The Bellwood-Antis high school baseball team started out the season with one experienced pitcher. The year was to be a learning experience with the young Blue Devils winning just five games to match the 2005 record of 5-14. There were major differences in the defense and pitching areas, although due to the B-A penchant for giving up one big inning to their opponents, the end result looks much the same.
The season began with Bellwood-Antis falling behind a powerful Bellefonte team 10-1 after two innings and ended with a 10-5 loss to backyard rival Tyrone.
The Blue Devils came back to make a game of the Bellefonte contest, closing to 13-8 before darkness ended the contest with the Blue Devils still batting. Tyrone scored eight of their runs in the sixth inning to wipe away a 5-2 B-A lead. Those two ballgames form a microcosm of the 2006 season for the Bellwood-Antis baseball club. In both games against perennial district power Mount Union, the Blue Devils had early leads. The hard-luck Blue Devils were forced to forfeit a game that they did actually win, because they used a player, who was academically ineligible, but failed to tell his coaches about it. The player was hit for by a designated hitter and did not have a putout, assist or error in the field, but B-A was forced to forfeit the game nonetheless.
In a total of eight separate games, take away the one big inning and Bellwood-Antis would have won or at the very least been right in the battle for each of those games. Bellwood-Antis began the season 1-9, but was 4-5 over their final nine ballgames.
Bellwood-Antis pitchers reduced opponents batting averages from .342 a year ago, to just .288 in 2006. Earned run averages (ERA) was also reduced by 2006 Blue Devil pitching from 8.17 to 5.61. The B-A defense committed 10 fewer errors in the same number of games.
Junior lefty Earnie Kelley (4-4) led the team in wins, ERA (3,22) and strikeouts (53) while pitching 54 1/3 innings. A bright spot on the mound for the Blue Devils was sophomore right-hander Justin Miller. With the team’s lowest opposing batting average (.241), Miller struck out 30 hitters in 35 1/3 innings. Miller (2-3), who threw 12 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run, over a two-game stretch at one time during the season, was his own worst enemy at times, leading the team with 35 walks, an average of one-per-inning.
Juniors Josh Kleinfelter and Kelley and sophomore Justin Manning were the team leaders on offense and the only Blue Devils to hit over .300 for the season. Kleinfelter led the team in average (.386, 22-57) after flirting with a .400 average for much of the year, hits with 22, doubles (6), home runs (5) and RBI (21) and had a team-best 12 extra-base hits. Kleinfelter tied with freshman Nate Gray and Justin Manning for stolen bases (5) and was second in walks (13) and runs scored (18). Kelley batted .370 (20-54) with a team-high 14 walks and added 11 runs scored and 16 RBI. Justin Manning batted .357 (20-56) and led the team with 21 runs scored, and added 11 walks, four doubles and eight RBI. Manning and Kelley tied for second in hits with 20 each.
Junior infielder Chad Coho batted .288 (17-59) and shared an eight-game hitting streak with Kelley for the team best.
L. J. Seidel (outfielder/1B) also hit .288 (17-59) and junior catcher Blaze Winterstein batted .273 (15-55).
Seidel, Brandon Beech and Brian Dougherty are the only seniors on the 2006 Blue Devils, who will return seven starters, including all of the pitching staff, except Dougherty, who was 0-1, with a .278 opponents batting average and three strikeouts and nine walks in seven innings.
B-A 2006 Baseball Stats
Hitting
Player AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BA
Josh Kleinfelter 57 18 22 21 6 1 5 .386
Earnie Kelley 54 11 20 16 2 1 0 .370
Justin Manning 57 21 20 8 4 0 0 .357
Chad Coho 59 5 17 14 2 0 0 .288
L. J. Seidel 59 8 17 8 2 0 1 .288
Blaze Winterstein 55 3 15 4 5 0 0 .273
Nate Gray 41 16 11 2 3 0 0 .268
Brandon Beech 56 8 14 7 4 0 0 .250
Alex Miller 4 2 1 1 0 0 0 .250
Justin Miller 46 5 5 3 0 0 1 .109
Trey Mock 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 1.000
Jake Manning 13 3 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Jim Watters 7 0 0 1 0 0 0 .000
Alan Wertz 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Andy Alley 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Cameron Irvin 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Brian Dougherty 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Adam Kovac 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Team Totals 521 106 143 88 28 2 7 .274
Pitching
Player IP OBA H R ER SO BB ERA W-L
Earnie Kelley 54.1 .285 61 41 25 53 22 3.22 4-4
Justin Miller 35.1 .241 32 41 29 30 35 5.75 1-3
Alan Wertz 9.2 .195 8 8 6 4 8 4.34 0-0
Brian Dougherty 7 .278 10 15 15 3 9 10.00 0-1
Chad Coho 6.1 .357 10 10 10 3 12 11.06 0-2
Jake Manning 4.2 .368 7 3 3 4 2 4.50 0-0
Nate Gray 4.1 .407 11 10 7 2 0 11.32 0-1
Josh Kleinfelter 2 .429 6 13 3 2 8 10.50 0-2
Trey Mock 2 .500 3 3 2 0 2 20.90 0-0
Brandon Beech .1 .500 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 0-0
