CURWENSVILLE — It’s playoff time for high school baseball. In the midst of prom season, the Curwensville Golden Tide were feeling good at how their regular season went, despite having some struggles in the latter part of the schedule. Still, they managed to nab the No. 3 seed in the 2A bracket for District IX, and started their playoff run on Tuesday when they played host to the Redbank Valley Bulldogs, who got the No. 6 seed.
That playoff run for Curwensville started shortly after 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday; it ended hours later. The Tide struggled at the plate against a very tough Bulldog defense, while Redbank Valley got out to an early lead, and never looked back. The Bulldogs handed the Tide a 6-1 loss, ending Curwensville’s season.
Redbank Valley struck in the first, as they managed to get the upper hand off of starter Jake Mullins.
Owen Clouse opened the game reaching on an error, then stole second. Ty Hetrick followed up with an RBI-double to bring him home for the opening run. Later in the inning, Ty Carrier connected on a two-RBI single to make it 3-0 before the sides swapped. Mullins threw over 100 pitches in his five innings on the hill, with over a third of those coming in the opening inning.
Those three runs were all that Bulldog pitcher Bryson Bain needed on the afternoon. That wasn’t to say he wasn’t caught in a tough situation, as he faced loaded bases in the bottom of the first, with two outs on the tally. But, he got out of the jam with an inning-ending strikeout to keep runs off the board.
In the second, Hetrick would add an unearned run to the Bulldog score as he reached home on another error. Curwensville had as many errors (four) in the game as they did hits.
Bain continued to pitch a solid outing, going six and two-thirds innings, striking out six, walking five, and only yielding one run.
In the fifth, Redbank Valley added in a fifth run when Mason Clouse blasted the ball to right field for a sacrifice fly to bring home Cam Wagner, who had come in as a courtesy runner for Bain.
After five runs, Curwensville coaches pulled Mullins, who by that time had tossed 103 pitches, in favor of Shane Sunderlin. Mullins got tagged with the loss on the afternoon after a five-inning performance that included eight hits, five runs, three of them earned, and five strikeouts.
The Bulldogs got one final run in the seventh when Breckin Minich managed an RBI-single to plate Tate Minich.
Curwensville finally got on the board in the final inning when Tyler Lee connected on a sacrifice fly that brough home Chris Fegert. By that time, Bulldog coaches finally allowed Bain to come off the hill and let Carrier finish out the afternoon, getting the final two outs, and sending the Bulldogs into the next round of the playoffs.
Golden Tide head coach Tom Harzinski didn’t mince words after the game, saying, “It’s tough. I think we started off a little nervous. They just beat us today. They came up with a couple of big hits and we just didn’t have many hits.”
He also went on to thank his senior ball players, as Curwensville saw 10 suit up for the final time in their career. Curwensville will be rebuilding for the 2023 season, as they are losing a lot of their starting pitching rotation. Along with Mullins and Sunderlin, Jayson Rowles also is graduating this year, along with Lee. Catcher Spencer Hoover also played his last game for Curwensville, along with Butler at short, Tyler Libby, Alan Farley, Ayden Sutika and Josh Shaffer. All the seniors saw one of their seasons not take place, as the pandemic in 2020 forced the entire season to be cancelled.
“They (seniors) put their footprint on this program and these younger kids have learned a lot from them,” Harzinski said.
Redbank Valley will move on to face Karns City in the semi-finals in the 2A-bracket.
SCORE BY INNING
Redbank Valley 310 010 1 – 6 9 2
Curwensville 000 000 1 – 1 4 4
Redbank Valley – 6
Owen Clouse-CF 4120, Ty Hetrick-SS 3211, Tate Minich-C 2211, Bryson Bain-P/1B 4010, Cam Wagner-CR 0100, Breckin Minich-3B 4031, Ty Carrier-1B/P 4012, Mason Clouse-LF 4000, Trevor Rearick-RF 4000, Peytin Rearick-2B 3000. TOTALS 32 6 9 5.
Curwensville – 1
Jake Mullins-P/SS 3010, Tyler Lee-2B 2001, Shane Sunderlin-1B/P 3010, Grant Swanson-CR 0000, Thad Butler-SS/LF 3000, Spencer Hoover-C 2010, Ayden Sutika-3B 3010, Jayson Rowles-LF 2000, Alan Farley-PH 1000, Nik Fegert-LF 0000, Josh Shaffer-1B 0000, Logan Kunkle-DH 3000, Chris Fegert-CF 2100. TOTALS 24 1 4 1.
- LOB: 8/9
- E: Bain, B. Minich/Butler, Mullins-2, Sutika
- 2B: O. Clouse, Hetrick
- SF: M. Clouse/Lee
- HBP: T. Minich
- SB: O. Clouse, T. Minich, Wagner/Swanson, Butler
PITCHING
Redbank Valley: Bain-6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 6 SO; Carrier-0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.
Curwensville: Mullins-5 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO; Sunderlin-2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO.
W-Bain
L-Mullins
