HYDE – Sometimes, statistics in sports can be deceiving, with strength of schedule often a factor.
That\’s not the case with Somerset\’s incredible offensive numbers, as the Clearfield Area High School baseball team discovered Friday.
The hard-hitting, high-scoring Eagles, who are 14-1 in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference, came into the Bison Sports Complex Friday averaging almost 12.5 runs a game and departed with a 16-7 victory in a marathon non-league game.
Somerset, which has reached double figures in all but four games and ended eight games prematurely because of the mercy rule, needed only 11 hits to pad its record to 16-2, but four were doubles and one a home run. A valid reason for one of the Districts 5-6 Class AAA second seed\’s smaller hit totals of the year might have been the fact the Eagles were playing their 11th game in as many days.
Several of the Eagles weren\’t showing any effects of that grind. Drew Shaulis, Tyler Hayman and Zack Deist each had a pair of hits. Deist drove in four runs, Chase Dykstra came off the bench to knock in three and Hayman and Tyler Uphouse chipped in two RBIs apiece.
The Bisons made it a little easier for Somerset to score at least 15 runs for the 10th time. Three hurlers issued a dozen walks as they logged 180 pitches. And the defense was guilty of seven errors.
\”We walked too many people and we left too many men on base again,\” Clearfield coach Sid Lansberry said. \”How many errors?\”
When told it was seven, he quickly added, \”You can\’t win that way, no matter what.\”
Especially not the way Somerset scores in bunches.
Two of Clearfield\’s three miscues in the first inning led to three unearned runs, two coming on Deist\’s home run to left center.
Hayman\’s two-run double to deep right center was the key blow in the three-run second, and Deist\’s two-run single capped a four-run third that gave Eagle starter Landon Wahl a 10-0 cushion, though only three of the runs off loser Michael Moyer were earned.
Lansberry was impressed.
\”It\’s not just how hard they hit the ball, but they\’re very disciplined at the plate,\” he said. \”I know our pitchers weren\’t throwing strikes, but they weren\’t swinging at anything unless it was right there.
\”They remind me a lot of the old State College teams, when (Ken) Barto coached. We couldn\’t get them out. We\’d get two strikes on them but we couldn\’t get them out, because they would not swing unless it was right there.
\”They\’re a very disciplined team, plus some power. They\’ve scored a lot of runs this year. They hit the ball. And you add the errors in, and the walks. We\’re lucky it wasn\’t worse.\”
The Bisons, who are 7-9, got to Wahl for two runs in the third on David Ryan\’s bad-hop triple to right, an error, James Zimmerman\’s double and Tanner St. Clair\’s sacrifice fly and one in the fourth on a walk, two wild pitches and Ryan\’s forceout.
It was 11-5 after both teams scored in the fifth, Somerset getting a second sacrifice fly from Uphouse for the lone run in Adam Jury\’s two innings on the mound, and Clearfield posting two runs on hits by St. Clair, Brandon Evans and Jarrin Campman.
The Eagles pulled away against Zimmerman with three in the sixth, two scoring on errors, and two in the seventh on Dykstra\’s double into the left field corner.
Coach Steve Costea, who joined the 200-Win Club in Somerset\’s second game of the season, pulled Wahl after 126 pitches, sending Hayman to the mound in the seventh inning. After walking Evans, the junior righthander and fell down because of a quad injury following his third pitch to Lucas Malloy, so Ryan Fisher closed it out.
The Bisons did tack on two runs, one on an error and another on Ryan\’s groundout, to extend the game to nearly three hours.
Ryan was the lone Bison with more than one hit.
The final week of the regular season will be a tough one for the Bisons with road games against Indian Valley Monday, Central Mountain in a makeup of a postponement on Thursday and State College Friday. Indian Valley and State College are sitting atop the Central Penn League, while Central Mountain knocked Bald Eagle Area out of first place Wednesday. Clearfield also will host St. Marys Wednesday.
The Clearfield jayvees won 12-9 for a 10-4 record. Chad Zurat pitched the final four innings to get the decision in relief of Justin Hoffman and Isaac Butler. Chris Barr had two hits for the Bisons.
SOMERSET — 16
Drew Shaulis cf 3420, Adam McNaul ph 1000, Brett Hemminger c 1200, Tyler Uphouse 3b 3111, Tyler Hayman 1b-p 4122, Joe Foltz ss 0000, Zach Deist 2b-1b 3124, Cole Christner ph 1000, Ryan Fisher ss-p 2200, Landon Wahl p 0000, Alex Lenhard dh 4120, Shawn Barron ph-2b 0100, Cody Hemminger rf 5110, John Heiple lf 3100, Chase Dykstra ph-lf 2113. TOTALS: 32 16 11 11.
CLEARFIELD — 7
James Zimmerman ss-p 3010, Michael Kritzer pr-3b 1000, Tanner St. Clair lf 3111, Drew Hipps rf 2000, Andrew Janocko rf 2000, Brandon Evan 3b-ss-3b 2210, Jarrin Campman 2b 2110, Lucas Malloy 1b 1000, Corey Bookhamer 1b 0000, Tyler Kirkwood dh 1000, Kyle Kline ph-1b-2b 3110, Michael Moyer p 1000, Adam Jury p-ss 2010, David Ryan cf 4122, Wil Bacharach c 3101, Cody Fye ph 1000. TOTALS: 31 7 8 4.
Score by Innings:
Somerset 334 013 2 – 16 11 4
Clearfield 002 120 2 – 7 8 7
Errors – Uphouse, Hayman, Barron, Heiple; Zimmerman 3, St. Clair,Hipps, Evans, Malloy. DP – Clearfield 1 (Bacharach and Evans). LOB – Somerset 9; Clearfield 8. 2B – Shaulis, Hayman, C. Hemminger, Dykstra; Zimmerman, Kline. 3B – Ryan. HR – Deist. SF – Uphouse 2; St. Clair.
Pitching
Somerset – Wahl 6 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 7 K; Hayman 0 IP (faced 1 batter in 7th) 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K; Fisher 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.
Clearfield – Moyer 3 IP, 8 H, 10 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 K; Jury 2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K; Zimmerman 2 IP, 2 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 K.
WP – Wahl 4, Hayman 1; Moyer 4, Jury 3. Balk – Zimmerman 1.
W – Wahl (4-0). L – Moyer (1-4).
