Curwensville Squanders Lead, Falls in Final Inning to Brockway

CURWENSVILLE — After having the best outing of the 2017 season the day before, Tom Harzinski was ready to see a follow-up performance from his Golden Tide squad on the diamond.  Their season-high effort in runs and hits against Kane Monday gave Curwensville massive momentum to start the week.

There was no time to waste, as the team was back on the field Tuesday afternoon, welcoming in the Rovers of Brockway.

One thing that wasn’t welcome to either team, nor any of the brave fans, was the skies.  Despite being overcast, with some peaks of sun during the day, by game time there was a bit of a spattering of rain coming down.  The pitcher’s mound, along with the batters’ boxes were covered, but when the umpires arrived, they deemed the field good enough to play, and the conditions were still strong enough for competition.

And competition is exactly what everyone got, in a big way.

The Tide got out to an early lead, exactly like one day ago.  The Tide bats were connecting early, and often.  But, unlike the Wolves on Monday, Brockway began matching the home squad at-bat for at-bat.  Curwensville got itself out to an early lead, but just as quickly found itself in trouble.  The lead dwindled bit, by bit, and suddenly was erased.

After being down following three innings of action, the Rovers somehow found a way to erase a nine-run lead to eventually stun the Tide, 13-11.

“It was tough.  Brockway came up with some clutch hits at the end of the game.  When we had them down 10-1, we needed to be more aggressive,” Harzinski said afterwards.

Those 10 runs came over the first three innings.  After Noah VonGunden and Christian Bakaysa both walked, starting pitcher Avery Francisco blasted a single to left-center to load up the bases for Bryce Timko.  It was the 1-1 pitch that Timko waited for as he launched the ball into center field, bringing home the first two runs of the game and putting Curwensville ahead for the first time.  Two batters later, Francisco managed to score on a Brockway throwing error to add in yet another run, and then Zach Brewer kept things going with an RBI-single up the left field line to bring Timko home.

One inning in and it was having a case of deja vu as Curwensville went through seven of the nine batters in the line-up, and had a 4-0 lead after one inning.

Francisco had a solid first inning, but gave up a run the second inning when Andrew Trunzo managed to score on a wild pitch.  Francisco went through the first three innings giving up only three hits, but during the fourth inning he was pulled from the mound and VonGunden took his place.  Harzinski said it wasn’t a concern about his count, but more of a call from his pitcher to swap out for a while.

“Avery’s arm was starting to get a little sore,” he said.

Before the change at pitcher, Curwensville put up another six runs.  In the second inning, Francisco launched his second hit of the game to deep center field, an RBI-double that brought Josh Terry around to score.  One batter later, Timko added in his third RBI of the game when his lobbed single over the infield brought in VonGunden.  Francisco scored on a wild pitch to make the score 7-1, with the inning coming to a close when Timko was caught stealing third.

The Tide added in three more in the third thanks to one more major hit by Francisco.  With the bases loaded to the max, the 2-2 pitch came in right over the plate, and was fired to opposite field, landing deep but just inside the line.  It was enough for Francisco to reach all the way to third, clearing all the bases to give the Tide their biggest gap of the game at 10-1.

In the fourth inning, VonGunden took over for Francisco after two consecutive walks and Tyler Serafini reached on an error.  With the bases loaded, he managed to strike out Hunter Antonuccio.  Then Jarrett Esposito managed to reach home on a throwing error, cutting the lead to 10-2.  But then, Zane Puhala, who substituted in for Cameron Baka after he was pulled in the third inning by Brockway head coach Terry Moore for unsportsmanlike conduct, pulled off an RBI-single that brought in Erik Botwright.  Jesse Johnson then took the second pitch offered to him, sending it deep to center field, bringing Serafini and Puhala home on an RBI-double.  All of a sudden, the score was 10-6.

But it wasn’t done yet.  Angelo Inzana hit a critical RBI-triple that sent Johnson in to score.  After finally having Andrew Trunzo ground out and a pop out by Esposito, the inning ended, but not before the nine-run lead was erased to just three.

Curwensville got one of those runs back in the fourth inning when McClure came home on a fielder’s choice.  That ultimately was the final run the Tide put on the board, but still had faith in their defense to close it out.

In the fifth inning, VonGunden was moved back to his shortstop position, and Francisco came back in after giving his arm a rest.  The downside was that came after VonGunden had given up a two-RBI double to Johnson that brought in Botwright and Serafini, making the lead 11-9.  But, Francisco got the team out of the jam by striking out both Inzana and Trunzo.

On the opposing side, beginning in the third inning, Serafini was given the mound, and he began a charge in the fifth inning that was enough to earn himself the victory, despite not getting the call to start.  After giving up four runs over the third and fourth innings, none of which came up earned, he was smart with his pitches and kept his team in the game.

Over the course of the fifth and sixth innings, he only yielded two hits, but no runs, and heading into the final inning, Curwensville needed a solid outing to close things out with a two-run lead.

