Raiders thunder way past Panthers

Walt Moody

BELLEFONTE — Thunder, lightning and rain suspended Bellefonte’s District 6 Class AAA quarterfinal playoff game against Lewistown on Thursday.

Craig Houtz

Bellefonte's Ethan Kline (25) is greeted at home plate after his 1 RBI home run against Lewistown in the 2nd inning during their 1st round District 6 AAA playoff game on Thursday, May 14, 2009.

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A day later, the Red Raiders still had a little thunder left in their bats. Matt Fisher and Seth Tressler cracked home runs Friday as Bellefonte took a little more than 24 hours to put away the Panthers 11-2.

Thir d-seeded Bellefonte (15-6) will travel to No. 2 Indian Valley (13-5) at 4 p.m. Monday for a semifinal clash.

The Red Raiders will hope the power in their bats continues. Fisher, who also had two doubles, had three of the team’s eight extra base hits against Lewistown. Ethan Kline also belted a home run before play was halted on Thursday.

“We’re feeling confident,” said Fisher, whose 3-for-4 game raised his season average to .517 and his slugging percentage to a whopping 1.172. “We’re swinging the bats pretty good and hitting line drives. We’re putting the ball into play and that’s all you can do.”

Bellefonte had a big margin of error Friday thanks to their hot start in the inclement weather on Thursday. The Red Raiders sent 10 batters to the plate and scored six runs in the first inning while chasing Lewistown starter Connor Muir. They added two more in the second before the game was called with one out and Bellefonte leading 8-1.

After Tressler pitched well to open the game Thursday, Bellefonte coach Denny Leathers went with Robert Gummo on Friday.

“We didn’t want to come back with Tressler,” Leathers explained. “He hasn’t thrown all that much this year. We were a little concerned going back-to-back if we went on. He’s going to do some pitching later on.”

Gummo (5-2) didn’t disappoint, allowing just one run on four hits over the final five innings. The sophomore right-hander struck out six and walked one.

“He’s had a spectacular season and racked up a lot of K’s,” Fisher said of his teammate. “He’s throwing the ball hard for only a sophomore.”

Leathers was happy Gummo pitched well because he was worried about coming back a day later to finish the game. “I didn’t care for it because I know us and what we’re capable sometimes of doing,” said Leathers, whose team had been inconsistent at times. “That was why I was thankful of Gummo. I don’t think he had his exceptional stuff, but he did a nice job keeping them where they were.”

Lewistown came back with lefty Kirby Moist, who spent most of the season on the Panthers’ JV team. Moist’s velocity — or lack of it — stymied the Raiders for a couple of innings.

“It’s a little frustrating because he doesn’t throw that hard,” Fisher said. “You have to stay back and we had a little trouble with him there early on, but we caught on to him a little bit.”

Tressler smacked an opposite field home run, his fourth of the season, to right field in the third. Moist held the Red Raiders scoreless the next two innings before Fisher opened the sixth with a towering 400-foot shot to dead center field.

“I scooted up in the box a little bit and just stayed back,” said Fisher of his county-leading eighth home run of the season.

Pinch-hitter Brandon Quay later doubled and scored on Eric Regel’s double.

Lewistown’s only run on Friday came on Muir’s infield single in the top of the sixth. The inning was highlighted by an outstanding diving catch by Bellefonte second baseman Matt Watson, who raced into short right field and made a sliding catch just inside of the right-field foul line to rob Adam Peachey of a hit.

“That was a terrific play,” Leathers said. “That may have been our defensive highlight of the year.”

Terrific was how the Red Raiders started on Thursday. Fisher smacked an RBI double off the top of the center field fence and Bryant James laced a two-run double to right-center to get the Bellefonte offense rolling. Watson later chased Muir with an RBI double.

A.J. Scheffel relieved Muir and was greeted by a run scoring bunt single from Gummo. Leading off the second, Kline bombed his second home run of the season to center. Fisher doubled, swiped third and scored on Frank Parkes’ single before the game was halted.

Tressler allowed two hits and struck out four. Peachey doubled and scored on two wild pitches for Lewistown’s first run.

“We met one of our goals today ... to win 15 games,” said Leathers, whose squad now has 20 consecutive winning seasons. “To us winning 15 games, it means we’ve had an exceptional year. In the last couple of years, we’ve fallen short of that. The next goal is to string a couple of more wins together and win districts.”

The Red Raiders are very familiar with their next foe Indian Valley.

“We’ve played them twice and we’ve split with them,” Leathers said. “They’re a very good ballclub. They have good pitching and excellent defense.”

Fisher said Red Raiders are excited to finally be competing in the postseason. “You’re actually playing for something,” the senior said. “If you win you keep playing, if you lose you go home. It’s fun.”