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Clearfield rally falls short in opener of Area 6 VFW Teener Tournament
Saturday, July 21, 2012
By Andy Stine Sports Writer
PUNXSUTAWNEY - Facing a 5-1 deficit after two innings, it was a tall task to make a comeback against two talented Punxsutawney pitchers for the Clearfield 15 and 16-year-old Teener League team on Friday evening.
But, they fell just short of a comeback against the pitching duo of Bryson Paulinellie and Michael Klingensmith as the pair combined to give up only seven hits and struck out nine batters. Their efforts held off Clearfield, 7-6 in the first round of the Area 6 VFW Teener League tournament at Kuntz Field.
"When you get down 5-1, it's tough," said Clearfield manager Sid Lansberry. "But I think we did a good job of coming back. The kids hit the ball pretty well off of two pretty good pitchers.
"We knew Paulinellie was going to throw and we knew he was going to be good, but they hit well off of him. He had a really good changeup. We just dug a hole for ourselves there and it was tough to come back all the way."
Sawyer Rowles led off the game with a walk for Clearfield. He moved up to second base on a Josh Kennedy groundout to the first baseman. Rowles came home on a Jon Janocko base hit to right-center to give Clearfield the early 1-0 lead.
In the home half of the first, Punxsy center fielder Anthony Fulk hit a single and stole second base to start the frame. He came home on Paulinellie's double down the third base line, just out of Kennedy's reach at third base. Janocko got a flyout and a strikeout, but gave up a double to Klingensmith to give Punxsutawney a 2-1 lead that they never gave up.
After another leadoff single from Matt Burnett in the second inning, Dakota Byers gave Punxsy their third and last extra-base hit of the game with an RBI triple. Byers came home on the ensuing batter as Dakota Thomas ripped a single. Thomas stole second and third base and scored on a groundout to put Punxsutawney up 5-1.
walked the bases loaded with two outs in the second inning and Lansberry elected to bring Thomas Summers to the mound. Summers forced a fielder's choice at second base to get out of the jam.
"I told Jon that tomorrow is another day," said Lansberry. "Every pitcher has a game where they struggle once in a while."
Curtis Collins started off the third inning with a walk. Kennedy followed and blasted a ball to left field that took a bad hop and got away from the Punxsy left fielder.
Collins came all the way home from first base on the play, while Kennedy advanced to second.
Janocko hit another single to put runners at the corners. Cole Kephart hit a groundball to shortstop that ended up being a close play at the bag with Kephart being called out. Kennedy scored on the groundout to cut the deficit to two.
In the bottom of the third, Burnett reached on an error. Summers made several pickoff attempts at Burnett before the southpaw made a fantastic move to get Burnett off the basepaths.
It looked like Clearfield was going to leave runners stranded at the corners in the fourth inning.
But with two outs, Janocko struck out with the ball going to the backstop. He advanced to first base without a throw and Josh Sorbera trotted home on the play to put Clearfield within a run of tying the game.
Punxsy got their bats going again in the fourth inning. After a walk and a base hit from Fulk and Paulinellie, respectively, Clayton Dale moved the runners up with a sacrifice bunt. Christian Falgout drew a walk to load the bases before Klingensmith hit a single to score a run.
On the first pitch to the next batter, Cory Geer hit a fly ball to center field. Rowles made the catch and threw home, but Paulinellie scored on the play.
On the throw, Falgout tried to move to third but Sorbera grabbed the throw and fired to third base for the third out and an 8-2-5 double play.
Clearfield added two more runs on three hits in the sixth inning.
With two outs, Kephart hit a liner to left to score Collins. Wyatt Westen hit the first pitch he saw from Klingensmith, the relief pitcher, to center field. Janocko, who reached on a walk, originally held up at third. But a throwing error allowed him to score to make the score 7-6.
Westen and Devin Jones pitched the fifth and sixth innings with no runs allowed. With Punxsy only up one run, Klingensmith sat Clearfield down in order in the seventh inning for the win.
"All three relievers came in and did a decent job pitching," said Lansberry. "I'm very happy about that."
"Overall, I thought we played pretty well. We didn't have a lot of errors. Punxsy hit the ball, and they're a pretty good team."
Clearfield dropped to today's elimination round game at 3 against Curwensville at Kuntz Field. Clearfield-6
Rowles cf 4110, Collins lf 3210, Jones p 0000, Kennedy 3b 4110, Janocko p-1b 3121, Taylor 1b 0000, Kephart ss 3012, Westen 1b-rf-p-lf 4010, Herrington 2b 2000, Cline 2b 0000, Timchak rf 1000, Summers dh-p 3000, Sorbera c 1100, Kochan c 1000. Totals: 29-6-7-3.
Punxsutawney-7
Fulk cf 3220, Paulinellie p-2b 3222, Dale c 2000, Falgout lf 2000, Klingensmith 2b-p 3032, Geer 1b 2001, Burnett 3b 3110, Taylor rf 0000, Byers rf-3b 3111, Blose ph 1000, Thomas ss 3111. Totals: 25-7-10-7.
Score by Innings
Clearfield 102 102 0-6 7 1
Punxsutawney 230 200 x-7 10 3
Errors-Kephart; Falgout, Dale, Fulk. LOB-Clearfield 10, Punxsutawney 10. DP-Clearfield 1. 2B-Paulinellie, Klingensmith. 3B-Byers. Sac-Dale. SF-Geer. SB-Fulk. PO-Burnett (by Summers).
Pitching
Clearfield: Janocko-1 2/3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO; Summers-2 1/3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO; Westen-1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO; Jones-1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO.
Punxsutawney: Paulinellie-4 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 7 BB, 7 SO; Klingensmith-3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO.
WP-Paulinellie. LP-Janocko. SV-Klingensmith.
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