Playing with a lead early isn’t something the Tyrone Golden Eagles have had much of a chance to grow accustomed to through six official games this season.
Take away a suspended game the Eagles are yet to make up against Southern Huntingdon, when they raced to a 5-0 lead after their first at-bat, and Tyrone has led only twice after the first inning through six complete games.
So it’s not surprising the Eagles lost a little of their spunk yesterday after hammering their way to a 10-0 lead in the first inning against rival Bellwood-Antis at the Harry K. Sickler Athletic Complex.
That made the job by starting pitcher Jamie Levinson all the more impressive. While Tyrone managed just one hit from the second through the fifth inning, Levinson was good enough to make it a moot point. Tyrone won 13-4, and the junior notched his second win of the season with a complete-game, five-strikeout effort as the Eagles improved to 4-3, moving above the .500 mark for the first time this season.
“He did a really nice job in his first start,” Tyrone manager Tom Coleman said of Levinson, who earned his first victory in a relief appearance last week against Williamsburg. “He made some good pitches and had good control. He only walked one batter and got us a lot of easy grounders and pop-ups. He really used his defense well.”
Levinson didn’t stop there. He was also one of the driving forces behind Tyrone’s big first inning, slamming a three-run homer in his first plate appearance to stake the Eagles to a 4-0 lead.
It was that shot that knocked B-A starter Chad Coho from the game after just 1-3 of an inning. The Blue Devils would use two more pitchers in what became a long and brutal frame, with Nate Gray coming on in relief of Coho to surrender six more runs on three hits.
“They hit the ball hard and got on our starter,” said B-A manager Steve Conlon, whose team dropped to 2-8. “It took us a couple of pitchers before we could get them off balance. It’s funny when you think that after that, we actually outscored them, but you just can’t give up the big inning.”
In fact, take away the first inning and the Devils outscored Tyrone 4-3. Coleman said that may have been because his team relaxed after darting to the early advantage.
“It’s always nice to jump on a team like that, but it can also bite you because you feel like you can coast,” Coleman said. “Bellwood started to chip away at us after that, but Jamie really settled down in the middle innings.”
B-A’s most effective pitcher actually began his day about 20 yards away from the varsity diamond, pitching for the Blue Devils’ jayvee team. After being summoned from that contest, Alan Wertz came on to record the final out of the first inning, and then pitched into the sixth before Tyrone scored three runs.
“He came in and he threw strikes,” Conlon said. “He had command of his fastball and he worked that in with a splitter. You have to have at least two pitches in high school baseball.”
Wetz would throw scoreless baseball for the next five innings limiting the Tyrone hitters to just one hit, until he ran out of steam after recording the first two outs in the sixth.
The Eagles finally got to Wertz in the sixth following back-to-back walks with two outs to Buddy Stotler and Josh Clark. Justin Schopp, who went 3-for-5 with three runs, followed with an RBI single that sent Wertz to the dugout and brought on Brandon Beech. He was greeted by Tyler Golden, who singled to center to plate Schopp and Clark.
“Our offense has been pretty potent lately, and we went to the plate with an aggressive attitude,” said Coleman.
That was never more apparent than Tyrone’s first time up, when 16 Eagles went to bat and seven delivered hits. Infielder Tyler Gillmen continued his torrid pace over the last week, smacking an RBI double to score Schopp for the game’s first run. After Levinson’s round-tripper made it 4-0, Tyrone loaded the bases for Clark, who singled home two more.
A Golden single to left field scored another, and a B-A fielding error led to two more. It was 10-0 by the time Brock Anders flew out to right to end the inning.
The Blue Devils got two back in the second on a two-run homer by L.J. Seidel, and two more crossed in the third on RBI singles by Justin Manning and Earnie Kelley.
But Levinson soon regained control, inducing six fly ball outs over the last four innings.
GAME NOTES: the bottom of B-A’s order went just 1-for-9 … the Eagles have now scored 10 or more runs in four of their last five games … Tyrone pitchers have now registered two consecutive complete games.
TYRONE 13 BELLWOOD-ANTIS 4
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Gray, ss-p, 4-1-3; Manning, 2b, 4-1-1; Kleinfelter, lf, 3-0-0; Kelley, 1b, 4-1-1; Seidel, 3b, 4-1-1; Coho, p-3b, 0-0-0; Wertz, p, 3-0-0; Beech, cf-p, 3-0-1; Winterstein, c, 3-0-0; Miller, rf, 3-0-0. TOTALS: 31-4-7.
TYRONE – Schopp, rf, 5-3-2; Golden, 2b, 5-1-2; Mingle, cf, 3-2-0; Gillmen, ss, 3-1-2; Levinson, p, 2-1-1; Brooks, 3b, 4-1-1; Anders, c, 3-1-0; Morrow, 1b, 3-0-1; Stotler, 1b, 0-1-0; Clark, lf, 3-2-1. TOTALS: 31-13-11.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS 022 000 0 – 4- 7- 2
TYRONE (10)00 003 X – 13-11-3
2B: Gillmen
HR: Seidel, Levinson
RBI: Seidel 2, Kelley, Manning, Gillmen 3, Golden 3, Levinson 3, Clark 2, Schopp
SB: Gillmen
SO: Levinson 5, Wertz 2
BB: Levinson 1, Coho 1, Wertz 5
WP: Levinson LP: Coho
