Stars seem to be with Bellefonte

By Vinny Pezzimenti

- vpezzime@centredaily.com

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review came out Monday with an interesting PIAA baseball/softball tournament preview. It had lots of useful information: Teams to watch, players to watch, notes and a "sleeper" pick in each of the four classifications.

CDT/Melissa Doss

Bellefonte's Robert Gummo (5) tags out Donegal's AJ Pacana (24) at second base during a PIAA Class AAA quarterfinal game against Donegal High School at Shaner Complex in Boalsburg on Monday, June 1, 2009. Bellefonte won 8-4. CDT/Melissa Doss

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The author even went so far as to predict the state title game participants and winner. The Class AAA baseball forecast was eye-catching, only because of the familiarity of one of the teams.

The pick was Bellefonte over Selinsgrove.

What do these predictions mean? To put it bluntly, just about nothing.

They signify even less after you listen to one of the participating coaches in the Class AAA tournament.

“Seriously, I don’t know anything about them at all. I have no idea,” Moon coach Dom Santeufemio said of the Red Raiders. “Really, we didn’t even play anybody that even played them. There’s no way to really know, other than look at their record and other stuff online.”

Those remarks were made late Tuesday afternoon, less 48 hours before Santeufemio’s WPIAL champion Tigers (19-4) were scheduled to meet Bellefonte (18-6) in the PIAA quarterfinals in Indiana.

If those deeply involved in the contests have little clue about what looms behind the next closed door, how is anyone else supposed to have a better idea?

Just in case you wondered, that Selinsgrove team predicted to meet Bellefonte in the state final was ousted Monday in the opening round by Twin Valley.

And the Red Raiders appeared to be in grave danger of joining Selinsgrove as an onlooker after falling behind Donegal 4-1, but a few fortunate bounces and a series of Donegal errors later, Bellefonte had an 8-4 victory secured.

“Baseball is a weird game,” winning pitcher Seth Tressler said afterward. “You never know what is going to happen.”

Take the Red Raiders as a prime example. The same Bellefonte team that won Monday fell in the regular season to a Penns Valley club that finished 2-16 and was mercy-ruled in nearly every other game.

OK, that late April upset does seem like it could have unfolded back as long ago as the early ’60s, when longtime Bellefonte coach Denny Leathers was playing for the Red Raiders. It feels that way because Leathers’ team rolled through the District 6 tournament and then calmly righted itself against Donegal when the circumstances seemed dire.

Teams win this time year because they are hot, because they are aided by favorable occurrences, and because they get solid pitching. For Bellefonte, it has been check, check and check.

So maybe that Bellefonte state title prediction isn’t as much of a pick-a-name- out-of-a-hat prognostication as initially thought.

But there will be no bold predictions here. Just the laying of some factual groundwork.

Start with what Leathers was most pleased about after the Donegal victory: The Red Raiders had to rally for the win, something they rarely have done or needed to do to this point.

“We needed this,” outfielder Brandon Quay said afterward. “We needed to come from behind to get the win.” Why?

“It definitely shows us that we can do it,” Tressler said. “I know what we’re capable of and what we can do. I know that if we play our style of game, we can come back from any deficit.”

Bellefonte has seldom required the comeback victory, mostly because of a potent lineup that has the potential to strike whenever and for tons of runs.

Six of the Red Raider regulars are hitting .373 or better and the team is collectively hitting .365. Lineup linchpin Matt Fisher is at .529 and has 15 hits in his last 21 at-bats. Tressler, who leads off, is at .453 and has two home runs and six RBIs in four postseason games.

Even Quay and Robert Gummo, players who only sparingly receive at-bats, came up with huge hits on Monday. Gummo started Bellefonte’s seven-run fifth inning with a single and later added an RBI hit as the Red Raiders sent 12 batters to the plate. Quay highlighted the rally with a two-run double.

“We have an awesome hitting team,” Tressler said. “There’s not too many teams, I believe, in the state that can stop our power. We hit the ball no matter who’s pitching. That’s the strength of our team, our hitting.”

Even Bellefonte’s pitching, thought to be the team’s most glaring weakness, is catching up. Opponents have accumulated a mere 11 runs against the Red Raiders in the playoffs.

Tressler, whom Leathers didn’t start throwing regularly until late in the season, and Gummo have developed into a strong pitching tandem.

Tressler is 5-0, with two of his victories coming in the postseason. Gummo, who is 6-2, has been Leathers’ top option on the mound, but the coach couldn’t pass on having Tressler’s strong presence in the middle of the diamond in the opening-round PIAA game.

“He was our choice,” Leathers said of the four-year varsity player. “He was the one.”

Leathers’ decision was rewarded with Tressler’s varsity career-high 11 strikeouts and four hits allowed, all of which came in Donegal’s four-run fourth inning.

But Bellefonte quickly recovered and at least saved half of the Tribune-Review’s projected final. The win also might have built a stronger confidence in a Red Raiders team that now stands three victories away from making one sports writer appear smarter than he probably is.

“We know,” Quay said, “we have what it takes to go all the way.”

Vinny Pezzimenti covers high school baseball for the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4629 or vpezzime@centredaily.com.