DUBOIS — Lack of hitting was costly several times for the Clearfield Area High School baseball team during the regular season, and failure to generate much of an offense came back to haunt the Bison in the District 9 Class AAAA championship game at Showers Field Wednesday evening.
The Bison, whose 5-1 win over St. Marys in last week’s semifinal was their third in which they had four or fewer hits, were never able to really solve the offerings of Punxsutawney junior Alec Greenblatt and saw their title hopes dashed in a 5-3 loss.
The Chucks’ junior right-hander fashioned a three-hitter with seven strikeouts and three walks.
Caullin Reed had two of the Bison safeties, one a double, and scored two runs.
“A disappointing performance at the plate for us,” Clearfield coach Sid Lansberry summed up the tough-to-digest setback. “It’s hard to win with three hits. We’ve done that several times. Some of the close games we lost was because of that.”
A delay of nearly two hours because rain interrupted the Class A title game in which Elk County Catholic trimmed Otto-Eldred 12-2 didn’t seem to faze the Chucks as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead in their first two at-bats.
A single through the middle by Greenblatt, a walk and the lone Bison misplay had Eli Glass facing a bases-loaded situation with one out. Two unearned runs crossed the plate on Andrew Britton’s groundout and Dakota Long’s single to right.
“We had a couple mistakes in the inning that hurt us,” Lansberry said. “We ordinarily don’t play that way.”
The Chucks doubled their advantage in the second after Aiden Johnston was hit by a pitch and Adison Neal singled to deep short. An RBI groundout by Greenblatt and a surprise, two-out bunt single by Daren Byers put the Bison in a big hole.
They almost climbed out by cashing Punxsutawney miscues.
Three errors, one on Reed’s sharp single to right center, had them on the scoreboard in the third inning, and Glass then drove in Reed with a sacrifice fly.
Reed belted a double to right center and scored when Nate Barr’s grounder was thrown away at first base to make it a 4-3 game in the top of the fifth frame.
The Chucks got that run back right away against reliever Cade Walker on back-to-back doubles by Dylan Ishman to the center field wall and Britton on a flare that landed just inside the right field line.
Walker gave up only one other hit while fanning seven in a solid four-inning stint after going to the mound in the third.
“Eli’s arm started bothering him, so we had to make the switch,” Lansberry said. “Cade did a great job.”
The junior southpaw gave the Bison a chance to pull out the win, and they threatened to do just that in the seventh when walks to Walker and pinch-hitter Nolan Barr and a sacrifice bunt by Kyle Elensky had the tying runs in scoring position.
However, Greenblatt reached back to seal Punxsutawney’s 17th district title with a strikeout and a groundout.
The Bison’s impatience at the plate helped Greenblatt register the complete game as he needed only 10 pitches to retire them in order in the fourth and sixth innings.
“We should have been taking pitches,” Lansberry said. “He was up to 94 pitches. He could have been out of the game.
“I think we’re pretty equal teams, but they hit better than we did.”
Glass was tagged with the loss after allowing four hits and four runs, two earned, in two innings.
The Bison finished 12-10 with Glass and Hunter Hipps the only seniors.
“This is five winning seasons in a row,” Lansberry said. “I’m proud of the fact we got to the finals, but it’s a disappointing end.
“No lack of effort. Everybody’s trying up there, but you’ve got to produce more than three hits to win a game. You can’t expect your pitchers to pitch shutouts or give up one or two runs. It just didn’t happen.
Punxsutawney (11-9) will meet the District 7 (WPIAL) champion Beaver, in the first round of the PIAA Class AAAA Tournament Monday at a site and time to be announced.
CLEARFIELD — 3
Caullin Reed ss 4220, Nate Barr cf 4001, Eli Glass p-lf 2001, Hayden Williams 3b 2000, Allan Myers c 3000, Harrison Peacock rf 3000, Cade Walker lf-p 2000, Karson Rumsky 1b 1000, Nick Domico ph 1000, Nolan Barr ph 0000, Kyle Elensky 2b 2100. TOTALS: 24 3 3 2.
PUNXSUTAWNEY — 5
Adison Neal ss 4120, Alec Greenblatt p 3111, Daren Byers 1b 2111, Dylan Ishman 3b 3010, Owen Smith pr 0100, Andrew Britton 2b 3012, Jackson Fezell lf 0000, Dakota Long dh 3011, Sheldon Young rf 3000, Ashton Stonebraker c 3000, Aiden Johnston cf 2100. TOTALS: 26 5 7 2.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 002 010 0 – 3 3 1
Punxsutawney 220 010 x – 5 3 4
E – Elensky; Neal 2, Britton, Young. DP – Punxsutawney 1 (Stonebraker and Britton). LOB – Clearfield 5; Punxsutawney 5. 2B – Reed; Ishman, Britton. Sac – Elensky. SF – Glass.
Pitching
Clearfield – Glass 2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K; Walker 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K.
Punxsutawney – Greenblatt 7 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K.
HB – Glass 1 (Johnston). WP – Glass 2.
W – Greenblatt (3-0). L – Glass (5-3).
Umpires – Mike Campbell (plate), Terry Bean (first base), Dave Neal (second base) and Joe Shick (third base).
Final Bison Scoreboard:
Date Opponent Score Record
3/25 @ Bald Eagle Area 10 – 1 1 – 0
3/28 @ Huntingdon 6 – 8 1 – 1
4/02 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 1 – 2 1 – 2
4/04 CURWENSVILLE 5 – 2 2 – 2
4/05 @ Tyrone ppd. 2 – 2
4/06 @ Tyrone 2 – 3, 9 inn. 2 – 3
4/08 PENNS VALLEY 6 – 2 3 – 3
4/09 BROOKVILLE 22 – 12 4 – 3
4/11 @ Central 10 – 4 5 – 3
4/16 BELLEFONTE ppd. 5 – 3
4/17 @ Bellefonte 0 – 8 5 – 4
4/18 BALD EAGLE AREA 4 – 2 6 – 4
4/23 HUNTINGDON 6 – 4 7 – 4
4/25 @ Philipsburg-Osceola 3 – 4 7 – 5
4/29 PUNXSUTAWNEY 5 – 6 7 – 6
4/30 TYRONE 3 – 13 7 – 7
5/03 @ Penns Valley 4 – 3 8 – 7
5/06 CENTRAL ppd. 8 – 7
5/07 CENTRAL 5 – 10 8 – 8
5/08 @ Bradford 2 – 1 9 – 8
5/09 BELLEFONTE 10 – 23 9 – 9
5/13 @ Curwensville ppd. 9 – 9
5/16 @ Curwensville 13 – 0 10 – 9
5/17 @ DuBois 8 – 0 11 – 9
5/23 District 9 AAAA Playoffs
5/23 vs. St. Marys @ DuBois 5 – 1 12 – 9
5/29 vs. Punxsy @ DuBois 3 – 5 12 – 10
