P-O outlasts Clearfield in VFW Teener League opener
Saturday, July 14, 2012
By Jaclyn Yingling Sports Editor
As the host team for this year's VFW State 13- and 14-year-old Teener Tournament, Philipsburg-Osceola has already punched its ticket to the state tourney.
Despite that, P-O came out on Friday and showed that it is still committed to winning the Area 6 Tournament, toppling host Clearfield, 10-6.
"We are already in the state tournament, so strategywise we didn't know what to do," said Philipsburg-Osceola assistant coach Terry Trude. "A win is a win, so we want to go after it and compete. I wouldn't say it's easier, but it puts pressure on the other teams with their pitchers.
"Clearfield is always a good team. There are always good battles between Clearfield and P-O. They (Clearfield) are fundamentally solid, but I thought we hit the ball well. They had really good pitching. The key to the game was that we didn't have any errors. We played really good in the field."
The two teams combined for 15 walks in the game, and had 11 hits total.
Each team put up a five-run inning, but when it came down to it, the 10 free passes that Clearfield allowed P-O came back to haunt them in the end.
"We struggled a little bit out of the gate, and we ended up with 10 walks and one hit batsman," said Clearfield head coach Ed Yeager. "So, we gave them 11 runners on base. It's pretty hard to win any kind of game, let alone a playoff game, when that happens."
With the new format for the area tournaments being shortened from two weeks to a three-day, double-elimination tournament, teams have to limit who they can throw each day.
P-O, representing Post 3450, used Eric Sherkel all seven innings, as he threw 140 pitches on the day.
Clearfield went with a different philosophy, tossing four different hurlers.
"Our pitchers that came in did a good job," Yeager said. "They understand that we still have to play two games tomorrow to stay in it. We needed to have someone available to throw tomorrow.
"Our focus is getting to the state tournament, so our focus was changing pitchers so that we had someone who could throw tomorrow."
After Clearfield, representing Post 1785, lost the flip, it put up the first run of the game.
Logan Puit drew a one-out walk, then moved to third on a single by Jon Trimpey.
Sherkel was then called for a balk, allowing Puit to score and Trimpey to head to second.
But the P-O hurler recovered quickly, striking out the next two batters to end the frame.
"The kid that threw for them today is probably as good of a pitcher as we have seen all summer," said Yeager. "He threw a lot of strikes, and he threw with good pace. It took us a little while to get on him, but we finally had a few hits in a row and scored some runs"
Post 3450 responded with two runs in the bottom half of the frame, as Sherkel and Derek Shaw led off with back-to-back singles. A walk by Kody Trude loaded the bases with P-O's No. 4 and 5 batters up next.
Clearfield starter Zack Krise struck out the next batter before Brandon Zwick hit a ball to short. The ball was bobbled, allowing Zwick to reach safely and Sherkel to score.
With the bases still loaded, Josh Kerlin drew a walk, plating Shaw to give P-O a 2-1 advantage.
Post 3450 put up five runs in the third inning, chasing Krise from the game in favor of Logan Lykens.
Trude had a two-run, inside-the-park homer to kick off the scoring.
P-O scored two more runs on errors, while Cam Domblisky had an RBI single to give his team a 7-1 advantage.
"We had some key hits from Kody, Cam Domblisky and Brandon Zwick," said Coach Trude.
Clearfield responded with five runs of its own in the top of the fourth inning.
Trimpey had a three-run triple, while Krise added a two-run double to cut the score to 7-6.
"Dustin Maines had some hits, and Jon Trimpey had a nice hit and a few RBIs," said Yeager. "Zack Krise had a double and two RBIs for us.
"All in all, it was a good effort not to get down and stay in the game. I thought we did pretty well hanging together."
Despite the influx of runs, P-O head coach Nick Croyle stayed with Sherkel, who rebounded to get the last out.
It was the last time Clearfield would have anyone reach base in the game.
"He got tired," Coach Trude said. "We had two outs in that inning and we thought we would be alright, but he tired. His pitches were up in the zone. But he recovered and pitched a good game."
P-O scored two final runs in the bottom of the sixth - one on a wild pitch and another on an RBI double by Zwick, setting the final at 10-6.
Shaw had two hits and scored two runs for Post 3450, while Sherkel scored three runs.
Sherkel picked up the complete-game win, allowing six runs on five hits, five walks and five strikeouts.
"Eric Sherkel came up big for us," said Coach Trude. "It was a nice seven innings. He mixed things up, and it was a good pitching performance."
Krise took the loss, allowing three earned runs on four hits, three walks and five strikeouts.
Puit scored two runs for Clearfield, while Trimpey and Dustin Maines each had two hits.
Post 1785 was set to play this morning against Curwensville, an 8-2 loser to Punxsutawney.
P-O plays Punxsy at 2 p.m.
Clearfield-6
Krise p-rf-cf 4112, Puit 2b-p-ss 2200, Trimpey ss-p 4023, Lykens 1b-p-1b 4000, D. Collins c 3000, Hazel rf-1b-rf 3000, Starr rf 0000, Fedder 3b 2100, D. Maines lf 3120, Brown cf-2b 1100. Totals: 26-6-5-5.
Philipsburg-Osceola-10
Sherkel p 2310, De. Shaw c 3220, Trude ss 3113, Winters 3b 2000, J. Maines pr 0100, Zwick 2b 3112, Kerlin cf 2101, Knepp 1b 3000, Weitoish lf 1100, Domblisky rf 2011, N. Conklin eh 2000, D. Conklin eh 1000. Totals: 24-10-6-7.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 100 500 0-6 5 3
Philipsburg-Osceola 205 102 x-10 6 0
Errors-D. Maines, Krise, Trimpey. LOB-Clearfield 4, Philipsburg-Osceola 8, 2B-Krise; Zwick. 3B-Trimpey. HR-Trude (ITP, 1 on, 3rd inning). SAC-De. Shaw. SB-Sherkel, Weitoish. HBP-Weitoish (by Puit). Balk-Sherkel. WP-Lykens 1, Puit 2. PB-D. Collins.
Pitching
Clearfield: Krise-2 1/3 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO; Lykens-2/3 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO; Puit-2 2/3 IP, 0 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 3 SO; Trimpey-1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.
Philipsburg-Osceola: Sherkel-7 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 5 BB, 5 SO.
WP-Sherkel. LP-Krise.
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