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Curwensville teeners bumped off by Punxsy in VFW action
Saturday, July 14, 2012
By Rich Murawski Assistant Sports Editor
CURWENSVILLE - The difference in Friday's Area 6 13- and 14-year-old VFW Teener Tournament opener between Curwensville and Punxsutawney was the strike zone.
Punxsutawney pitchers were around it all game long, while three Curwensville hurlers struggled with it.
The result was an 8-2 win for Punxsutawney that sent Curwensville into this morning's loser's bracket game against Clearfield at Lawrence Township Rec Park.
Punxsutawney starting pitcher Peyton Graham limited Curwensville to two unearned runs on two hits over his 5 1/3 innings of work, while Ryan Jones tossed the final 1 2/3 innings and gave up just a walk, while striking out three batters.
"We need to hit the ball better," Curwensville head coach Tom Harzinski said. "Two hits and 13 strikeouts isn't going to get it done. We just need to come hit the ball."
After Punxsutawney plated a run in the bottom of the first inning, Curwensville starting pitcher Trevor Anderson kept them off the board over the next three frames despite getting himself into trouble with walks.
He surrendered two free passes in the second inning and another in the third, but stranded all three runners in scoring position.
And after giving up a leadoff single to Graham in the fourth, he was able to come up with a strikeout and two fly outs to keep Punxsy off the board once more.
"I thought Trevor threw half-decent when he was around the plate," Harzinski said. "And he pitched himself out of trouble. We just had one bad inning."
That bad inning came after Curwensville had surged ahead 2-1 in the top of the fourth.
With one out in the top of the fourth, Jake Terry broke up Graham's bid at a perfect game with a solid single to left. Anderson followed by reaching on a fielder's choice as Terry moved from first to third on a Punxsy throwing error.
After a strikeout, Graham got Gage Baughman to pop to left field where the fly ball was misplayed and both Terry and Anderson scored on the error.
But Punxsutawney pulled back in front with four runs in a fifth inning that saw Anderson and Terry combine to walk five batters.
Jones drew a bases-loaded walk to plate one run, and Lucas Ambley knocked in another with the inning's only hit.
The final two runs scored on a Curwensville error.
Curwensville responded in the top of the sixth by loading the bases off Graham.
Noah Strickland opened the frame with an infield single and stole second. After a strikeout, Anderson walked and Seth Sloppy was hit by a pitch - the last Anderson threw.
Punxsutawney opted to bring in Jones, who struck out the two batters he faced, stranding three Curwensville runners on base.
"He threw hard, and he threw strikes," Harzinski said of Jones. "That was definitely a smart (pitching) change.
"Their pitchers threw well. They threw strikes and didn't walk many. That's the difference. The difference is they threw strikes."
Punxsutawney added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to set the final.
Graham was the only player on either team with multiple hits, collecting a pair of singles. Ambley had two RBIs for Punxsy, while leadoff hitter Dylan Haney scored three runs and had an RBI.
"We just need to hit the ball better," Harzinski said. "It's as simple as that. We need to hit the ball better, and throw strikes. We have to look forward to the next game."
Curwensville's elimination game with Clearfield began at 11 this morning.
Punxsutawney plays Philipsburg-Osceola at 2 p.m. in the winner's bracket final.
Curwensville-2
Strickland cf 3010, Terry ss-p-ss 3110, Anderson p-ss-1b 2100, Sloppy c 2000, Baughman 1b-p 3000, Olson 3b 3000, Peters lf 2000, Shaw ph 1000, Jacobs 2b 1000, Wharton ph 1000, Opaliski 2b 0000, Newkirk rf 2000, Marshall rf 1000. Totals: 24-2-2-0.
Punxsutawney-8
Haney 3b 2311, Jones cf-p 1011, Pennington lf 3001, Ambley 1b 3112, Graham p-cf 3020, Perry ss 3000, Paulinelli 2b 2000, Dipietro c 1100, Stouffer eh 1100, Smith pr-eh 1100, Knox rf 1100, Geer rf 1000. Totals: 22-8-5-5.
Score by Innings
Curwensville 000 200 0-2 2 3
Punxsutawney 100 043 x-8 5 5
Errors-Baughman, Terry, Anderson; Perry, Pennington 2. LOB-Curwensville 4, Punxsutawney 10. DP-Curwensville 1, Punxsutawney 1. SAC-Paulinelli, Pennington. SB-Anderson 2, Stricklzand; Graham, Knox. HBP-Sloppy (by Graham). WP-Anderson, Terry; Graham. PB-Sloppy 2.
Pitching
Curwensville: Anderson-4+ 1P, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 7 BB, 2 SO; Terry-1+ 1P, 1 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 1 SO; Baughman-1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO.
Punxsutawney: Graham-5 1/3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 SO; Jones-1 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO.
WP-Graham. LP-Anderson. Save-Jones.
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