Baseball is a game where you have to field your position to win games. The fewer mistakes, the less your own offense has to do. On Wednesday afternoon at Mount Union, Bellwood-Antis gave up a first inning tally on two walks and a wild pitch without benefit of a hit by Mount Union.
Then after Bellwood-Antis scored three times to jump into a surprising 3-1 lead, the Blue Devils suddenly couldn’t catch a cold. Before the bottom of the third inning was over, two innings and a hit batsman contributed to six unearned runs. With the deficit turned into a four-run lead, Mount Union regrouped and with the help of five B-A errors, went on to post a 9-3 win.
Blaze Winterstein started the Blue Devils third inning rally with a one-out single and Justin Miller followed with another base hit to put runners at first and second with nobody out. Nate Gray hit into a fielder’s choice to get runners on the corners. Justin Manning walked to load the bases. Josh Kleinfelter lined a single to left center to score Andy Alley, courtesy running for Winterstein and Gray to give the Blue Devils a 2-1 lead. Earnie Kelley singled to right to score Manning for the third run of the inning.
Brain Dougherty, who had limited Mount Union to one run and one hit through the first two innings was the victim of some shoddy fielding by his teammates, when he should have gotten out of the inning without being scored on. Chad Coho came on in relief, but number nine hitter Brenton Park slugged Coho’s second pitch over the center field wall for a three-run homer that completed the six-run inning-all unearned.
Dougherty ended up allowing six runs, only one earned on three hits, in two and 2/3 innings, with two walks and no strikeouts to take the loss, he didn’t deserve.
Coho pitched out of a two-on, one-out fourth-inning jam without giving up a score, and Nate Gray was touched for two runs on three hits in the fifth inning with Mount Union adding a pair of insurance runs.
Alan Wertz pitched a scoreless sixth for Bellwood-Antis with one strikeout and no walks.
Bubba Brown pitched the Trojans, who improve to 8-1 overall and 4-0 in MAC division 3 play, to the complete-game victory, allowing five hits, only one after the three-run third, striking out nine and walking two. In addition, Brown slugged two doubles to help himself on offense. Mount Union catcher Jordy Yocum had three hits, including an RBI single in the third and two-run double in the fifth.
“We played a good solid baseball game, but for some reason, we lose focus for one inning in every game,” said Bellwood-Antis head coach Steve Conlon. “For whatever reason, we lose focus and things just go wrong. That might be because we’re young and hopefully we can grow out of that phase. But you can’t win games when you give up that many runs in one inning.”
Bellwood-Antis (1-8, after it was determined the Blue Devils have forfeited Monday’s 3-1 win over Penns Valley because they used an academically ineligible player) completes their four-games-in-four-days week today at Tyrone. The first pitch is set for 4 p.m.
Mount Union 9 Bellwood-Antis 3
Bellwood-Antis – Gray, ss-p, 3-1-1; Wertz, p, 0-0-0; A. Miller, ph, 1-0-0; Ju. Manning, 2b, 3-1-0; Kleinfelter, lf, 3-0-1; Kelley, 1b, 3-0-1; Dougherty, p, 0-0-0, Seidel, dh-3b, 2-0-0; Alley, cr-ss, 1-0-0; Coho, 3b-p, 2-0-0; Beech, cf, 3-0-0; Winterstein, c, 3-0-1; J. Miller, rf, 3-0-1. TOTALS 27-3-5.
Mount Union – Martinez, cf, 2-1-1; Brown, p, 3-0-2; N. McConoughey, cr, 0-2-0; Dixon, 1b, 4-0-0; Yocum. c, 4-0-3; J. McConoughey, cr, 0-1-0; Hollibaugh, rf, 0-0-0; Walter, dh, 4-0-1; Baird, lf, 2-1-1; Morder, ph, 1-0-0; Clemens, 3b, 3-1-1; O’Leary, ph, 1-0-0; Park, 2b, 3-2-2; Kolb, ph, 1-0-0. TOTALS 32-9-11.
Bellwood-Antis 003 000 0 – 3-5-5.
Mount Union 106 020 X – 9-11-1.
2B: Brown 2, Yocum.
HR: Park.
RBI: Kleinfelter 2, Kelley 1, Park 3, Yocum 3, Clemens.
SO: Wertz 1, Brown 9.
BB: Dougherty 2, Brown 2.
WP: Brown LP: Dougherty
