CLEARFIELD — Clearfield’s Brandon Orsich and DuBois’ Colin Read hooked up in an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel Wednesday night in the opening round of the Jefferson/Clearfield Counties American Legion baseball playoffs held at Lawrence Twp. Rec Park. When the final out was recorded, it was Orsich and his teammates celebrating a hard-fought, 1-0 victory.
Backed by a stellar defense, Orsich spun a two-hit, six strikeout masterpiece, needing only 73 pitches to record the shutout for Post 6. He retired 16 batters in row at one point in the game.
Scoreless into the bottom of the sixth inning, Clearfield found a way to come up with game’s only tally. After two quick outs, Eli Glass punched his second hit of the game through the infield, then raced to third base on Will Myers’ single to right field. With a 1-1 count on Jake Sorbera, Myers took off for second on an early steal attempt, causing Read to balk, allowing Glass to trot home with the winning run.
Orsich then retired the side in order in the seventh inning to seal the victory.
With the win, Clearfield will be back in action Friday night, travelling to Kuntz Field in Punxsutawney to meet Brookville, who defeated Curwensville 10-0 in the other playoff semifinal.
DUBOIS — 0
Colin Read p 3000, Mitch Ferra cf 3010, Nick LaBrasca 3b 2000, Ryan Pasternak 1b 2000, Jack Frank c 2000, Pete Foradora ss 2000, Daron Walker 2b 2000, Ethan Long rf 2000, Drew Buskirk eh 2010, Braden Paulinelli pr 0000, Noah Schneider lf 2000, TOTALS: 22 0 2 0.
CLEARFIELD — 1
Thayne Morgan rf 2000, Ty Bender c 3000, Zane Morgan pr 0000, Seth Bumbarger 1b 3000, Allan Myers lf 3000, Eli Glass 3b 3120, Will Myers ss 2010, Jake Sorbera cf 3000, Brandon Orsich p 1010, Justin Fedder 2b 2010. TOTALS: 22 1 5 0.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 000 000 0 – 0 2 2
Clearfield 000 001 x – 1 5 0
E – Foradora 2. DP – Clearfield 1 (W. Myers, Fedder and Bumbarger); DuBois 1 (Read, Frank and Pasternak). LOB – DuBois 2; Clearfield 6. 2B – Buskirk. Sac – Myers. SB – Z. Morgan 2
Pitching
DuBois – Read 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1K
Clearfield – Orsich 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K.
Balk – Read. PO – Read (Glass). WP – Read
W – Orsich. L – Read.
Umpires: Dave Neal (plate), Jay Siegel (bases).