HYDE — Clearfield Area High School freshman pitcher Emma Hipps brought the heat to a chilly afternoon at the Bison Sports Complex Tuesday and kept the Central bats in a deep freeze for a 4-1 victory.
Hipps, who also clubbed a two-run home run and a double, was in complete control of the Mountain League game from start to finish, recording 13 strikeouts without a walk.
“She threw a whale of a game,” Lady Bison coach Derek Danver said. “Looking at the stats, that’s a good hitting team she just two-hit.”
The Lady Dragons sported a .375 batting average, but Hipps was so overpowering they hit only two balls to the outfield until the seventh inning, and losing pitcher Dylan Claycomb’s ringing double to left center in the first was the only ball that didn’t go to the opposite field.
“She threw a lot of fastballs that they couldn’t catch up to,” Danver said. “But she did a nice job keeping them off balance, mixing a changeup or a drop once in a while. That kept them waiting back a little bit, so she would throw the fast ball by them.”
Hipps, now 4-3, lost her first shutout because of an unearned run in the last frame.
Safe on an error, Ashley Negley was at third via a passed ball and wild pitch when Maddie Wetzler rolled a grounder up the middle with two outs.
Central had only one baserunner in innings two through six.
Lauren Ressler pounded an opposite-field double to deep left and scored Clearfield’s first run on a wild pitch in the second inning.
The Lady Bison got to Claycomb for four of their six hits in the third, Hipps slugging her fourth homer of the season to left field one batter after Karly Rumsky had punched an RBI single behind second base.
Alexis Bumbarger scored on Rumsky’s hit after leading off with a pop-fly, infield single, taking second on a passed ball and stealing third on ball four to Kylee Hertlein. The latter stole second but was tagged out after being hung up between third and home on Rumsky’s hit.
Ressler matched Hipps with two hits as both hiked their averages over .500.
“Game after game, they’ve been producing,” Danver said. “We count on them, and they came out and performed again.
“We didn’t pile up the hits, but we had a lot of really good at-bats, getting deep in counts and hitting the ball hard at people.
“I thought we did a nice job getting the bat on the ball against a really good pitcher.”
Claycomb, who was 5-1 with a 1.36 earned run average in Central’s 5-2 start, had only one strikeout.
The Lady Bison (5-3) will take their three-game winning streak to Milesburg Thursday for a league game against Bald Eagle Area.
Mountain League standings — Philipsburg-Osceola 5-0, Bald Eagle Area 4-1, Tyrone 3-2, Clearfield 3-3, Penns Valley 3-3, Central 3-3, Bellefonte 1-4, Huntingdon 0-6.
CENTRAL — 1
Alana Padula lf 3000, Shannon Detwiler 1b 3000, Dylan Claycomb p 3010, Ashley Negley rf 3100, Cam Feathers c 3000, Maddie Metzler cf 3011, Kara Stultz 2b 2000, Sarah Griffith ph 1000, Bailey Heuston ss 2000, Tori Longenecker 3b 2000. TOTALS: 25 1 2 1.
CLEARFIELD — 4
Karly Rumsky cf 3111, Morgan Cheek lf 3000, Emma Hipps p 3122, Olivia Bender c 3000, Lauren Ressler 1b 3120, Kyra Mollura rf 3000, Casey English dp 3000, Alexis Bumbarger ss 2110, Kylee Hertlein 2b 1000, Alyssa Twigg 3b (flex) 0000. TOTALS: 24 4 6 3.
Score by Innings
Central 000 000 1 – 1 2 1
Clearfield 013 000 x – 4 6 1
E – Stultz; Twigg. PB – Feathers 2; Bender. LOB – Central 3; Clearfield 3. 2B – Claycomb; Hipps, Ressler. HR – Hipps (4). SB – Bumbarger, Hertlein.
Pitching
Central – Claycomb 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.
Clearfield – Hipps 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 K.
WP – Claycomb 1; Hipps 3.
W – Hipps (4-3). L – Claycomb (5-2).
Umpires – Frank Perehinec (plate) and Dave Glass (bases).
Lady Bison Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
3/26 BALD EAGLE AREA 2 – 17 0 – 1
3/29 HUNTINGDON ppd. 0 – 1
4/01 @ Philipsburg-Osceola ppd. 0 – 1
4/02 CURWENSVILLE 9 – 1 1 – 1
4/04 TYRONE 7 – 5 2 – 1
4/06 @ Philipsburg-Osceola 1 – 3 2 – 2
4/09 @ Penns Valley 3 – 4 2 – 3
4/10 HUNTINGDON 11 – 1 3 – 3
4/11 BRADFORD 15 – 3 4 – 3
4/12 CENTRAL ppd. 4 – 3
4/15 @ Bellefonte ppd. 4 – 3
4/16 CENTRAL 4 – 1 5 – 3
4/18 @ Bald Eagle Area
4/23 @ Huntingdon
4/26 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA
4/29 @ Tyrone
5/02 PENNS VALLEY
5/07 @ Central
5/08 HOLLIDAYSBURG
5/10 BELLEFONTE
5/13 @ Punxsutawney
5/15 @ Altoona
