CURWENSVILLE — The latter part of the season has been rather successful for the Curwensville Golden Tide baseball team, winning three of their last five contests. At the same time, Tuesday was a bit bittersweet because two of the Tide roster would take to the home field for the final time in their careers. In doing so, the hope was to leave the field with a victory, knowing a potential playoff berth loomed. In the opposing dugout, the Williamsburg Blue Pirates were trying to earn a split between the school’s two games this season, the Tide winning the first game 4-1.
What defined this game was the desire to win. At one point, it looked like the Tide had the advantage. Then, the visitors came back to keep it interesting. At the end of seven innings, the desire to be victorious fell to the way of the home team as Curwensville pulled off a 5-3 triumph that came down to the wire.
Curwensville did not have the most appealing start, but in each of the first two innings, both the pitching and defense got the sides to swap. In the opening inning, with runners on first and second, a fly out to center kept runners from the plate. The second inning, pitcher Lawson Neiswender found himself in the most challenging position of the game. A single each from Evan Becker and Anthony Neri, followed by a walk to William Lower, loaded the bases, and no outs were on the board.
But, two infield fly balls from Logan Brantner and Luke Uplinger put a pair of outs on the tally. Then, Rowan Gorsuch took a crack at the first pitch he saw, but the liner went straight to short stop Logan Kunkle, nabbing the third out, and stranding three runners.
The bottom of the second proved that defense leads to great offense. A pair of singles from Blaine Witherite and Merek Sutika put runners on first and second. Lincoln Hoyt then launched an 0-2 pitch into center field to bring Witherite home to open the scoring on an RBI-double. Cael Butler followed it up with an RBI-single to short, plating Sutika and putting runners on the corners. A ground out by Grant Swanson still helped out as he would allow Hoyt to make it home. In three at bats, Curwensville took a 3-0 lead, bookended with the two seniors contributing in a big way.
“Both Grant and Blaine didn’t come out for us last year, so to be able to get them the start today was a great moment. Then, they followed by playing solid on defense, getting the ball in play and scoring,” Golden Tide head coach Derek Dixon said after the game. “They were big in getting us going early on.”
Williamsburg would not go away easily, as they finally managed to get to Neiswender in the fourth inning. After a fielding error and a walk put runners on first and second, then Neri moving to third on a passed ball, Brantner singled on a liner to left to cut the lead down to 3-1. Uplinger then hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Lower as the crowd began to cover up due to a slight rain shower hitting the field. Just like Curwensville, the Blue Pirates scored three runs in three at-bats as an RBI-single by Gorsuch tied the game.
Neiswender continued to pitch through the fifth inning, giving up only two earned runs but was not able to land a strikeout.
After the fifth, Dixon decided to make some slight changes to the lineup, bringing Gavin McDermott in from left field to pitch, then moved Neiswender to first and Hunter Tkacik into left field. McDermott managed to pitch the entire inning, securing a strikeout in the process as the defense managed to keep Williamsburg away from scoring again, stranding two runners.
The bottom of the sixth inning was when the game fell in favor for the Tide.
A lead-off single by McDermott, then a walk by Sutika, put a runner in scoring position. Neiswender then wasted no time, connecting on the first pitch he saw to left field. McDermott made his way home, giving Curwensville the lead, 4-3. Two batters later, Butler ground to a fielder’s choice at third, but not before Sutika crossed home plate to give Curwensville an insurance run heading into the final inning.
Dixon pulled McDermott off the hill in the final inning, deciding to take the designated hitter distinction of Andrew Pentz away in the hope that he would get the save on the afternoon.
Williamsburg’s Ethan Reffner started the inning, but went down swinging for out one. Becker then hit what almost looked like a foul ball, but the short hop went right back to Hoyt at catcher, who made the quick tag for the second out. Neri was last to bat for the visitors, loading up the count before hitting a high fly ball to Butler at second. The ball went into the glove, and at that point the Tide began to celebrate the win, the second straight for the squad.
