Tyler Gillmen wasn\u2019t in an impossible position yesterday on the hill against Penns Valley, but it was pretty close.
\nThe senior right-hander didn\u2019t have his best stuff, but pitchers find ways to win everyday without that. Gillmen could have, too. He allowed only six hits and pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the second, recording the final out when he caught Cory Niederer looking at a curve ball.
\nThe real problem was his control. Gillmen walked 11 batters in 4-plus innings \u2013 one in the first with the bases loaded \u2013 as Tyrone dropped its third consecutive game, 7-5 in Spring Mills.
\nTyrone (5-7) has now lost three of its last four games and seven of its last nine, leaving the Golden Eagles\u2019 playoff hopes in doubt entering the final week of the regular season.
\n\u201cWe need a win or that could be the season,\u201d said Tyrone manager Tom Coleman. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what we do (today against West Branch) and then on Monday (against Southern Huntingdon). We\u2019ll see how our play is and see if we can get players one through nine playing consistently.\u201d
\nWhat\u2019s got to be disconcerting for Coleman is that the Rams are a team his club defeated a month ago, leaving a question mark on the direction the team is headed.
\n\u201cWe just can\u2019t seem to get over the hump,\u201d said Coleman. \u201cWe\u2019re not a team that can battle back from adversity. The mistakes we make always cost us and today it cost us big.\u201d
\nThey weren\u2019t the typical mistakes because for the first time in four games the Eagles went without committing a fielding error. But there were other slip-ups that were just as costly. Trailing 5-4 in the fourth, Matt Brooks rounded second base wide on a sacrifice attempt by Mike Romano and was tagged out when he slipped and fell.
\nIn the fifth, Donnie Hunter singled to lead off the inning, but was doubled up off first when Justin Schopp popped up his sacrifice bunt attempt back to pitcher Dennis Alterio.
\nIn a two-run game, those kind of mistakes were crucial.
\n\u201cEleven walks and some bad mistakes aren\u2019t going to keep you in the game,\u201d said Coleman.
\nAlterio was the complete-game winner, allowing only two earned runs and no walks while striking out five.
\nBut the Eagles were able to score twice off of him in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. Aaron Cunningham led off with an infield single, and scored when Schopp advanced to third on a three-base error by center fielder Taylor Wingard. Johnny Shaffer lifted a sacrifice fly to right one batter later to plate Schopp.
\nValley answered immediately, scoring three in the bottom of the first. Gillmen fanned leadoff hitter Adam Brown, but then walked Jason Kieffer and Alterio. Nate Frankenberger\u2019s single to right scored both of them and tied the game at 2-2, and a bases loaded walk to Andy Bogus put the Rams up 3-2.
\nTyrone tied the game in the third on a run-scoring single to center by Schopp that plated Jamie Levinson, and went ahead when an error at short by Jake Homan off the bat of Tyler Golden brought home Schopp.
\nBut two more walks in the third set the table for a 2 RBI single by Brown making it 5-4. Tyrone tied it at 5-5 in the fourth when Romano scored from third on a pickoff move to first by Alterio that had Levinson caught in a rundown just long enough for Romano to come home.
\nWingard reclaimed Penns Valley\u2019s lead for good in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI double that made it 6-5. Gillmen was then pulled in favor of Hunter in the fifth after walking Homan, who later came around to score on a wild pitch.
\nTyrone turned two double plays and had the bottom three in its batting order go 5-for-9, with Brooks and Levinson each pounding two hits apiece. But walks and mental lapses put the kybosh on an otherwise relatively solid performance for the Eagles.
\nPENNS VALLEY 7 TYRONE 5
\nTYRONE \u2013 Cunningham, lf, 1-1-1; Hunter, lf-p, 2-0-1; Schopp, cf, 4-2-1; Shaffer, 1b, 2-0-0; Golden, 2b, 3-0-0; Gillmen, p-lf, 3-0-0; Anders, c, 3-0-0; Brooks, 3b, 3-0-2; Romano, rf, 3-1-1; Levinson, ss, 3-1-2. TOTALS: 27-5-8.
\nPENNS VALLEY \u2013 Brown, 3b, 3-0-1; Jo. Kieffer, c, 0-0-0; Herrold, cr, 0-1-0; D. Alterio, p, 1-0-1; Fultz, cr, 0-1-0; Frankenberger, 1b, 3-1-1; Ja. Kieffer, rf, 4-0-0; Niederer, 2b, 4-1-2; Wingard, cf, 2-0-2; Bogus, lf, 1-1-0; Homan, ss, 1-2-0. TOTALS: 20-7-6.
\nTYRONE 202 100 0 \u2013 5-8-0
\nPENNS VALLEY 302 110 0 \u2013 7-6-2
\n2B: Wingard
\nRBI: Brown 2, Alterio, Frankenberger, Niederer, Bogus, Schopp, Shaffer
\nSB: Schopp, Romano
\nK: Alterio 5, Gillmen 4, Hunter 1
\nBB: Gillmen 11, Hunter 1
\nWP: Alterio LP: Gillmen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyler Gillmen wasn\u2019t in an impossible position yesterday on the hill against Penns Valley, but it was pretty close. The senior right-hander didn\u2019t have his best stuff, but pitchers find ways to win everyday without that. Gillmen could have, too. He allowed only six hits and pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}