DUBOIS — As the sun shined down on a blissful Thursday afternoon, fans filed into beautiful Showers Field in DuBois for a showdown in 4A competition for District IX. A championship was on the line as the St. Marys Flying Dutchmen walked into the visiting dugout, ready to get the bats swinging. On the opposing side, the Clearfield Bison, who came on strong in the latter part of the season, took to the home dugout ready to go after a second consecutive title.
Both squads went hit-for-hit to start the game, with the Dutchmen getting an advantage midway through the contest. But, the Bison would get ignited courtesy of back-to-back shots to the deep end of the field, fueling a 9-5 come-from-behind win to hand them the District IX championship mere hours after the softball team accomplished the same feat.
“That’s a big win for this program. We’ve had ups and down this year, but this nullifies all the bad times we had, the games we struggled. To come back and win a district title, it is sweet,” head coach Sid Lansberry said afterwards. “These guys deserve it, they work hard, and have gotten better as the season went on. I am so proud of them, especially the seniors. We have eight seniors that deserve it.”
Clearfield struck first in the opening inning. After Nolan Barr doubled, Morgen Billotte connected on the very first pitch he saw, going to deep left-center field for an RBI-double. The inning ended in a rather odd way in the next at-bat, as Blake Prestash seemed to sky the ball to right field for the second out, a sacrifice fly that appeared to move Billotte to third. But, suddenly as the ball was thrown to third, the umpires made a rare call saying the runner began his advance too early.
So, once the ball was tossed from third to second, the umpires called a rather unique 7-5-4 double play to end the inning. Lansberry and his assistant coaches discussed the call during the change of sides, but they appeared to agree to disagree on the call.
The abrupt end to the inning gave some life to the Dutchmen as they would get the lead back in the second.
After a high-speed lineout to third, Charlie Coudriet singled to put the tying run on base. After a steal of second, Logan Mosier blasted the ball to center field for an RBI-single to tie the game. He would advance to second on the throw home, automatically putting the next run in scoring position. That run came in as Connor Bullers lined an RBI-single to left field to put the Dutchmen up 2-1 heading into the bottom of the inning.
Clearfield was not backing down one bit as they got both runs back in the bottom of the second, first coming in unearned fashion when Cole Bloom would score on an error by Mosier, the lone error of the game, then Ryan Gearhart came home on a sacrifice fly to give Clearfield the lead back.
Neither side would get more runs until the fifth when the Dutchmen finally got the better of Elensky, who got the nod after a week of rest following the Bison walk-off win to end the regular season last Wednesday against Curwensville.
After a pair of strikeouts to start the inning, Conner Straub would walk, followed by a single via Price. Charlie Coudriet then connected on his first pitch to left, bringing home an RBI-single to tie things back up. After a walk by Mosier, Kaden Snelick would stare down an 0-1 pitch and send it to center field, enough to bring around a pair of runs to shift momentum squarely to the visiting dugout, as the 5-3 advantage took a lot of steam out of the Bison. After getting out of the inning, Lansberry and his pitcher both agreed that the time was right to pull him off the hill.
“He was solid, but he was out of gas. It was time, and he agreed,” Lansberry said.
The bottom half of the fifth, everything changed. Not only on the field, but the excitement from one side of the grandstands to another.
Nolan Barr led off the fifth with an infield single that just barely missed getting the first out. Billotte then came up, already 1-for-2 on the afternoon after his first-inning double.
He decided to do even better. Looking down a 1-1 pitch from Christian Coudriet, Billotte swung the bat, and the sound of metal on the leather was clear it was a good connection. The ball went to right-center field, and went so far back that it struck one of the scoreboards in the outfield. That hit came back into the field of play, but not before the umpires had already seen where it first struck. Billotte’s two-run homer would instantly tie the game, and gave the home crowd a reason to cheer as the student section got riled up, considering most of the softball team had at that point made their way to the field.
If a tying homer was the first reason to get the Bison faithful excited, they had not seen anything yet.
