Bellwood-Antis has had trouble with their young inexperienced pitching staff this season, had trouble getting clutch hits and at times just getting hits at all, and committing errors. On Monday at Glendale, everything came together for the Blue Devils in a 9-1 triumph over the Vikings.
Earnie Kelley, the one Blue Devil with experience on the mound scattered seven hits, limiting Glendale to just a single second-inning tally, while striking out four and walking a pair. The B-A defense made no errors after committing a total of eight in their previous two ballgames.
B-A struck for a season high 10 base hits and now have 19 in their last two games, and Josh Kleinfelter provided the timely hits by blasting two home runs, and L. J. Seidel and Blaze Winterstein added two safeties each to lead the attack.
Bellwood-Antis jumped out to a 2-0 lead in their first at-bat. Nate Gray led off the contest with a hustle double, dropping a base hit into shallow right field and never stopping until he was safe at second base. With Gray at third after a wild pitch, Kleinfelter clubbed a line shot that the Glendale left fielder got to take just one step back before watching the ball sale over the fence.
The Vikings had Kelley on the ropes in each of the first two innings, but with some shoddy base running by Glendale and a deadly pickoff move by Kelley, B-A got out of it with just one run scored.
In the first inning, the Vikings attempted to come right back. Starting pitcher Bill Ball singled to start the frame, but Kelley picked him off first for the first out of the inning. Kelley walked Derrick Strong and Brandon Baker ripped a single into left, but Kelley sandwiched the two base runners around a strikeout and an infield fly to get out of the inning.
In the second, Derek Nash, a former Bellwood-Antis resident, singled to open the inning for Glendale. Brock Kauffman beat out an infield hit and Andy Barnhart singled to score Nash. On the play, however, Kauffman went too far and got caught in a rundown between second and third for the first out. Then Chad Harpster flied out to Blue Devil center fielder Brandon Beech, who then threw to Seidel at first base, to easily double up Barnhart, who had taken off on the swing.
Given a reprieve, Kelley allowed just two harmless hits over the final five innings to pick up the complete-game victory, throwing just 72 pitches. Glendale made just one more threat. In the fourth inning, Nash walked with two down, and Kauffman doubled to put runners at second and third. Kelley took care of the situation himself, by striking out Barnhart for the final out of the inning.
Bellwood-Antis (2-9) scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings and scored four times in the sixth to run away from the Vikings to post their second win of the season.
Chad Coho walked with one out in the fourth and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Winterstein singled to drive in Coho and moved all the way around to third base on a error, but was stranded there.
In the fifth stanza, Kleinfelter crushed his second homer, this one even further than the first dinger, leading off the inning.
An inning later, Coho singled to begin the stanza, and was replaced by pinch runner Alex Miller, who stole second base. Gray walked with two outs and Justin Manning singled to score Miller. Glendale, would take no more chances with Kleinfelter, preferring to intentional walk him to load the bases. Kelley and Seidel followed with singles-Kelley driving in Gray and Manning and Kleinfelter scoring on Seidel’s base hit.
Finally in the seventh, Beech led off by drawing a base on balls, moved up on wild pitch and ground out, before scoring on another RBI groundout by Winterstein.
“Earnie pitched a great game,” said Bellwood-Antis head coach Steve Conlon. “He threw strikes and the defense made the plays they needed to make, with no errors. Josh was swinging the hot bat. Home runs definitely help and Josh is hitting the ball well right now.”
Bellwood-Antis 9 Glendale 1
Bellwood-Antis – Gray, ss, 3-2-1; Ju. Manning, 2b, 4-1-1; Kleinfelter, lf, 3-3-2; Kelley, p, 3-0-1; Seidel, 1b, 4-0-2; Beech, cf, 3-1-0; Coho, 3b, 3-1-1; A; Miller, pr, 0-1-0; Dougherty, 3b, 0-0-0; Winterstein, c, 4-0-2; J. Miller, rf, 4-0-0. TOTALS 31-9-10.
Glendale – Ball, p-2b, 4-0-2; Strong, lf, 2-0-0; Walstrom, rf, 2-0-0; Brown, ph, 1-0-0; Baker, 2b-p, 3-0-1; Tassi, 3b, 3-0-0; Nash, ss, 2-1-1; Kauffman, cf, 3-0-2; Barnhart, c, 2-0-1; Shomo, ph, 1-0-0; Harpster, 1b, 1-0-0; Kimberly, 1b, 1-0-0. TOTALS 25-1-7.
Bellwood-Antis 200 114 1 9-10-0.
Glendale 010 000 0 1-7-2.
2B: Gray, Kauffman.
HR: Kleinfelter 2.
RBI: Kleinfelter 3, Seidel 2, Winterstein 2, Ju. Manning, Kelley, Barnhart.
SO: Kelley 4, Ball 7.
BB: Kelley 2, Ball 4, Baker 1.
WP: Kelley LP: Ball
