For four innings, in the Bellwood-Antis/Mount Union baseball game at Bellwood’s Stadium Drive Field on Wednesday, if it looked like it had happened before it wasn’t a dream.
In the first game between the two MAC Division 3 schools, Mount Union scored a solo tally to take the early lead and Bellwood-Antis then scored three times in the third inning to take a 3-1 advantage. Mount Union would use errors and walks to eventually carve out a 9-3 victory.
On Wednesday, the Trojans jumped out to a 1-0 lead on an error, stolen base and double by Brandon Clemens, and the Blue Devils scored three runs in the fourth inning to take a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately, the dream turned bad when Mount Union (13-2 overall, 8-0 in MAC division 3) scored five times over the final four at-bats for a 6-3 triumph.
Justin Manning rapped a double to open the third frame for the Blue Devils, was balked to third and scored on an RBI fielder’s choice by Josh Kleinfelter. Earnie Kelley singled up the middle, and with two outs, Chad Coho singled and Blaze Winterstein walked to load the bases. Brandon Beech drilled a clutch double to score Kelley and Coho to push Bellwood-Antis into a 3-2 lead.
At that point, Mount Union brought in Ryan Pollicino from shortstop, to pitch. Pollicino, who had banged a solo home run in the top of top of the inning to give the Trojans a 2-0 advantage, shut the Blue Devils down over the final three and 2/3 innings, holding B-A hitless, although he did walk one and hit a batter.
The B-A lead, didn’t hold up for very long. Mount Union leadoff hitter John Martinez took Kelley over the center field fence after the B-A lefty had fanned the first two hitters of the fifth inning, to edge the Trojans back into a 4-3 lead.
An error and base on balls to begin the inning, led to two Mount Union runs in the sixth, and two singles sandwiched around a walk provided one last tally in the sixth for the Trojans.
Kelley, who was the only Blue Devil with two hits, went the distance for Bellwood-Antis striking out three and walking four to take the loss.
“It was a shame we had to lose, we played a good ballgame, battled them until the end,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Steve Conlon. “We just made a couple more mistakes than they did. The kids played well, kept their heads up. We did enough to win, we just had a few too many mistakes today.”
Bellwood-Antis (4-11, 2-5) will travel to West Branch on Friday for a MAC Division game against the Warriors. The first pitch is set for 4:30 p.m.
Mount Union 6 Bellwood-Antis 3
Mount Union – Martinez, cf, 4-1-2; Brown, rf, 3-1-1; Dixon, 1b, 2-0-0; Pollicino, ss-p, 4-1-1; Hollibaugh, p, 0-0-0, Walters, dh-3b, 3-1-1; Yocum, c, 3-1-0; N. McConaughey, cr, 0-0-0; Baird, lf, 4-1-1; Clemens, 3b-ss, 2-0-1; Park, 2b, 3-0-0. TOTALS 28-6-7.
Bellwood-Antis – Ja. Manning, 2b, 2-0-0; Ju. Manning, ss, 2-1-1; Kleinfelter, lf, 3-0-1; Kelley, p, 3-1-2; Seidel, 1b, 2-0-0; Coho, 3b, 3-1-1; Winterstein, c, 2-0-0; Beech, cf, 3-0-1; J. Miller, rf, 3-0-0. TOTALS 23-3-6.
Mount Union 010 112 1 – 6-7-0.
Bellwood-Antis 000 300 0 – 3-6-2.
2B: Clemens, Ju. Manning, Beech.
HR: Martinez, Pollicino.
RBI: Martinez, Pollicino, Walters, Baird, Clemens, Beech 2, Kleinfelter.
SO: Hollibaugh 1, Pollicino 1, Kelley 3.
BB: Hollibaugh 1, Pollicino 1, Kelley 4.
WP: Pollicino LP: Kelley
