HYDE — Fresh off of their victory on Friday over P-O, the Clearfield Bison felt invigorated and ready to carry the energy from that win into Monday. With Bald Eagle coming in, Clearfield looked to even the season series between the two Mountain League foes.
Unfortunately, that energy halted quickly. The Bison struggled handling the ball when in play, and it became too much to overcome. The Bison, in the end, fell to the Bald Eagles, 8-3.
“You just can’t commit that many errors and expect to be in the game,” head coach Sid Lansberry said afterwards. “Look at the game on Friday and how many errors we had…zero. Then today, we had just simple mistakes. You take those away, it becomes a different game.”
Ryan Gearhart would get the start on the afternoon, and it did not take long for things to go awry. After a quick out, Alex Gavlock singled into center field. Two batters later, Kyler Cunningham came to the plate and on the first pitch he saw, he would connect, and connect deep.
The blast into left field made it over the wall and put the Eagles up 2-0 with the home run.
Bald Eagle added another run in the second after Gavin Eckley singled, then advanced to second when Kahale Burns got hit. This time, that run came after Karson Rumsky couldn’t get the handle on the ground ball in the gap of second and third, giving enough time to see Eckley make it home to increase the lead to 3-0. In the end, the Bison would commit six errors in the contest, each of which played a role in either runs or positioning. Clearfield did manage to get a run back in the bottom of the inning thanks to an RBI-single from Nolan Barr that allowed Blake Prestash to round the bases.
The top of the third is when the Bison would see their potential rally come to a fast halt.
All three runs would be earned as an RBI-double by McGwire Heverly, plus a pair of RBI-singles by Ryan Kresovich and Miles Stover, would call the end of Gearhart’s time on the mound. He would get tagged with the loss with three innings of work, six runs, five earned, with seven hits compared to three strikeouts. Kyle Elensky was brought in to finish out the inning, but even he would only go two innings as Lansberry was concerned about his pitchers. Morgen Billotte then moved to the mound for his first action of the season, and considering it was his first game to play pitcher this season, Lansberry was pleasantly surprised.
“I was impressed with all our pitchers today. We only played Kyle (Elensky) for two innings because we may start him tomorrow,” he said. “Morgen pitched well, and that was his first time on the mound this year. Plus we have some other guys too we can use, but I was pleased with how we pitched.”
For the Eagles, Wyatt McClain was dealing hard over the six innings he worked, yielding only three earned runs, and five strikeouts, in his victory.
Clearfield added a run each in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings, cutting the lead to 8-3, courtesy of an RBI-triple by Gearhart, and RBI-double from Barr.
Wyatt Coakley came in the final inning to get the save, and following a lineout by pinch-hitter Nick Domico and a walk from Billotte, Rumsky would connect on the first pitch he saw. But the ball barely made it to Burns at shortstop, who tagged second before hurling to Heverly at first for the 6-3 double play that ended the game.
Clearfield (4-6-1) is back on the home field Tuesday for a 4:30 p.m. start against the Tyrone Golden Eagles.
SCORE BY INNING
Bald Eagle 213 101 0 – 8 13 0
Clearfield 010 011 0 – 3 7 6
Bald Eagle Area – 8
Miles Stover-3B 5021, Alex Gavlock-2B 5110, Noah Williamson-DH 4010, Kyler Cunningham-C 5112, Hayden Vaughn-RF 5131, McGwire Heverly-1B 4111, Ryan Kresovich-LF 4231, Gavin Eckley-CF 3111, Kahale Burns-SS 3000, Trey Foster-CR 0100. TOTALS 38 8 13 7.
Clearfield – 3
Morgen Billotte-CF/P 2000, Karson Rumsky-SS 4000, Kyle Elensky-3B/P 2110, Blake Prestash-1B 2110, Hunter Dixon-DH 3000, Matt Bailor-C 3000, Nolan Barr-2B 3132, Ryan Gearhart-P/3B/CF 3011, Cole Bloom-LF 2010, Nick Domico-PH 1000. TOTALS 25 3 7 3.
LOB: 11/4
E: Barr-2, Bloom, Gearhart, Rumsky-2
ROE: Gavlock-3, Kresovich, Williamson
2B: Vaughn, Heverly/Barr, Prestash
3B: Gearhart
HR: Cunningham
SAC: Eckley
FC: Cunningham-2, Eckley/Rumsky
HBP: Burns/Prestash
SB: Kresovich
GIDP: Prestash, Rumsky
Pitching
Bald Eagle Area: McClain-6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 SO, 2 BB; Coakley-1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 SO, 1 BB.
Clearfield: Gearhart-2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 1 SO, 1 BB; Elensky-2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 SO, 0 BB; Billotte-3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 SO, 0 BB.
W-McClain
L-Gearhart
S-Coakley
