Centre County Baseball League Playoffs roundup: July 20, 2017
The Centre County Baseball League’s playoffs ended with all three best-of-three series decided with Game 3s on Thursday night. Howard, Philipsburg and Spring Mills all won and advanced to the semifinals, which begin Sunday.
Spring Mills will face the top-seeded Clarence Mounties and the Spike Island Pirates of Philipsburg will host Howard to open the best-of-five semifinals.
Howard uses walk-off win to advance to semis
Clay Smith and Tyler Womer had back-to-back doubles in the seventh inning to plate the winning run as the Howard Hawks edged the Pleasant Gap Peppers 3-2 Thursday evening in the Centre County Baseball League playoffs.
The victory sends the Hawks into the semifinals Sunday to meet the Spike Island Pirates.
Howard got earlier runs with Scott Zuback scoring on a wild pitch in the first inning and a Kael Gardner RBI double in the fourth. Smith finished with a 3-for-4 day at the plate.
Trent Fortney was 3 for 4 with an RBI double and Colton Myers added an RBI single for the Peppers.
Dylan Womer struck out five in a complete-game win. He got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fifth with a pair of strikeouts.
Ethan Corman also struck out five in a complete-game loss, and he, too, survived a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the first inning firing a strikeout before inducing a double play.
Pirates’ late runs eliminate Coyotes
PHILIPSBURG The Spike Island Pirates used a four-run sixth inning to secure a 6-2 victory over the Clarence Coyotes.
Parker Watson’s RBI double was followed by a pinch-hit RBI single for Nate Kerlin and pinch-hit two-run double for Trey Shaw to secure the win. Jesse Martin was 2 for 3 with a triple and Drew Bryan added an RBI single for the Pirates.
Josh Potter struck out six with no walks in a complete-game win.
Jeff Bennett had a double and single for the Coyotes, Trey Stover was 3 for 3 with an RBI single and Ben Verbitsky also had an RBI single. Cody Klinger took the loss.
Big 1st inning lifts Braves to series victory
SPRING MILLS A seven-run first inning was all the Spring Mills Braves needed to put away the Lemont Ducks and take the first-round series 8-1.
The Braves sent 11 batters to the plate in the opening inning, using six hits, a walk, an error and five stolen bases to take command of the game. An RBI double for Micah Schrenkel and a two-run single for Cody Young highlighted the inning.
Rich Auman pitched a steady game for the win, striking out two while allowing five hits over six innings while backed by two big defensive plays. With two runners on base for the Ducks in the fifth inning, left fielder Brandon Martz chased down a deep fly ball from Matt Hutchison at the fence, then center fielder Tyler Myers threw out a runner at home on a single by the next batter to end the inning and keep Lemont from scoring.
Willie Sefter walked and scored on Kieran Kempton’s RBI single in the third for the lone Ducks run. Zack Smeal pitched five innings for the loss.
This story was originally published July 21, 2017 at 12:05 AM with the headline "Centre County Baseball League Playoffs roundup: July 20, 2017."