Karstetter p 0000, Jacob Muthler c 3021, Brice Brumbaugh 1b 0000, Jarrett Imler dh 2001. TOTALS: 25 8 9 5.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 000 002 0 – 2 4 3
Central 203 003 x – 8 9 4
E – T. Morgan, Myers, Glass; Hoenstine 2, Nicewonger, Karstetter. LOB – Clearfield 8; Central 7. 2B – Smith. 3B – Corle. SF – Myers; Imler. SB – T. Morgan, Z. Morgan, Graham; Smith, Liebal. CS – Corle (by Z. Morgan), Muthler (by Z. Morgan).
Pitching
Clearfield – Myers 2+ IP (faced four batters in 3rd), 5 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K; Hazel 3-1/3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K; Glass 2/3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K.
Central – Nicewonger 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K; Karstetter 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K.
HB – Myers 3 (Corle, McKnight, Smith), Hazel 1 (Smith); Nicewonger 1 (Myers). WP – Nicewonger 2, Karstetter 1.
W – Nicewonger (1-0). L – Myers (0-1).