Mounties' Curtis tosses no-hitter

By Vinny Pezzimenti

SPRING MILLS — Philipsburg-Osceola's Luke Curtis was probably thanking his lucky stars that the Mounties' game against Penns Valley on Monday was pushed back one day because of weather.

Curtis

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• Near perfection

The junior pitcher was welcomed Tuesday with rays of sunlight and a 20-degree jump from the day before.

A warmed-up Curtis, who had struggled through his first two outings of the spring, was every bit on top of his game, holding the Rams without a hit in a 7-0 make-up game victory.

“First game, it was like 40 degrees. That’s rough,” Curtis said. “But it’s the same for everyone. Usually it takes a couple games. It felt good today. We got the good weather and I threw pretty well.” Did he ever.

Curtis registered 10 strikeouts, walked just one and got better with every pitch, retiring the final 14 batters in dominating fashion.

“It was easy to call pitches,” P-O coach Doug Sankey said. “Everything was working.”

Tom Cheskey had a home run and scored two runs while Mike Marcinko added two hits and two runs batted in for the Mounties (2-2), who gave Curtis a four-run lead before he took the mound.

Said Curtis, “That just gives you all the confidence in the world going out there.”

And it was exactly what he needed.

Central Mountain pinned eight runs on Curtis and a shaky P-O defense in the first inning of a 16-2 loss for the Mounties to open the season. Two nights later, Curtis allowed two runs in relief against Lewistown as P-O had to hold onto to a 12-11 victory.

There was no such trouble against Penns Valley (1-3) for the right-hander, who recorded his third varsity no-htter.

“I think he’s getting more comfortable,” Sankey said. “His curveball was sharper today, and he threw it for strikes to start counts. His first start he couldn’t get that curve ball over, and guys were sitting on his fastball. And today he was throwing a lot harder than he was in the first game.”

Curtis, who said his fastball topped out at 93 mph over the summer, isn’t sure how fast he is throwing this season. Tuesday’s pitches appeared to be at least in the mid 80s.

“His velocity has definitely picked up,” said P-O catcher Zack Czap, who has caught Curtis since both were 13. “His curveball is sharper this year, definitely. His change up is a pitch we can use, too.”

Curtis no-hit Central Mountain and threw a perfect game against Penns Valley en route to going 5-1 last season.

“We put better swings on him than what we did last year,” Rams coach Kerry Shawley said. “I think, especially in the beginning, we were intimidated by Luke. It’s something we’re going to have to get beyond. He’s a great pitcher. I’m not taking anything away from him, but we’ve got to go out there with a little

more belief than we approached things today.”

Curtis, who said he’s being recruited by Virginia, Georgia Tech, East Carolina, Baylor and Penn State, among others, faced just two batters over the minimum. He was aided by a defense that had committed three errors in each of its first three games.

Second baseman Drew Bryan made running a catch on a Kyle Palm bloop into short rightfield, and Marcinko, a shortstop, made a play on a ground ball in the third-base hole to get Kevin Montminy by two steps to preserve the no-hitter

“Overall, we just played a lot better,” Curtis said. “We cleaned up a lot on defense. As a pitcher, when you’re starting everything and you’re the center of the game, if you know the guys behind you can make play after play it makes you that much more confident.”

Montminy gave up 10 hits, struck out one and walked one in 62/ 3 innings. The sophomore retired 10 straight batters at one point, but couldn’t overcome allowing five hits in the first inning.

Paul Hahn, Storm Bumbarger, Kody Bennett and Brandon Myers, who had a triple and double, each drove in runs in the inning for P-O.

Shawley thought his team gave the Mounties two extra outs with defensive miscues, though the Rams didn’t commit an error.

“Kevin deserved a lot better than he got,” Shawley said. “If you look at the score-book I don’t think you’ll see that we made any errors, but there were plays that we should’ve made in the first inning.”

Cheskey homered to lead off the fifth inning and Marcinko had a two-run single in the seventh of P-O.