Tyrone led in all the stats in Monday afternoon’s baseball game, except one. West Branch took advantage of nine Eagle errors to score a 6-4 win in MAC action.
The one category that Tyrone coach Tom Coleman didn’t appreciate having the lead was the nine miscues. “We were throwing the ball around and making mental mistakes,” said Coleman. “I was pleased with the way we hit and Barry Gummo pitched well enough to win, but our defense let us down.”
Playing at home at the Harry Sickler Athletic Complex, Tyrone took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Barry Gummo led by blasting a double and cousin Ben Gummo singled him to third. Brice Mertiff scored Barry with a sacrifice fly and Clint Wilson plated Ben with an RBI single.
In the third inning, Mertiff tripled and scored on a single off the bat of Brinton Mingle and Mingle trotted home on a double by Wilson. One telling fact was that the Eagles outhit West Branch 11-4 and put together four straight hits in the third inning, but wouldn’t be able to get back-to-back base hits through the rest of the game.
West Branch came back in the visitors half of the second inning to momentarily knot the score at 2-2. Three straight fielding errors by Tyrone enabled the Warriors to load the bases. Jim Moslak stroked a two-run single to tie the score.
In the West Branch fifth, Teddy Little singled with one out and a stolen base and fielder’s choice moved him over to third base. Little scored on a Clint Wilson throwing error to cut Tyrone’s advantage to 4-3.
The Warriors got some more help in the sixth inning when Tyrone mistakes put the first two runners on base. Marco Amato scored on a fielder’s choice and Grady Luzier scored on a Nick Cushion error that gave West Branch the lead for good.
Finally, in the seventh inning, Colt Viehdorfer doubled, stole third base and scored on a wild pitch to complete the scoring.
Tyrone stranded 10 runners giving the Eagles chances, even with the errors, but was unable to come up with the key hit when needed. “We need to learn how to manufacture runs when we have people in scoring position,” said Coleman.
Barry Gummo, Clint Wilson and Derrick Soellner each had two hits for the Orange and Black to lead the offense.
Barry Gummo pitched all seven innings against West Branch, after splitting mound duty with Mertiff, against Southern Huntingdon on Friday. Gummo struck out two and walked three in absorbing the loss, scattering four hits, with all six runs unearned against him.
“Barry pitched well enough to win battling through when he didn’t have his best stuff,” explained Coleman. “But he got no help from his defense. Errors cost us the ballgame.”
Tyrone (3-1) which dropped their first game of the season, hosts Bellwood-Antis (4-2) which outslugged West Branch 13-9 on Saturday afternoon, in a 4 p.m. ballgame on Wednesday. West Branch improves to 4-1.
West Branch 6 Tyrone 4
WEST BRANCH – Little, lf, 4-1-1; Ward, 3b, 4-0-0; C. Viehdorfer, ss, 3-1-1; D. Viehdorfer, c, , 3-0-0, McGuire, cr, 0-0-0; Peters, cf, 0-0-0; Piotroski, dh, 3-1-1; Amato, p, 4-2-0; Luzier, 2b, 4-1-0; Moslak, rf, 4-0-1; Lawrence, 1b, 3-0-0. TOTALS 31-6-4.
TYRONE – Ba. Gummo, p, 3-1-2, Be. Gummo, 2b, 4-1-1, Mertiff, ss, 3-1-1; Mingle, rf 4-1-1; C. Wilson, 1b, 3-0-2; Myers, pr, 0-0-0; Maceno, lf, 4-0-1; Soellner, c, 4-0-2; J. Wilson, cf, 0-0-0; Rickards, dh, 3-0-1, Cushion, 3b, 1-0-0. TOTALS 29-4-11.
West Branch 020 012 1 6-4-0.
Tyrone 202 000 0 4-11-9.
2B: WB- C. Viehdorfer 1, T- Ba. Gummo 2, C. Wilson 1.
3B: T- Mertiff 1.
RBI: T- C. Wilson 2, Mingle 1, Mertiff 1.
SO: WB- Amato 3, T- Ba. Gummo 2.
BB: WB- Amato 4, T- Ba. Gummo 3.
WP: Amato LP: Ba. Gummo.
