CURWENSVILLE — Something about this season has felt different about the Curwensville Golden Tide when they take to the diamond. Even after having a long delay to start the season, this team has taken to the field and has come together in all facets of the game. Entering Friday afternoon, the Tide were winners of five straight, all in dominant fashion.
Curwensville welcomed the Brockway Rovers on a sunny Friday, the second game between the teams in five days, with Curwensville shutting out Brockway in the first game, 6-0. This time, Brockway did manage to put a pair of runs on the board. However, the Tide would get a quick start in the opening inning, and didn’t let up, taking a 12-2 victory that was called after six innings due to the 10-run rule.
“We had another excellent day in all aspects of the game,” Tide head coach Tom Harzinski said afterwards. “We have struggled the last few games to get out to a fast start, but today we got those early runs and it took a lot of pressure off the team.”
That fast start came in a big way after a pair of walks put runners on first and second. After a fielder’s choice got the first out, Spencer Hoover connected on a short RBI-single that just made it past the dirt into left field for the opening run of the game. Jayson Rowles would get struck by a pitch to then load the bases, but Aiden Sutika would hammer a sacrifice fly into center field to bring Sunderlin around to make it 2-0. Both remaining runners advanced, leaving Tyler Lee a pair of scorers in position. He would blast a 1-2 pitch into right-center field to get a two-RBI single and give his team a comfortable 4-0 lead entering the second inning.
On the hill, Jake Mullins got tabbed with the start and managed a pair of solid innings, finishing with a perfect outing, striking out four of the six batters he faced.
In relief, Shane Sunderlin came in and would struggle slightly in the third, but an error and some timely hitting would allow Brockway to plate both Chad Young and Matthew Brubaker, cutting the lead in half. Those two runs were the first given up by Curwensville in five games, as they pitched 22 scoreless innings. Those runs cut the lead to 4-2, but after gathering his team just outside the dugout following the final out of the inning, Harzinski’s message to the team was taken to heart, because Curwensville opened things up in a big way.
After a lead-off single by Hoover started things off, Sutika reached on a walk. Both advanced on wild pitches, leaving runners again on second and third for Lee.
He stared down a 2-2 pitch from Andrew Brubaker, and hammered it into the gap again between left and center field, clearing the bases for another two-RBI single to increase the lead back to four runs. Lee finished the afternoon with four RBI’s on a pair of hits, his best outing of the season.
After another walk of Logan Kunkle put runners to first and second, the Brockway coaching staff made a swap, bringing in Chad Young to take over on the hill. Brubaker would get tagged with the loss on the afternoon, going 2.1 innings and only striking out one while giving up five walks and eight runs.
This change didn’t help matters as Chris Fegert led things off with a single, then Mullins added in his own RBI-single, putting the score at 7-2. Sunderlin looked to pop out to the infield on the last at-bat, but in a stunning twist Brubaker lost the ball in the sun as it popped out of his glove. The error allowed one run to round home, then another. Harzinski saw potentially a third run make its way to the plate, but Mullins was tagged out at home for the final out, but not before the Tide took a 9-2 lead to put the game way more out of reach.
Curwensville added two more runs in the fifth with runs by Kunkle and Mullins, while making another pitching change one inning later as Tyler Libby came to the hill.
The Tide defense kept the Rovers off the board, and were heading into the sixth inning needing only one run to close out the game courtesy of the mercy rule.
Rowles led things off with a single to center, then Aiden Sutika hit a sacrifice bunt to move Rowles into scoring position. Brockway then made the call to avoid having the success of Lee close out the game, as he was intentionally walked to bring Kunkle up again, having already walked three times on the afternoon. Looking at a 2-2 pitch, the freshman finally connected, sending the ball into shallow left and bringing Rowles around the bases for the final run on the afternoon, ending the game with one out in the inning.
“For him (Logan) as a freshman to come in and face that pressure, that is big,” Harzinski said. “I told him ‘We just need one run,’ and he got that for us.”
Curwensville (7-1) is in the midst of a stretch where they have outscored their last five opponents 54-2, but are already looking at their next opponent as if it is the first game of the year. On Saturday, the Tide will be on the road to face off with Juniata Valley, the team that gave Curwensville their only blemish on the season. Even so, Harzinski looked at his team after the victory with a clear message.
“I told these guys that it’s just another game. We cannot think about what they did in the first one, but only what we have to do in the next,” he said.
First pitch for the rare Saturday contest is at 12 noon.
SCORE BY INNING
Brockway 002 000 – 2 4 3
Curwensville 405 021 – 12 10 1
Brockway – 2
Matthew Brubaker-SS 4120, Marcus Bennett-CF 3011, Andrew Brubaker-P/1B 2000, Ezra Swanson-RF 3000, Dylan Bash-3B 3000, Daniel Shugarts-DH 2010, Chad Young-1B/P 2100, Logan Faith-CR 0000, Dylan Antonuccio-2B 3000, Jeremy Swanson-LF 2000. TOTALS 24 2 4 1.
Curwensville – 12
Jake Mullins-P/SS 3211, Thad Butler-SS 2010, Shane Sunderlin-3111, Alan Farley-PH 1000, Spencer Hoover-C 4231, Jayson Rowles-RF 3210, Ayden Sutika-3B 1101, Tyler Lee-2B 3124, Logan Kunkle-DH 1211, Chris Fegert-CF 2100. TOTALS 23 12 10 9.
- LOB: 8/5
- E: Bash, M. Brubaker-2/Sutika
- ROE: E. Swanson/Fegert, Mullins, Sunderlin
- SAC: Fegert, Sutika
- SF: Sutika
- FC: Bennett, Young, A. Brubaker/Fegert, Sunderlin
- HBP: Shugarts, J. Swanson, A. Brubaker/Rowles, Butler
- SB: Hoover, Mullins
- DP: Bennett-2, Young-2
PITCHING
Brockway: A. Brubaker-2.1 IP, 4 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 1 SO, 5 BB; Young-3 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 SO, 2 BB.
Curwensville: Mullins-2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 SO, 0 BB; Sunderlin-3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 4 SO, 0 BB; Libby-1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 SO, 1 BB.
