CURWENSVILLE- – A mere 24 hours earlier, the Curwensville Golden Tide were shuttered on their own field, held scoreless, suffering their second loss on the season. The measure of how good a team is how they recover, put a loss behind them, and move forward. Wednesday afternoon, the Purchase Line Red Dragons were ready to play spoiler for a second day in a row.
The only thing that was spoiled is the fact the game did not go the full distance. The reason, Curwensville decided to light up the scoreboard in one inning. Not only was the loss put behind the entire team, there was extra time to enjoy a victory as Curwensville would rout the visiting Red Dragons, 17-2, in a mercy rule stoppage.
It was the Red Dragons getting on the board first as Jake Mullins couldn’t haul in the ball from Zander Bennett, allowing Austin Chambers to reach home to give Purchase Line the lead.
That lead evaporated in the bottom of the inning. After an error and a walk, Shane Sunderlin connected on an 0-2 pitch from Andrew Smarsh for an RBI-double to bring Mullins home. One batter later, despite being out at first, Spencer Hoover pushed in Thad Butler to give the Tide the lead. Ayden Sutika managed the third run on an RBI-single to put the lead at 3-1 heading into the second.
Starting pitcher Jayson Rowles would see three batters in the inning, giving Curwensville a lot of energy heading into the lower half of the second. Rowles would pitch two innings on the afternoon, but that was enough for the victory.
The reason being, the entire Curwensville lineup would get a chance to make an impact in the bottom of the second inning.
Chris Fegert led it off with a quick double into left field to have a runner already in scoring position. That was enough for Mullins, who singled on a hard grounder to shortstop Andrew Beer, and the infield single was enough to get the scoring going, in a big way.
After a line out to left field by Butler, Curwensville put up four runs before getting the second out, thanks to a pair of RBI-singles from Spencer Hoover and Nik Fegert, plus a bases-loaded walk to Tyler Lee.
Chris Fegert was struck in the side and advanced to first, loading the bases. Mullins then added two more RBI’s to his total with a shot to left field. After giving up yet another walk to Butler, the Red Dragon coaching staff made some changes, pulling Smarsh off the hill in favor of Zach Stiffler, who started the afternoon at first base. Smarsh lasted only one and two-thirds innings, giving up 10 runs, and walking five.
The change in pitching didn’t do any good, as the first at-bat against Stiffler was a two-RBI single to center field by Sunderlin, part of a five-RBI afternoon on his part. Two more RBI-singles by Hoover and Sutika would be the final runs of the inning, part of an 11-run outing that suddenly saw the score go to 14-1.
Purchase Line added in one more run in the top of the third, unearned on an error by Hoover at catcher, making it 14-2 heading into the bottom of the inning.
Two consecutive walks put runners on first and second, then Josh Shaffer took his pinch-hitting opportunity serious with an RBI-double to left field to make it 15-2. One batter later, Mullins hit a grounder into left field to add one more run to the tally, and moved Shaffer to third. Sunderlin then returned to the box to potentially close out the afternoon for both teams.
Looking down a 2-2 pitch from Diezel Jobe, he launched a shot to center field. Shaffer tagged up as Austin Chambers pulled the ball in for the out. But, the throw was not in time, and at that point with Shaffer tagging home, the umpires raised their hands and called the game on account of the 15-run rule.
Having such success on the field is huge for Curwensville, because the Tide (12-2) head on the road Thursday afternoon to close out the week’s worth of games against Mount Union.
Due to the weather this season causing scheduling chaos, the game originally slated for in Curwensville is now part of a double-header in Mount Union, with the first game set to start at 2 p.m. The second game will follow after giving both teams a rest to recoup and reset.
SCORE BY INNING
Purchase Line 101 – 2 1 3
Curwensville 3(11)3 – 17 12 3
Purchase Line – 2
Austin Chambers-CF 2100, Andrew Beer-SS 2110, Travis Keister-DH 2000, Andrew Smarsh-P/1B 1000, Zander Bennett-3B 1000, Quentin Brooks-2B 1000, Jayce Brooks-PH 1000, Zach Stiffler-1B/P 1000, Levi Kephart-C 1000, Zachary Wickens-CR 0000. TOTALS 12 2 1 0.
Curwensville – 17
Jake Mullins-SS 4334, Thad Butler-LF 1200, Shane Sunderlin-1B 3335, Spencer Hoover-C 3111, Ayden Sutika-3B 3133, Jayson Rowles-P 1100, Tyler Libby-PH/P 1000, Tyler Lee-2B 0101, Danny McGarry-PH 0100, Nik Fegert-RF 2001, Mitch Sutika-PH 0100, Chris Fegert-CF 1210, Josh Shaffer-PH 1111. TOTALS 20 17 12 16.
- LOB: 2/4
- E: Chambers, C. Brooks, Beer/Hoover, Mullins, Sutika
- ROE: Chambers, Bennett/Hoover, Mullins
- 2B: C. Fegert, Sunderlin, Shaffer
- SF: Sunderlin
- HBP: C. Fegert
- SB: Chambers, Beer-2/Hoover, Mullins-2
PITCHING
Purchase Line: Smarsh-1.2 IP, 7 H, 10 R, 5 ER, 1 SO, 5 BB; Stiffler-0.1 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 0 SO, 2 BB; Jobe-0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 SO, 1 BB.
Curwensville: Rowles-2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 SO, 1 BB; Libby-1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 SO, 0 BB.
W-Rowles
L-Smarsh