Wacky home run and shutout pitching performance lifts BEA baseball over Penns Valley

Bald Eagle Area baseball began its Monday afternoon game against Mountain League rival Penns Valley with three consecutive walks.

Though Carson Nagle was able to drive in leadoff hitter Kahale Burns with a one-out sacrifice fly, the Eagles wouldn’t score again until the sixth inning. Then with a shutout pitching performance by Tyler Serb, Bald Eagle Area sprinted to a 5-0 victory against the Rams.

“Offensively, I felt that we looked decent, we didn’t strike out very much and we put the ball in play, but hit a lot of long fly balls,” Bald Eagle Area coach Jim Gardner said. “We want to straighten those out and hit line drives. We stayed patient, stayed confident and made things happen in the sixth. We put some pressure on them and got four extra runs there to give us a bit of breathing room.”

How did the outcome fall in the favor of the Eagles? A little bit of luck, heady play and a ton of skill.

Nagle had another hit in the sixth — a one-out inside-the-park home run, and not just any inside-the-park home run, but one where the ball got stuck in the left field fence.

All that Serb could do was look in awe.

“I was sitting down, but then I got up and I just remembered the ump running out there and I had a little laugh at that,” Serb said. “It was definitely the craziest part of the game.”

Justin Bisel doubled right after, Kaden Burns singled, Parker Quick singled, followed by Cam Watkins singling, Kahale Burns walking and Gavin Eckley following it all with a home run.

Just like that, the Eagles were sitting pretty with a 5-0 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth.

Penns Valley head coach Rich Sweitzer was pleased with his team’s pitching and defense, but Bald Eagle Area just broke the seal with no comeback in sight for his Rams.

“We just had a bad inning,” Sweitzer said. “We worked out of a jam in the first, which was really important. Then, we played back and forth ball for the next 4-5 innings and the fifth was where they put the ball in-play a few times and we had the drops.”

Bald Eagle Area moves to 5-0 on the season and Penns Valley falls to 3-4. The Eagles are set to host Hollidaysburg on Wednesday, while the Rams will travel to Clearfield on Thursday. Both games are at 4:30 p.m.