HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL

Mounties thump Dragons

By Ron Bracken

PHILIPSBURG — The Philipsburg-Osceola marching band was playing, the temperature was 38 degrees and the Mounties had just beaten visiting Central 19-9.

It was a perfect scenario for an October Friday night.

Except this was a Monday afternoon in April , the band was just practicing and P-O had just dispatched the Dragons in a baseball game that was mercifully ended in the fifth inning by the 10-run rule.

This was not what Abner Doubleday had in mind when he invented the game. Even Ernie Banks would have declined an offer to play two on this blustery afternoon when a wind with claws howled in from the west, turning any fly ball into a venture into the unknown.

“It was an interesting game,’’ said Mountie coach Doug Sankey. “Those were tough conditions. But our kids practice in this and we play in this. They know what it’s like. And it’s 10 degrees colder here than it is down in the parking lot.’’

It was the sort of day only a weatherman could love. It certainly wasn’t the kind a pitcher could savor. The four who took the mound on Monday allowed 23 hits, three of which left the field and two of those were helped by the gale force wind blowing toward right field.

But in the end it was a line drive, two-out single to dead center by P-O’s Zack Czap that drove in Mike Marcinko that allowed everyone to head for shelter in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Marcinko singled with two outs in the fifth, stole second and took third on a passed ball . Central elected to intentionally walk Hayden Hayward to pitch to Czap and he responded by drilling a 1-1 pitch over the head of center fielder Ryan Slagenweit.

The rest of the scoring came in clusters.

P-O opened with a three-run outburst in the first thanks to a two-run triple by Paul Hahn and a single by Storm Bumbarger.

Central answered with four runs in the second off Luke Curtis, thanks to four singles, a hit batter and a walk.

Then the Mounties sent 11 batters to the plate in a nine-run explosion in the second as Hahn lined a three-run homer into trees in left and Marcinko had a two-run double to spark the rally.

Back came the Dragons with a two-run outburst keyed by a solo homer to right by starting pitcher Jacob Russell and a triple by Drew Ebersole to make it 12-6.

Central added three more runs in the fourth on an error and a two-run homer to right by Jordan Saylor to cut the P-O lead to 12-9.

But the Mounties put six more runs on the board in their half of the fourth, thanks a pair of Central errors, a hit batter, a sacrifice fly by Hahn and a bases-loaded walk to Marcinko that put the score at 18-9.

Curtis gave up a leadoff single in the fifth, struck out the next two batters, gave allowed another single and then fanned Casey Hamilton to end the inning and his day.

Curtis finished with a nine-hitter, struck out nine and walked two while throwing over 100 pitches.

“He was probably in there one inning too long,’’ said Sankey “We don’t like him to go over 90. He was coming out after that last inning. He wasn’t his sharpest today, but they were able to get some good swings at him too. Even with the wind, they hit a couple of balls pretty good.’’

So did the Mounties, who went through three Central pitchers and collected 13 hits, four for extra bases. Hahn was the big stick with a double, triple and homer plus a sacrifice fly for six RBI.

“He’s been a little slow coming around, but today he was right on,’’ Sankey added. “I was pleased with our hitters. They were patient. The last couple of games we struck out a lot. Today they did a great job. This was a tough day to hit.’’