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P-O pounds Mountain Top
Monday, June 25, 2012
By Rich Murawski Assistant Sports Editor
SNOW SHOE - Things went about as well as they possibly could have for the Philipsburg-Osceola 11- and 12-year-old all-star team Saturday evening at Mountain Top Field.
P-O pounded out 11 hits - six for extra bases - and played flawless defense behind starting pitcher Gage Coudriet, who tossed a two-hit shutout.
The result was a 15-0 win for Philipsburg-Osceola over Mountain Top in the opening round of the District 5 Northern Tier Little League All-Star Tournament. The game lasted just four innings due to the 10-run rule.
"You couldn't ask any more of these kids," P-O manager Lenny Martin said. "We hit the ball, our defense was excellent and the pitching was spot on. The kids knew what to do today."
P-O scored early and often, jumping out to a 6-0 first-inning lead, thanks in large part to a grand slam home run off the bat of Mason Martin.
Josh Bryan led off the bottom of the first with a double for P-O, which was designated as the home team by a coin flip.
Matt Johnson followed with his own double, chasing Bryan home to give P-O a 1-0 advantage.
Josh Earnest singled and Coudriet drew a walk off Mountain Top starting pitcher Rilee Bechdel, loading the bases.
Martin unloaded them when he took a 3-2 pitch from Bechdel for a ride over the center field fence to quickly balloon the P-O lead to five.
After an out, Micah Martin put a charge into a 1-1 offering from Bechdel, smacking a line-drive solo homer to left field.
Mountain Top replaced Bechdel on the mound with Hunter Taylor, who experienced some control problems as he plunked Brandon Anderson with his first pitch, walked Bryan after getting a strikeout and hit Johnson with a pitch to load the bases.
Taylor was able to get out of the jam by getting Earnest to ground out to first, but not before P-O sent 12 batters to the plate and took a comfortable 6-0 lead into the second inning.
"It's nice to have an early lead," Martin said. "That took a lot of pressure off us."
P-O added to its lead in the bottom of the second, scoring four more runs on just two hits to enlarge its lead to 10-0.
Coudriet led off the frame with a towering solo home run to left field.
Mason Martin reached on an infield error and Hunter Ammerman walked before Taylor got Micah Martin and Brandon Kephart to ground out. Mason Martin scored on the Kephart groundout.
Taylor then hit Carson Jones with a pitch and Bryan followed with a two-run single to center field. Bryan was thrown out at second base, after turning his ankle rounding first, to end the inning.
Philipsburg-Osceola lit up the scoreboard again in the bottom of the third, plating five more runs.
Coudriet had an RBI single in the inning, Micah Martin and Johnson each received bases-loaded walks, Bryan got hit by a pitch to force in a run and Jones knocked in a run on a fielder's choice.
As a team, P-O was 11-for-21, while drawing five walks and getting four more free passes on hit batters.
"I expected that from the boys," Martin said of his team's offense. "The kids hit the ball hard. We work hard at it. They went through two practices a day, two hours each practice and we've done that for the last week-and-a-half or two weeks."
While P-O had the lumber working, Coudriet was keeping the Mountain Top bats silent.
Outside of giving up an infield single to Austin Lyons in the second inning and a sharp single to Bechdel in the fourth, Coudriet had the Mountain Top hitters baffled. He walked two batters and struck out seven, and only Bechdel's single made it out of the infield as Coudriet was in complete control during his 63-pitch performance.
"He's a pitcher that can place the ball," Martin said. "The catcher can give him any signal and he knows what to do with it."
Coudriet also got perfect defense behind him as P-O made all the routine plays and turned in a few gems as well.
Shortstop Bryan made the first big defensive play in the top of the second inning, going deep in the hole to eat up a grounder and then firing across the diamond to get Jake Crestani by a step.
Ammerman got into the act behind the plate when he made a diving catch on a popped-up bunt attempt, recovered and threw to first base to double off a Mountain Top runner and end the inning.
"Josh has a great arm. And Hunter's play was great," Martin said. "He came out of the hole quick. It was nice to see him moving like that.
"Everything went really smooth today. We couldn't have asked any more of them."
Bryan, Earnest, Coudriet and Mason Martin each had two hits for P-O. Coudriet and Mason Martin both scored three runs, while Earnest, Ammerman and Micah Martin all crossed home plate twice. Mason Martin led the team in RBIs with four, while Bryan had three and Johnson, Coudriet and Micah Martin all added two.
P-O is back in action today, playing host to Four Leaf Clover in a winner's bracket contest.
Mountain Top travels to Milesburg in an elimination game.
Mountain Top-0
Taylor cf-p-2b 2000, Koleno ss 1000, Rigg c 2000, Bechdel p-1b-3b 1010, Bisel lf 1000, Stasko cf 1000, Crestani 2b-p 2000, Lyons 3b 1010, Webb rf 1000, Fye rf-lf 1000, Chambers 1b-cf-1b 1000. Totals: 14-0-2-0.
Philipsburg-Osceola-15
Bryan ss 2123, Johnson 2b 2112, Earnest 3b 4220, Coudriet p 2322, Ma. Martin 1b 3324, Ammerman c 2210, Mi. Martin cf 2212, Anderson rf 0000, Kephart rf 2001, McDonald lf 1000, Jones lf 1101. Totals: 21-15-11-15.
Score by Innings
Mountain Top 000 0-0 2 1
Philipsburg-Osceola 645 x-15 11 0
Error-Koleno. LOB-Mountain Top 4, Philipsburg-Osceola 6. DP-Philipsburg-Osceola 1. 2B-Bryan, Johnson, Earnest. HR-Ma. Martin (grand slam, 1st), Mi. Martin (solo, 1st), Coudriet (solo, 2nd). HBP-Anderson, Johnson, Jones, Bryan (by Taylor). WP-Taylor 2; Coudriet 2. PB-Rigg.
Pitching
Mountain Top: Bechdel-1/3 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO; Taylor-2 1/3 IP, 6 H, 9 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO; Crestani-1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.
Philipsburg-Osceola: Coudriet-4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO.
WP-Coudriet. LP-Bechdel.
Time-1:14.
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