Tyrone manager Tom Coleman and assistant Bill Vigne are a couple of old pitchers, which explains why they believe so strongly in the importance of starting pitching in high school baseball.
\nBut the numbers on the Eagles are clear: when Tyrone hits and scores runs, they win. When the bats are on the shelf, Tyrone\u2019s record is abhorrent \u2013 1-6 in games when failing to score at least 10 runs heading into yesterday\u2019s MAC contest against Penns Valley.
\nSo why, then, did the Eagles look so comfortable late in a tight game with enormous playoff implications?
\nMaybe it was because the unflappable Tyler Golden was on the mound with his best stuff of the season. Maybe it was because portions of Tyrone\u2019s lineup that for weeks had laid dormant were coming finally coming through with clutch hits.
\nProbably, it was a little of both.
\nTyrone (8-6, 4-2 MAC Division III) rallied from a four-run deficit to go ahead in the fifth, and then stranded three Valley runners at second base over the final three innings to defeat the Rams 5-4 at the Harry K. Sickler Sports Complex.
\nIt was Tyrone\u2019s third victory in three days and fourth in its last five games, and it avenged a 10-run loss to Penns Valley at Spring Mills in April.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s nice to rebound back,\u201d said Coleman. \u201cDown there, they really put it to us. Winning three-in-a-row can really help our confidence.\u201d
\nIn his strongest outing of the season, Golden improved to 4-1 with his fourth complete game. He allowed only two earned runs on eight hits and fanned a career-high nine batters. He struck out four over the fifth, sixth and seventh, each time stranding a Ram runner in scoring position.
\n\u201cTyler got into some jams but he was able to get himself out of it,\u201d said Coleman. \u201cHe got some big outs and really kept us in the game. He\u2019s a competitor, and he\u2019s the kind of pitcher who gets stronger as the game goes on. You don\u2019t jump to the bullpen when he\u2019s on the mound.\u201d
\nGolden\u2019s tightest spot came in the top of the fifth, after Tyrone had scored three in the bottom of the fourth to cut Valley\u2019s lead to 4-3. With runners on first and second and Cory Niederer, who went 3-for-3 with two runs, waiting on deck, Golden fanned Taylor Wingard for the third time to end the threat.
\nThat allowed the Eagles to plate the game-winning run in the bottom of the frame, with the help of some timely hitting from the bottom of Tyrone\u2019s order. Tyler Gillmen started the inning with a single to right, and one out later he scored to tie it at 4-4 on a double down the third base line by Buddy Stotler. Stotler would come around to score the go-ahead run one batter later when designated hitter Donnie Hunter, batting in the seven spot, doubled to the gap in right center.
\n\u201cBuddy\u2019s starting to see the ball well again and he\u2019s driving it, and Donnie is a good contact hitter,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cWe thought we might be able to move some runners with our lineup like that.\u201d
\nThe Rams (7-6) took a 2-0 lead in the third, when the Eagles committed three fielding errors. Niederer started things off with a single and moved to third after third baseman Matt Brooks threw wildly to first on a sacrifice attempt by Steve Alterio. Niederer scored on a sacrifice by Mike Brubaker, and Alterio scored on a throwing error by Jamie Levinson.
\nA two-run single by Brubaker in the fourth made it 4-0.
\nTyrone got three back in the bottom of the fourth, thanks again to the bottom of its order. After Stotler was hit by a pitch and Hunter walked, Brooks, hitting from the eight-hole, singled to load the bases. Nine-hitter Josh Clark then drove in Stotler when he served a 1-2 pitch into right field. Brinton Mingle followed with a two-run single up the middle to cut Valley\u2019s lead to 4-3.
\n\u201cTowards the bottom of the order, we were able to get some things going,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cThat got us some runs and put us back in the game. I expected us to hit a little better today, but we battled back and got the win.\u201d
\nGAME NOTES: Tyrone travels to Mount Union for a game against the Trojans Friday \u2026 the game ended a stretch for the Eagles in which they played five games in six days \u2026 in a scoring correction, Golden was not awarded the victory for yesterday\u2019s game against Bishop Guilfoyle. Golden had started the game and pitched two innings when it was suspended on April 3. Instead, the victory went to Josh Clark, who pitched all three innings of yesterday\u2019s 16-3 win.
\nTYRONE 5 PENNS VALLEY 4
\nPENNS VALLEY \u2013 S. Alterio, cf, 2-2-1; Brubaker, rf, 3-0-1; Jo. Kieffer, c, 4-0-0; Frankenberger, 1b, 2-0-1; D. Alterio, 3b-p, 3-0-1; Davis, pr, 0-0-0; Ja. Kieffer, lf-3b, 4-0-1; Homan, ss, 0-0-0; Bogus, dh, 3-0-0; Wingard, p-lf, 3-0-0; Weaver, ph, 1-0-0; Niederer, 2b, 3-2-3. TOTALS: 28-4-8.
\nTYRONE \u2013 Mingle, rf, 4-0-1; Golden, p, 4-0-1; Levinson, ss, 2-0-0; Gillmen, 2b, 4-1-1; Schopp, cf, 3-0-0; Stotler, 1b, 2-2-1; Hunter, dh, 1-1-1; Anders, c, 0-0-0; Brooks, 3b, 1-1-1; Clark, lf, 2-0-1. TOTALS: 23-5-7.
\nPENNS VALLEY 002 200 0 \u2013 4-8-0
\nTYRONE 000 320 X \u2013 5-7-3
\n2B: S. Alterio, Stotler, Hunter
\nRBI: Brubaker 3, Jo. Kieffer, Mingle 2, Clark, Stotler, Hunter
\nSB: Mingle, Brubaker
\nE: Levinson 1, Anders 1, Brooks 1
\nSO: Golden 9, D. Alterio 5, Wingard 1
\nBB: Golden 4, Wingard 4, D. Alterio 2
\nWP: Golden LP: D. Alterio<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyrone manager Tom Coleman and assistant Bill Vigne are a couple of old pitchers, which explains why they believe so strongly in the importance of starting pitching in high school baseball. But the numbers on the Eagles are clear: when Tyrone hits and scores runs, they win. When the bats are on the shelf, Tyrone\u2019s […]<\/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-41277","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\/41277","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=41277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}