Bellefonte baseball rides strong pitching from Shuey and Fravel to 1-0 victory over P-O
Bellefonte had a long layoff heading into Monday evening’s matchup against Philipsburg-Osceola, due to COVID-19 cancellations.
Despite their lengthy absence from the field, the Red Raiders rode strong pitching performances by Seth Shuey and Derek Fravel, along with a fifth-inning RBI single by Bobby Marsh, to win 1-0. Coach Jon Clark congratulated his team for a pulling out a victory against a formidable P-O team.
“Our approach was solid, was solid out in the field and our pitchers seemed to be holding them at bay,” Clark said. “(Ryan) Whitehead — he’s a good pitcher. He throws the ball, he mixes it up and you’ve got to be the aggressor.
“You can’t sit back and let him be aggressive toward you. You have to match it and at times we were. Other times, we were just on our heels and not as aggressive as we need to be offensively.”
Shuey began the game with three innings of work, striking out two batters, walking two and allowing two hits. Fravel finished off the game with four innings, allowing a lone walk, one hit and six strikeouts.
“(Going through my head) I just had to shut them out,” Fravel said. “They could hit the ball and just scramble around and toss the bat out there sometimes, but I just had to come out there, throw strikes and do what I do best. Me and Seth, we try to do our best and, sometimes, it’s going to be a staff day, but we just do what we can when we come out. We throw strikes as best as we can.”
With the game deadlocked at 0-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Bellefonte’s Triston Heckman doubled to lead off and reached third base on an error. Marsh came up to bat, slapping a line drive single into the outfield to score Heckman. It was the only run that the Red Raiders needed to win 1-0.
“It was 0-0 and I was trying to get a run for the team and get on as best as I can,” Heckman said. “I’m kind of used to it seeing fast pitching. So, I just stay back and wait and just take my pitches. We just play as a team. We’re just together and have all of this energy around us. I think it’s a great feeling to go out there and play our game as a team.”
P-O pitcher Ryan Whitehead went 6 2/3 innings, striking out 10 batters, allowing one earned run, four hits and hit one batter. David Meersand, who through a no-hitter in P-O’s last game, tossed a third of an inning with one strikeout.
“I was like, ‘Shuey versus Whitehead,’ we knew it was going to be like this,” P-O coach Doug Sankey said. “We had a few opportunities there, but not many and he (Shuey) was tough. He probably didn’t even have his best stuff today and he still was keeping us off of the bases. Fravel does a nice job of changing pace, especially from the stretch — changes his looks — nice breaking ball. He kept us off balanced. Those two guys do a really good job.”
Runs...Hits...Errors
Bellefonte 1................4...............1
PO 0................3..............3