McDermott got the win in a one-inning relief effort, his first of the season. For Williamsburg, Preston Long took the loss in a four-inning effort
“This game was big for us as it is the final home game of the season, but these guys have been coming together over the last month and have been playing really solid baseball,” Dixon said. “It’s huge momentum for us as we make a run towards the playoffs. It’s a great win for sure after facing so much difficulty this season.”
Curwensville (8-10) does not have a lot of time to savor the win as they are back on the diamond on Wednesday afternoon as they travel to Glendale. The two teams faced one another in Curwensville back on April 16, with the Vikings getting the 14-7 victory.
SCORE BY INNING
Williamsburg 000 300 0 – 3 8 0
Curwensville 030 002 X – 5 6 2
Williamsburg – 3
Luke Uplinger-c 3001, Rowan Gorsuch-2b/ss 4021, Andrew Clark-3b 4020, Preston Long-ss/p 3010, Ethan Reffner-rf 4000, Evan Becker-1b 4010, Anthony Neri-p/lf 4110, William Lower-lf/2b 1100, Logan Brantner-cf 2111. TOTALS 29 3 8 3.
Curwensville – 5
Grant Swanson-lf/rf 2001, Kyler Nelen-rf 1000, Hunter Tkacik-1b/lf 3000, Andrew Pentz-dh/p 2000, Logan Kunkle-ss 3000, Blaine Witherite-rf 2110, Gavin McDermott-lf/p 1110, Merek Sutika-cf 2210, Lawson Neiswender-p/1b 3011, Lincoln Hoyt-c 2111, Cael Butler-2b 3012. TOTALS 24 5 6 5.
- 2B: Long/Hoyt
- SF: Uplinger
- SB: Brantner-2, Clark/Tkacik, Butler
- E: Tkacik, Pierce
PITCHING
- Williamsburg: Long-4 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 6 SO, 3 BB; Neri-2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 SO, 2 BB.
- Curwensville: Neiswender-5 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 SO, 3 BB; McDermott-1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 SO, 1 BB; Pentz-1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 SO, 0 BB.
W-McDermott (1-1)
L-Long (0-3)
GOLDEN TIDE SCOREBOARD:
Date Opponent Score Record
3/18  BROCKWAY ppd. 0 – 0
3/21 @ Juniata Valley ppd. 0 – 0
3/25 MO VALLEY 0 – 10 0 – 1
3/26 @ Juniata Valley 9 – 9, susp. 0 – 1
3/28 @ Claysburg-Kimmel 1 – 5 0 – 2
4/02 BROCKWAY ppd. 0 – 2
4/04 WEST BRANCH ppd. 0 – 2
4/06 @ Union 0 – 13 0 – 3
4/09 @ Wiliamsburg 4 – 1 1 – 3
4/11 @ Brockway 3 – 2, susp. 1 – 3
4/13 @ Harmony ppd. 1 – 3
4/15 @ Brockway 10 – 2 2 – 3
4/15 BROCKWAY 8 – 2 3 – 3
4/16 GLENDALE 7 – 14 3 – 4
4/18 @ Tourney vs. Altoona 0 – 16 3 – 5
4/19 @ Tourney vs. Tyrone 2 – 4 3 – 6
4/23 JUNIATA VALLEY 11 – 9 4 – 6
4/23 JUNIATA VALLEY 2 – 4 4 – 7
4/25 MT. UNION 0 – 18 4 – 8
4/26 HARMONY 13 – 0 5 – 8
4/27 WEST BRANCH 0 – 9 5 – 9
4/30 @ Mo Valley 9 – 2 6 – 9
5/02 @ West Branch 0 – 10 6 – 10
5/03 PURCHASE LINE 5 – 2 7 – 10
5/07 WILLIAMSBURG 5 – 3 8 – 10
5/08 @ Glendale
5/15 @ Harmony
