CURWENSVILLE-It was 10 days since the Curwensville Golden Tide were on the baseball diamond, having come off a no-hitter performance that was their most complete game on the season. A Saturday afternoon delight welcomed fans, along with blue skies and comfortable temperatures, to see the Tide ready to battle once again, as the Moshannon Valley Black Knights came in set for competition.
The visitors managed to get a couple hits on Curwensville starting pitcher Jake Mullins, however for most of the afternoon, he was dealing. In a performance quite similar to Jayson Rowles’ performance one game earlier, he would strike out 14 of the 24 batters he saw, only allowing three hits, while his teammates struck for 13 hits to give Curwensville a decisive 6-0 victory.
The Tide got things going early with an RBI-single in the second inning when Tyler Lee managed an RBI-single to bring in the opening run. Curwensville added another run in the inning to take the early 2-0 lead, and never looked back.
After scoring another run in the thrid, the big hit on the afternoon came from pinch-hitter Logan Kunkle in the bottom of the fifth. In his only at-bat of the afternoon, he hammered a two-RBI single to give a little more insurance for the home squad entering the later innings.
Moshannon Valley struggled mightily on the mound, as starter Michael Kitko only went two innings, giving up five hits and only striking out two. Zach Witherow came in for relief, finishing the other four innings, but gave up eight hits in relief. Kitko got tagged with the loss on the afternoon.
At the same time, Mullins had a career afternoon, showing that he can be the ace pitcher for the Tide, something Curwensville has not seen in several years, as he pitched a 14-strike out complete game, giving up just three hits on 92 pitches, and walking only one batter all game in the victory.
Twenty-five percent of the season is finally in the books for Curwensville after several rainouts to start the year. Up next, the Tide (4-1) will go on the road Monday for a 4 p.m. game against Brockway.
SCORE BY INNING
Moshannon Valley 000 000 0 – 0 3 1
Curwensville 021 021 X – 6 13 0
Moshannon Valley – 0
Jacob O’Donnell 3000, Zach Witherow 3000, Ethan Webb 3000, Michael Kitko 3020, Kadin Hansel 3000, Landyn Evans 3000, Sam Lukehart 2000, Darian Delattre 1000, Mason Phillips 1000. TOTALS 24 0 3 0.
Curwensville – 6
Jake Mullins 3000, Thad Butler 4030, Shane Sunderlin 4230, Spencer Hoover 2100, Tyler Lee 4232, Ayden Sutika 3000, Grant Swanson 0000, Josh Shaffer 2000, Logan Kunkle 1012, Chris Fegert 3011. TOTALS 30 6 13 6.
- LOB: 4/10
- E: Hummel
- ROE: Sutika
- 2B: Kitko/Sunderlin
- FC: Hansel/Rowles, Sutika
- HBP: Mullins
- GIDP: Fegert
- SB: Butler
- CS: Butler
PITCHING
Moshannon Valley: Kitko-2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 SO, 3 BB; Witherow-4 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 6 SO, 0 BB.
Curwensville: Mullins-7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 14 SO, 1 BB.
W-Mullins
L-Kitko
