For two innings at Hollidaysburg Senior High School the contest between Martin Oil and Hoss’s looked like it would be a low-scoring defensive game. That was deceiving however because Martin Oil, with just eight errors on defense in their first four games, committed eight more in Thursday’s contest falling by the mercy rule 11-1 in five innings. This is the first time Martin Oil has been 10-runned during the regular season in more than four years.
Martin Oil had runners at second and third in the top of the first and Hoss’s had a runner at first in the bottom of the first and another base runner at third in the second inning. Neither team was able to get any of those runners across home plate.
Hoss’s opened up however sending 11 batters to the plate in the fourth, taking advantage of five Martin Oil errors to score six runs after Martin Oil had put the first run of the game on the board in the top of the fourth.
In the Martin Oil first, Andy Brisbin got a one-out infield hit and Matt Albright was hit by a pitch. a wild pitch moved both into scoring position, but Hoss’s starting pitcher Ben Shoop struck out Matt Plummer and Chris Alley to end the threat.
Dan Graham led off the fourth for Martin Oil with a walk, stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch. Plummer hit a slow roller to short that he beat out for a hit to score Graham with the first tally of the game.
Cory Boring started the Hoss’s fourth with a bad-hop single that bounced over shortstop Kyle Drost and Nathaniel Barroner beat out an infield hit on a slow roller. Five errors, a walk, a passed ball, and three more hits later, Hoss’s had taken a 6-1 lead.
Dustin Harris started for Martin Oil and took the loss, but allowed just two earned runs in four innings out of seven that scored. Harris struck out four and walked two.
Ryan Kenawell reached for Martin’s on Hoss’s lone error of the game in the fifth, but was erased in an inning-ending double play a batter later.
Harris drilled a one-out single in the fifth for the only ball of the game that reached the outfield for Martin Oil. Shoop reached back and retired the side on a foul pop and a groundout and Hoss’s scored four unearned runs off Martin Oil reliever Dan Graham to set the 10-run Mercy Rule into effect in the bottom of the fifth.
Hoss’s began the fifth with a two straight ground balls that were muffed before Graham got a bouncer to second for the first out. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch and scored when Barroner singled into center. Barroner came home on a throwing error and Chris McCarl, who walked scored the final run on a triple by Shoop, who in addition to pitching a complete-game five-inning victory, singled, doubled and tripled, scored a run, stole a base and drove in two runs.
Graham pitched the fifth, allowing four runs, all unearned, walking one.
“Tonight, we got a good-old-fashioned butt kicking,” reported Martin Oil manager Ed Davis. “Actually the pitching wasn’t that bad. Dustin and Danny both pitched fairly decent. We didn’t hit and we didn’t field. It looked like we had never been on the field before. I have said all along that we have to hit and we have to field. Consequently, tonight we really got it put to us.”
Martin Oil (3-2) will next play ReMax at Mansion Park on Saturday at 5 p.m.
Hoss’s 11 Martin Oil 1
MARTIN OIL – Harris, p-cf, 3-0-1; Brisbin, 2b, 3-0-1; Albright, c, 1-0-0; Luke, cr, 0-0-0; DelGrosso, cr, 0-0-0; Plummer, 3b, 2-0-1; Alley, 1b, 2-0-0; Drost, 2-0-0; Kenawell, lf, 2-0-0; Beech, rf, 2-0-0; Graham, cf-p, 1-1-0. TOTALS 18-1-3.
HOSS’S – N. Barroner, c, 4-2-2; A. J. Beerbower, 3b, 4-2-1; McCarl, cf, 1-2-0; Shoop, p, 4-0-3; C. Barroner, cr, 0-1-0; Royer, 1b, 3-0-0; Heist, ss, 3-1-0; Marasco, 2b, 3-1-2; Conway, lf, 3-1-1; Boring, rf, 3-1-2. TOTALS 28-11-11.
Martin Oil 001 00 1-3-8.
Hoss’s 006 14 11-11-1.
2B: Shoop 1, Marasco 1.
3B: Shoop 1.
RBI: Plummer 1, N. Barroner 2, Shoop 2.
SO: Harris 4, Shoop 10.
BB: Harris 2, Graham 1, Shoop 2.
WP: Shoop LP: Harris
