CURWENSVILLE — Eli Glass pitched a one-hitter and racked up 12 strikeouts while Caullin Reed and Allan Myers drove in three runs apiece as the Clearfield Area High School baseball team defeated Curwensville 13-0 in five innings on the Golden Tide’s home diamond Thursday afternoon.
The season’s first shutout pushed the Bison’s record back above .500 at 10-9.
Glass was totally dominate in his fourth victory in six decisions, allowing only a leadoff single by Noah VonGunden in the first inning. One out later, he plunked Avery Francisco, but the Bison middle infielders turned a double play.
The Golden Tide had only one other baserunner, VonGunden on a walk in the third frame, as Glass struck out the side in the second, fourth and fifth innings.
“That’s the best game Eli’s thrown in quite a while,” Clearfield coach Sid Lansberry said. “He looked sharp, threw hard, harder as the game went on, I thought. He started mixing his curve ball. So, that’s encouraging.”
“Hat’s off to Eli, he threw a nice game” echoed Curwensville coach Tom Harzinski. “He lived around the strike zone, and we just couldn’t hit him.
“That’s the story of the year, just not hitting the ball.”
The Golden Tide saw their batting average slide to .203 and their record fall to 3-16.
Meanwhile, the Bison banged out 13 hits for the second game in a row after failing to reach double figures over a nine-game stretch.
Reed had three of them, including a pair of doubles. Myers chimed in with a single and a double. Glass and Harrison Peacock also hammered doubles.
“The fact that we had 13 hits and no errors, that’s very encouraging, too,” Lansberry said. “We were hitting line drives instead of fly balls.
“We needed a game like this to get some confidence back after the Bellefonte game (23-10 loss last Thursday).”
The Bison posted a five-spot in the second inning with the help of three errors by the Golden Tide.
Cade Walker reached on a misplay and scored on another when Karson Rumsky lined a single to center field. Reed and Glass slugged RBI doubles, and Myers singled to left for the final two tallies.
“We had some costly errors, and that’s not typical of us,” Harzinski said. “Usually, we do play good defense. We just had a letdown.”
In all, seven Clearfield runs were unearned.
Nate Barr’s two-out single that plated Rumsky made it 6-0 in the third before the Bison put the outcome in Mercy Rule territory with another five-run outburst in the fourth.
The middle of the lineup triggered the rally as Hayden Williams’ line single to center preceded back-to-back RBI doubles by Myers and Peacock that landed at the fences in left and right field, respectively.
Following a walk to Walker, another Golden Tide error allowed the Bison to add two unearned runs on a double to deep center by Reed and, after Matt Brown relieved Chase Graham, a sacrifice fly by Barr.
“Allan hit the ball far, probably the longest hit he’s had this year,” Lansberry said. “And Caullin hit the ball on the nose several times.”
Another miscue cost Brown and the Golden Tide two more runs in the fifth as Walker walloped Clearfield’s first triple of the season into the right field corner to chase home Myers before scoring on Nick Domico’s single into left field.
Bakaysa than robbed Reed of a third extra-base hit when he retreated to deep center to make a falling catch that mirrored Broc Heitsenrether’s grab of Williams’ long drive to left for the first out of the frame.
The game marked the final CAHS Field appearance for seniors VonGunden, Bakaysa, Francisco, Heitsenrether, Ralph Evans, Cole Bressler, Jeremiah Farley and Jeremy Irwin as the Golden Tide closes the season against West Branch at Allport Friday.
Clearfield goes over the mountain to DuBois Friday with a chance to clinch a winning season before turning its attention to the District 9 Class AAAA Playoffs that get under way next week.
CLEARFIELD — 13
Caullin Reed ss 4133, Nate Barr cf 2113, Eli Glass p 4111, Hayden Williams 3b-2b 3110, Allan Myers c 3223, Harrison Peacock rf-3b 4011, Cade Walker lf 3311, Karson Rumsky 1b 2310, Nick Domico 1b 1011, Kyle Elensky 2b 3100, Hunter Hipps ph-rf 1010. TOTALS: 30 13 13 12.
CURWENSVILLE — 0
Noah VonGunden ss 1010, Ralph Evans 2b 2000, Avery Francisco 1b 1000, Chase Graham c-p 0000, Matt Brown p 0000, Jake McCracken d 2000, Broc Heitsenrether lf 2000, Cole Bressler cf 1000, Adam Straw c 1000, Jeremiah Farley 3b 2000, Christian Bakaysa p-cf 2000, Jeremy Irwin rf 1000. TOTALS: 15 0 1 0.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 051 52 – 13 13 0
Curwensville 000 00 – 0 0 6
E – VonGunden 2, Francisco, Bressler, Bakaysa, Irwin. DP – Clearfield 1 (Reed, Elensky and Rumsky). LOB – Clearfield 9; Curwensville 2.
2B – Reed 2, Glass, Myers, Peacock. SF – Barr. SB – Walker, Rumsky.
Pitching
Clearfield – Glass 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 11 K.
Curwensville – Bakaysa 2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 K; Graham 1-1/3 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 1 K; Brown 1-2/3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.
HB – Glass 1 (Francisco).
W – Glass (4-2). L – Bakaysa (1-4).
Umpires – A.J. Coval (plate) and Gabe Kraus (bases).