Prestash then came to the box, and once again looked down a 1-1 pitch from Coudriet. The heavy hitter, just as Billotte, swung and connected. This one headed towards the center field wall, hooking to the left but having just enough to get over the 314-foot sign in the outfield. Back-to-back home runs put Clearfield up 6-5, and as Prestash rounded for home, he flexed his arms as his teammates welcomed him.
“Huge hits today. Billotte and Blake (Prestash) with those back-to-back home runs, they don’t happen on this field,” Lansberry said. “I’ve never seen the ball carry so well. To bounce back like that, it was key.
“We were down 5-3, and in trouble. He (Coudriet) started to throw better after that. He’s a good pitcher, and I think we hit better against him than any pitcher all year. But for us to hit like that, we’ve needed that all year. The bottom of the order wasn’t hitting at all, but once that clicks, you’re in the game.”
Those final runs were enough to give Coudriet the loss on the afternoon, as he went six innings, giving up all nine Bison runs, while striking out five.
Clearfield got those final three runs in the sixth. Billotte followed up his home run with a two-RBI double to left-center, plating Elijah Quick, who came in as a pinch runner for Hunter Rumsky, and Elensky. Prestash then hit a deep sacrifice fly to right field to plate Barr, ultimately setting the final.
That said, the game was not decided until the seventh.
Although Elensky would get the win with his five-inning performance, Prestash closed it out in a big way in the final two innings. The defense helped put down the three batters in the sixth, but it got testy in the final inning. Straub first lined out to third as Mike Fester would hurl the ball to first, where Barr nabbed the out. Price then got struck to put a runner on base, and he would move to second when Prestash saw a pitch go over the head of Cole Bloom. However, after getting the count full, Coudriet flew out to left for out number two.
The final hope was Mosier, who was 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Prestash got the first two strikes, but then the next two pitches were outside.
He didn’t look to second for the potential pick-off, and looked only to home plate. Prestash wound up with a fast sinker, one that saw Mosier swing hard, and only capture air. Strike three, game over, and the celebration began.
Earlier in the day, it was Elensky that spoke about how it would be nice to cap off his senior season with another District IX championship, but then switched focus to not just his teammates, but a team that actually never got to show what they could give to the program. Elensky said, “It’s not just a representation of the Class of ’22; it’s more so a representation of the Class of 2020 that never got the opportunity to play and enhance this moment one last time.”
Eight current seniors saw their sophomore season stolen from them because of Covid, and now in a sense the graduating class gave them the championship they felt they should have earned.
Clearfield (10-11) will be back at Showers Field on Tuesday afternoon when they take on Somerset with a chance to go into the state playoffs. First pitch is set for approximately Noon.
SCORE BY INNING
St. Marys 020 030 0 – 5 9 1
Clearfield 120 033 X – 9 10 0
St. Marys – 5
Christian Coudriet-P 4000, Vinnie Lenze-2B 4010, Conner Straub-C 3000, Layton Ryan-CR 0100, Carter Price-1B 4120, Charlie Coudriet-3B 4221, Logan Mosier-SS 3111, Kaden Snelick-RF 3012, Connor Bullers-DH 3021, Kaden Bullers-CF 3000. TOTALS 31 5 9 5.
Clearfield – 9
Kyle Elensky-P/SS 4111, Nolan Barr-2B/1B 4330, Morgen Billotte-CF 4134, Blake Prestash-1B/P 4110, Cole Bloom-C 4110, Ryan Gearhart-SS/2B 3110, Ty Troxell-RF 3000, Hunter Rumsky-DH 1000, Elijah Quick-CR 0100, Shane Coudriet-LF 3000. TOTALS 30 9 10 5.
- LOB: 7/7
- E: Mosier
- ROE: Troxell
- 2B: Lenze, C. Bullers/Barr, Billotte-2, Gearhart
- HR: Billotte, Prestash
- HBP: Price/Rumsky, S. Coudriet
- SF: Elensky, Prestash
- SB: Cha. Coudriet/Barr
PITCHING
St. Marys: Chr. Coudriet-6 IP, 10 H, 9 R, 5 ER, 5 SO, 2 BB.
Clearfield: Elensky-5 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 SO, 2 BB; Prestash-2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 SO, 0 BB.
W-Elensky
L-Chr. Coudriet S-Prestash
