PUNXSUTAWNEY — If there’s a more spectacular way to end the season for any teams in the area, somehow the Clearfield Bison and Punxsutawney Chucks found a way to do so.
In an afternoon where the neither side could find a run through seven innings, neither could even score in the Major Leagues’ comparable nine innings. It took an entire extra inning beyond to plate a run for either team. Clearfield got the first runs on the day, but the Chucks got the last, walking off a 5-4 contest to drop Clearfield to 9-11.
For the first couple innings, Clearfield managed to get on base, first thanks to a fielding error by Landan Temchula to get Colton Bumbarger on in the second, then a single by Hayden Rumsky to center in the third. Unfortunately, after Rex Butler came in to run for Bumbarger, the next three batters would retire. Then, in the third, Kam Kushner lined out to second baseman Maddox Hetrick, who then tagged out Rumsky who had already moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, but did not make it back to tag up for the 4-6 double play to shortstop Coy Martino.
Starting pitcher for Clearfield Jayce Brothers kept the Chucks guessing, not giving up a runner until the bottom of the third on a walk to Lucas Mennitti. But, his defense got out of the inning.
After a fly out to Kam Kushner, Lucas Silverstein grounded to Braison Patrick at short, who managed to get the ball to O’Brian Owens for the first out, then on the throwback to second, caught Silverstein in a rundown, eventually getting tagging out by Matt Irvin for the double play.
The third double play of the afternoon came in the sixth when Bumbarger ground into a 5-3 double play.
Through seven innings, very few runners made it on, so extra innings were on the docket. Even then, it was more of the same. In the eighth, another double play by Punxsutawney kept the game scoreless as Parker Stahlman managed an unassisted double play when O’Brian Owens lined out, and the tag up for Patrick ended the upper half.
Clearfield finally put the Chucks in a jam in the ninth as they had two outs with the bases loaded for Brothers, but he would strike out swinging on three pitches, stranding all and swapping sides. At that point, Brothers was already being pulled from the hill after an eight-inning performance that saw him strike out four and give up only one hit. In the prior inning, he eclipsed 100 pitches, so Connor Peacock came in for relief duty. His defense pulled out another double play in the ninth as Stahlman grounded to first, and Irvin then was determined to prevent the winning run from coming across as a sacrifice hit. He did just that as Brody Stouffer was tagged out heading home, and the teams entered the 10th inning still tied with no runs on the board.
Finally, Clearfield got some momentum when Kushner and Patrick each singled to put runners on. Kushner headed to third on a wild pitch, then Patrick stole second, followed by Owens grounding to left to get Kushner to touch home for the first run of the day. Bumbargher then lined to center for another run, and Christian Welker then grounded to center for the third. Craig Mays reached on an error during his at-bat, which let Bumbarger come home to give Clearfield a 4-0 lead long before the first out was recorded, but that’s where the top half of the 10th ended.
Punxsutawney needed a way to get runners on base, and did so with an error to start things off, putting Temchula on first. Back-to-back walks by Peacock loaded the bases, then another walk to Silverstein put the Chucks on the board.
Hetrick singled on a hard grounder to second, letting Mennitti score to cut the lead in half before Stouffer struck out. Nevin Day then had the biggest play of the afternoon, hitting a hard grounder through the gap into center field, bringing both Silverstein and Nick Kendrick across for a pair of RBIs, and tying the game at four.
A passed ball to Stahlman allowed Hetrick to advance to third, and Day to second. At that point, coaches decided to intentionally walk Martino and bring Stahlman up with the bases loaded.
One pitch is what it took, as the ball went to Brothers, who moved to second base after being taken off the hill. But, he could not get a handle on the ball, and in one instant, the error let Hetrick hustle home for the walk-off run and the victory. The run gave the loss to Peacock in a one and one-third inning effort, while Landon Neal got the win for the Chucks.
With the regular season over, Clearfield now waits for the District IX Class AAAA championship on Wednesday at 6:30 PM at Showers Field in DuBois, where they’ll have a rematch with the Chucks.
SCORE BY INNING
Clearfield 000 000 000 4 – 4 11 4
Punxsutawney 000 000 000 5 – 5 5 3
Clearfield – 4
Kam Kushner-cf 5130, Braison Patrick-ss 3110, O’Brian Owens-3b 5111, Colton Bumbarger-c 5131, Christian Welker-dh 5011, Noah Wriglesworth-lf 4000, Xavier Lutz-lf 0000, Craig Mays-lf 1001, Matt Irvin-1b 4000, Rex Butler-ph/cr 1000, Hayden Rumsky-rf 3010, Jayce Brothers-p/2b 4010. TOTALS 40 4 11 4.
Punxsutawney – 5
Maddox Hetrick-2b 5121, Brody Stouffer-cf 5010, Nevin Day-1b 5022, Coy Martino-ss 2000, Parker Stahlman-p 5001, Landan Temchula-3b 3100, Landon Neal-p 1000, Lucas Mennitti-c 2100, Nate Kendrick-rf 2100, Alex Shumaker-ph 1000, Lucas Silverstein-lf 3101. TOTALS 34 5 5 5.
2B: Kushner
HBP: Patrick
SB: Patrick/Martino, Shumaker
E: Brothers-2, Wriglesworth, Owens/Martino-2, Temchula
Pitching
- Clearfield: Brothers-8 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 SO, 2 BB; Peacock-1.1 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 1 SO, 5 BB.
- Punxsutawney: Stahlman-5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 SO, 1 BB; Neal-5 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 SO, 2 BB.
W-Neal
L-Peacock (1-1)
Clearfield Baseball Scoreboard
03/18: at Central 14 – 8, 1 – 0
03/20: BELLEFONTE ppd, 1 – 0
03/21: BELLEFONTE 0 – 10, 1 – 1
03/25: BISHOP GUILFOYLE 6 – 5, 2 – 1
03/27: TYRONE 5 – 8, 2 – 2
04/01: at Hollidaysburg 7 – 8, 2 – 3
04/04: at Somerset 1 – 16, 2 – 4
04/08: HUNTINGDON ppd. 2 – 4
04/11: FOREST HILLS ppd. 2 – 4
04/14: at Philipsburg-Osceola 3 – 9, 2 – 5
04/16: BELLWOOD-ANTIS ppd. 2 – 5
04/17: FOREST HILLS 3 – 13, 2 – 6
04/22: at Penns Valley 11 – 0, 3 – 6
04/24: DUBOIS 6 – 4, 4 – 6
04/26: BELLWOOD-ANTIS ppd. 4 – 6
04/28: BALD EAGLE AREA 2 – 1, 5 – 6
04/29: BELLWOOD-ANTIS 5 – 9, 5 – 7
04/30: BRADFORD 10 – 3, 6 – 7
05/01: HUNTINGDON 3 – 4, 6 – 8
05/02: BISHOP CARROLL 10 – 0, 7 – 8
05/05: at Greater Johnstown 15 – 10, 8 – 8
05/07: ST. MARYS 2 – 6, 8 – 9
05/09: CENTRAL 6 – 3, 9 – 9
05/12: at Bellefonte 0 – 1, 9 – 10
05/14: at Punxsutawney 4 – 5 (10 inn.), 9 – 11
05/21: District 9 AAA Championship Game vs. Punxsutawney at Showers Field
