How Bellefonte baseball routed Penn Cambria to win the District 6 Class 4A championship
Bellefonte exploded for six runs in the sixth inning en route to s a 12-3 victory over Penn Cambria in the District 6 Class 4A baseball championship game on Tuesday at People’s Natural Gas Field.
Raiders pitcher Seth Shuey went five innings and had a strong fifth inning at the plate, doubling into the gap to score Harry Horner.
“It feels great. Especially with all we’ve gone through this year with COVID obviously affecting a lot of things,” Shuey said. “It feels good to come out here and get the win today. I think I went out there, executed the game plan and threw strikes and I didn’t let them put many balls in play. I had really good defense out there today. I think everybody played a big part in the game.”
Penn Cambria opened the game with Vinny Chirdon driving in Zach Grove on a single to give them a 1-0 lead. Bellefonte jumped on the scoreboard with Nick Capparelle generating a run by getting on-base with a walk, stealing, reaching third on a wild pitch and capitalizing on a throwing error by Penn Cambria catcher Garrett Harrold to go home and tie it up at 1-1.
Bellefonte took the lead with Braedyn Kormanic doubling and then Triston Heckman driving in the courtesy runner Stephen Ivicic for Kormanic to give them a 2-1 lead. Harrold made up for his throwing error by driving in Brandon Yeoman in the third inning on a single for the 2-2 tie.
Trevor Johnson led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single and Zach Swanger drove him in on a triple to give Bellefonte a 3-2 lead. Then, Kormanic singled to score Swanger to boost the lead to 4-2. After Triston Heckman singled and advanced to second with Ivicic courtesy running for Kormanic at third, Bobby Marsh drove Ivicic on a sacrifice fly for a 5-2 lead at the close of the inning.
Harrold scored in the top of the fifth with a double by Chirdon for Penn Cambria to trail 5-3. Derek Fravel singled to begin the bottom of the fifth and was replaced on the basepaths by Harry Horner. Horner scored on a double by Shuey to give Bellefonte a 6-3 lead.
Kormanic reached base in the sixth inning with Ivicic courtesy running. Ivicic stole second and reached third on another throwing error by Harrold. Triston Heckman walked and stole second. Marsh walked and then Capparelle singled to score Ivivic and Heckman. Fravel singled to score Marsh. Shuey then doubled to plate Capparelle. Max Rogers doubled to score Gavin Fravel and Shuey, giving Bellefonte a 12-3 lead.
Shuey ended the game allowing four hits and three runs, while striking out four and walking three. Gavin Fravel pitched two innings in relief, giving up one hit and no runs, striking out two and walking one.
Bellefonte coach Jon Clark has seen his team climb a mountain to get to this point. The team was strong in Mountain League play and battled through multiple quarantines throughout the year to get the job done.
“I know we’re capable with the bats that we have in the lineup,” Clark said. “All year it’s been three or four guys here, three or four guys, but getting the top to the bottom of the lineup to do that in a game, we’ve kind of missed that this year. Part of that is quarantining guys and it’s just the nature of the season. We hadn’t been able to put it together in a game like that.”