Tyrone senior Brandon Maceno seems to pitch his best when the situation is at its worst.
In two years of mostly relief work for the Golden Eagles, there hasn’t been a lineup yet that has shaken his steady demeanor, nor has there been a batter who has forced the diminutive right-hander to give even an inch when he stares into the batter’s box.
It was a trend that continued yesterday in Maceno’s second appearance of the 2005 season. Called on to close the game out in the fourth after starter Ben Gummo left with soreness in his throwing arm, he allowed only two runs – one earned – in four innings, struck out five, left five runners stranded, and closed the game by striking out Matt Brubaker with runners on first and second to seal Tyrone’s 7-5 victory over the Rams at the Harry K. Sickler Athletic Complex.
It was a masterful performance for a pitcher who had little more than nine warm-up tosses before relieving Gummo, who took the mound to start the fourth inning but left before completing his own warm-up routine.
“Brandon just went out there and competed,” said manager Tom Coleman, whose team improved to 3-0. “We handed him the ball because we trusted him, and he came in and took momentum away from them when they were starting to heat up by giving us four solid innings.”
Part of Maceno’s success in handling a Valley line-up that in the third came alive with three runs and three hits was his confidence in attacking the strike zone. Along with his five K’s, Maceno walked no one and threw more than six pitches to any one batter only four times.
Maceno also got his first hit of the season, as once again the Golden Eagles pounded the ball at the plate. Tyrone had 10 hits off two different Valley pitchers and had an inning of at least four runs for the fifth time in three games.
Four of Tyrone’s hits went for extra bases, including back-to-back home runs by Clint Wilson and Derrick Soellner in the first inning that allowed Tyrone to build a 4-0 lead.
“Sometimes it’s a pitfall when your offense produces as well as ours has,” said Coleman. “We got a nice lead and then went a little flat, and then their pitchers made some adjustments on us.”
Andrew Weaver took the loss for the Rams, who fell to 0-2. After a rough start that saw him surrender six earned runs over the first two innings, Weaver settled and at one point retired eight of nine batters, but his problem was he could never recover when he found himself in a jam, where Tyrone pitchers could.
In the first inning, he allowed back-to-back doubles by Gummo and Brit Mingle, followed by the back-to-back homers of Soellner and Wilson. Wilson’s came on a first-pitch fastball and went deep over the right-center fence, while Soellner’s was on an 0-1 fastball and cleared the fence at dead center.
In the second, Weaver walked the bases loaded, setting up Wilson to drive home two more runs when he ripped a single to right-center, making it 6-0.
They were big plays made by Tyrone that were imitated but not duplicated by Valley. In the first, Gummo walked two batters to load the bases with one out, but he got out of the jam by striking out Josh Kieffer and getting Devon Altiero to dribble one back to the mound for the 1-3 putout.
Things went south for Gummo in the third when a Nate Frankenberger double and a Josh Kieffer single allowed the Rams to cut the score in half at 6-3 with just one out, but even then Gummo regrouped to retire two of the next three batters and leave one runner stranded.
Tyrone committed two errors in the game, with only one leading to run when a Wilson throwing gaff allowed Matt Brubaker to score in the fourth making it 6-4. But neither error was fatal, which Coleman attributed to the Eagles’ experience.
“We’ve learned to put those things behind us,” Coleman said. “These players have been there before and they didn’t let that affect us.”
DIAMOND NOTES: Nine-hitter Josh Clark scored two runs, including a much-needed insurance run in the sixth when he turned a lead-off single into a run with a Mertiff single and a Gummo sacrifice, eventually scoring on a wild pitch by Norman Wenrick … Wilson lifted his team-leading RBI total to eight … Gummo notched his second win of the season … Wilson will start today when the Eagles play Mount Union on the road at 4:15. The game was originally scheduled for tomorrow but was rescheduled earlier this week.
Tyrone 7 Penns Valley 5
Penns Valley – Foor, ss, 4-1-1; S. Altiero, cf, 3-1-2; Hull, lf, 3-0-0; Weaver, p, 3-0-0; Wernick, p, 0-0-0; Frankenberger, dh, 3-1-1; Jo. Kieffer, c, 4-1-1; D. Altiero, 3b, 4-0-1; Homan, 4-0-1; Rachau, 1b, 2-0-0; Ja. Kieffer, ph, 1-0-1; Brubaker, rf, 4-1-1. TOTALS: 32-5-9.
Tyrone – Mertiff, ss, 3-0-1; Gummo, p-2b, 1-2-1; Mingle, rf, 2-1-1; Wilson, 1b, 4-1-2; Morrissey, cr, 0-0-0; Soellner, c, 4-1-2; Gillmen, 3b, 3-0-1; Maceno, 2b-p, 3-0-1; Stottler, 3-0-0; Levinson, lf, 0-0-0; Clark, cf, 2-2-1. TOTALS: 25-7-10.
PENNS VALLEY 003 200 0 – 5-9-0
TYRONE 420 001 X – 7-10-2
2B: Gummo, Mingle, Frankenberger
HR: Wilson, Soellner
RBI: Wilson 4, Mingle, Soellner, Frankenberger 2, Jo. Kieffer, D. Altiero
K: Gummo 3, Maceno 5, Weaver 3
BB: Gummo 4, Weaver 5.
WP: Maceno LP: Weaver
