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Clearfield 9 and 10s eliminated from Section 4 Tournament
Friday, July 13, 2012
By Andy Stine Sports Writer
HUNTINGDON - When you're down to your fifth pitcher, you hope to get as many quality innings as you can out of him while manufacturing some runs. Clearfield 9- and 10-year-old all-star manager Brian Barr turned to Hunter Hipps to eat a few innings.
Hipps and relief pitcher Andrew Lopez did their jobs, but the bats didn't come around in the later innings of Thursday's 11-5 loss to Huntingdon in the Section 4 Tournament. The loss eliminated Clearfield from the tournament.
"If it wasn't for the first two innings, we would've been right there," said Barr. "Hunter gave up a lot of hits, but he still kept us in the game."
Huntingdon started the game with four straight base hits off of Hipps that got itself out of the gate quickly with a 2-0 lead. Huntingdon added on two more runs, making Hipps throw 30 pitches in the frame.
They weren't done building the lead.
Marcus Stratton led off the second with a two-base error and moved to third on a wild pitch. A Nick Gearhart base hit scored Stratton. Gearhart moved to second base on a popout, before Jack Ritchey reached on another error. Gearhart scored on a Ned Kough liner up the middle, while Ritchey sprinted home on a wild pitch.
All three runs in the inning were unearned.
Clearfield started to claw its way back into the game in the bottom of the second inning.
After a single and two walks loaded the bases with no outs, Barrett Kline hit a line drive down the right field line to score Hayden Williams. After a fielder's choice from Hugh Brickley plated Hipps, Lopez drew a walk to load the bases again. Nathan Barr was hit by a pitch to score Matt Pallo to cut Huntingdon's lead to four.
Huntingdon added another run in the third inning, but Clearfield answered back with another pair of runs in the bottom of the frame.
Williams reached on an error, while Hipps helped his cause with a single up the middle. Pallo drove in Williams on a shot to left field that got Hipps to third base. Hipps scored on the next batter when Kline hit into a fielder's choice.
Both teams got their only extra-base hits of the contest in the fourth inning, but both runners were stranded.
Draven Zook hit a ball off the left-center field gap with no outs, but wasn't able to come home after two flyouts and a groundout.
With a runner on first base, Harrison Peacock drove a pitch from Huntingdon starting pitcher Gearhart to right field to put two runners in scoring position with one out. However, the runner at third base was tagged out trying to score on a wild pitch for the second out, and a pop fly to the catcher ended the inning.
After four innings, Lopez was brought in for relief work after Hipps had thrown his 75 pitches. Lopez worked a 1-2-3 inning in the fifth, but allowed three runs on five hits in the sixth inning that padded Huntingdon's lead.
Huntingdon relief pitcher Rece Ritchey didn't allow a hit in his 2 2/3 innings of work to earn the save.
"These guys probably don't know, but they did everything we do at the high school practices for Coach (Sid) Lansberry," said Brian Barr. "Hopefully in five years, we could be seeing some of these guys."
Huntingdon plays Red Land for the championship today at 6. A win by Huntingdon forces another game on Saturday to determine the section champ.
Huntingdon-11
Gearhart p-cf 4231, Shope lf-c 4221, J. Ritchey ss 4321, Zook cf-lf 4232, Kough 3b 2011, Handy 3b 2011, Reed c 1000, Snare 1b 2010, Peck rf 3011, R. Ritchey 1b-lf-p 4110, Stratton 2b 4110. Totals: 34-11-16-8.
Clearfield-5
Brickley cf 4001, Lopez 1b-p 3000, Barr 3b-1b 3001, Peacock ss 4010, Williams c 2210, Hipps p 1210, Wain 3b 1000, Pallo 2b 2111, Kline lf 2012, Lezzer rf 2000, Ryan rf 1000. Totals: 25-5-5-5.
Score by Innings
Huntingdon 431 003-11 16 3
Clearfield 032 000-5 5 2
Errors-J. Ritchey, Stratton 2; Hipps, Peacock. LOB-Huntingdon 7, Clearfield 8. 2B-Zook; Peacock. SF-Peck. CS-Reed (by Williams); Lopez (by Reed). HBP-Barr (by Gearhart).
Pitching
Huntingdon: Gearhart-3 1/3 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO; R. Ritchey-2 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO.
Clearfield: Hipps-4 IP, 11 H, 8 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO; Lopez-2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.
WP-Gearhart. LP-Hipps. SV-R. Ritchey.
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