It started off rough when Antonuccio and Puhala both walked.  However, Johnson popped out to get the first out on the board.  After Antonuccio advanced to second on a stolen base, he moved to third when McClure opted for the fielder’s choice out to put runner’s on the corners.  Inzana, who reached on that fielder’s choice out, then stole second.  Now things were in a critical stage.  With two outs posted, Francisco had an even count to Andrew Trunzo, needing one strike to close out the afternoon.

The pitch was in the zone, but so was Trunzo’s bat.  Brockway’s left fielder launched the ball into left field, bringing around two runs and tying up the score at 11 runs a piece.

At that point, Francisco was relieved for the final time, after 102 total pitches, and it was VonGunden’s turn back at the mound to earn the win for the Tide.  Harzinski knew the pitch count was high for his starter, and spoke about how the new rules for pitchers this season when it came to the amount of throws they had in a game before they are allowed to start again has changed the mindset of coaches.

“It’s changed it majorly.  You almost need to look two games ahead at all times.  You have to have pitching lined up for other games before focusing on the one you’re playing,” he said.

Trunzo was able to steal second and third while Matthew Clark was at bat.  Clark then walked to put runners on the corners, but more importantly put the potential winning run in position.

Esposito was next at the plate, and after not having one hit to his credit all game, the most crucial hit of the afternoon came on a 0-1 throw, one that blasted to the warning track in left field, and brought home Trunzo and Zach Foraboli.  In that instant, Curwensville was down two runs, and only had the bottom part of the seventh inning to win it.

VonGunden started the inning off strong with a single to shallow left.  Then, Bakaysa connected on a 2-2 pitch that did not make it completely out of the infield.  The ball was fielded by Puhala, who then tossed it to Trunzo, and then turned to first and got the ball to Johnson for the critical 6-4-3 double play to clear the bases.

It was now down to one out, and limited opportunities.  But, Francisco was next at-bat, and he completed a perfect offensive day by getting his fifth hit in as many tries, putting him on first.

“Avery went 5-for-5 today.  He’s seeing the ball really well right now.  I cannot say anything negative about him, and he threw a great game,” Harzinski said afterwards.

Timko also had a strong day, going into the seventh inning 2-for-4 with three RBI’s.  The sophomore took a look at the second pitch he saw, connecting it down the left field line.  Unfortunately, the ball was collected by Esposito, who calmly threw to first base, and got the final out, completing the Brockway comeback and stunning the Curwensville crowd in the process.

Harzinski knew what cost his team in the loss, falling to 3-8 on the season.  At the same time, he didn’t dwell on what happened, but instead what his team did right, and has continued to do right in the last two games.

“We had some costly mistakes in the field that let them back into the game.  That two-out, clutch hit in the seventh inning was crucial,” he said.  “The positives we can take away (from today) are we’re hitting the ball really well right now.  I told them out there (after the game) to not let this game define our season.

“We just need to come out tomorrow, ready to practice, and get ready for the next game against Harmony.”

The game against the Owls is this Thursday, first pitch slated for 4:15 p.m.

SCORE BY INNING

Brockway   010 620 4 – 13 9 4
Curwensville   433 100 0 – 11 11 3

Brockway – 13

Hunter Antonuccio P/SS 3110, Cameron Baka SS/P 2000, Zane Puhala 2B 2111, Jesse Johnson 1B 5134, Angelo Inzana CF 5211, Andrew Trunzo CF/2B 5213, Matthew Clark C 3010, Jarrett Esposito 3B 4112, Erik Botwright RF 1200, Tyler Serafini 2B/P 3200.  TOTALS 33 13 9 11.

Curwensville – 11

Noah VonGunden SS/P 3310, Christian Bakaysa RF 3210, Avery Francisco P/SS 5254, Bryce Timko LF 5123, Zach McClure 2B 4111, Austin Butlin C 2000, Devin Barrett CR 0000, Zach Brewer 1B 4011, Matt Carter CR 0100, Broc Heitsenrether DH 4001, Josh Terry CF 3100.  TOTALS 33 11 11 10.

E:  Baka, Antonuccio (3); McClure (2), Farley.  LOB:  10/8.  2B:  Esposito, Johnson (2); Francisco.  3B:  Inzana; Francisco.  SB:  Inzana, Trunzo (3), Puhala, Serafini, Foradori (2), Esposito, Antonuccio; Timko (2), Terry.  CS:  Timko.  GIDP-Bakaysa.  

PITCHING

Brockway:  Antonuccio-1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 K, 2 BB; Baka-1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 K, 3 BB; Serafini-5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 2 K, 2 BB.

Curwensville:  Francisco-5.1 IP, 3 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 4 K, 7 BB; VonGunden-1.2 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 3 K, 4 BB.

WP-Serafini (2-1).  LP-VonGunden (1-3).

Golden Tide Scoreboard: