Tyrone pitcher Jamie Levinson probably deserved better yesterday against Juniata Valley in his second start of the season.
\nThe junior put together the best start the Eagles\u2019 pitching staff had seen this season \u2013 a performance that a week ago when Tyrone was scoring 10 runs at a clip would have easily been enough for a victory \u2013 but he was outdueled by the Hornets\u2019 Nate Burkey in a 3-2 loss at the Harry K. Sickler Athletic Complex.
\nLevinson went the distance, allowing only one earned run on six hits while walking two, but his performance was overshadowed by Burkey, who struck out eight and likewise surrendered one earned run.
\nIt was the Eagles\u2019 second straight loss, dropping the team to 4-5.
\n\u201cJamie was very effective today, but we couldn\u2019t capitalize offensively,\u201d said Tyrone manager Tom Coleman. \u201cThen we had some defensive breakdowns that cost us.\u201d
\nThe most costly mistakes came in the top of the seventh inning, when Valley plated an unearned run to break a 2-2 tie, but Coleman couldn\u2019t place blame for the critical error that resulted in the Hornets\u2019 score.
\nSophomore catcher Brock Anders, who had caught every inning of every game, was injured in a collision at the plate in the third inning, forcing first baseman Buddy Stotler, who had never caught in a varsity game, to take over behind the plate. The hefty senior played well, but his throwing error on a Johnny Boyd sacrifice attempt allowed Burkey to score all the way from second base.
\n\u201cBuddy really stepped up for the team,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cHe had never caught for us before, and that showed the kind of player he is.\u201d
\nNeither team hit the ball particularly hard. In fact, it was the first game Tyrone had played this season without an extra-base hit, and both pitchers were a major reason for that. Of Valley\u2019s 21 outs, 12 never went beyond the infield, while Tyrone continued its struggles against pitchers with effective breaking pitches.
\nTyrone\u2019s eight strikeouts increased the Eagles\u2019 total to 61 for the season, an average of almost seven a game.
\n\u201cWe weren\u2019t very disciplined at the plate,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cWe took a lot of first pitch fast balls for strikes and swung at balls in the dirt.\u201d
\nValley jumped to a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Ethan Devore hit a bloop single to right that scored Ryan Walker from second with two outs.
\nTyrone, meanwhile, fanned six times in the first five innings, but managed to put together a pair of runs in the fourth to take the lead. Tyler Gillmen led off with a pop up to right that was dropped by Devore, stole second, and was driven in on a single by Levinson. Levinson would later score on an RBI single to right by Doug Morrow, giving Tyrone a 2-1 edge.
\nThe Eagles only other threat came in the sixth inning when Mike Moore, on with a fielder\u2019s choice, made it to third. With Morrow on first thanks to a Drew Peterson error at short, Tyrone tried to score at home on a delayed steal by Morrow. But Burkey never stopped his motion or stepped off the rubber, and Moore was tagged out at the plate on the delivery by catcher Tyler Hall.
\nThe Hornets then tied the game in the top of the sixth when Hall scored on an RBI single by Joe Basil. The run was unearned because in his at-bat Hall had popped up beside home plate in foul territory, but Stotler, fielding his first fly ball in catcher\u2019s gear, was unable to make the play.
\n\u201cIt was definitely a tough loss but we have to put it behind us,\u201d said Coleman. \u201cAnytime a game is that close you always have thoughts of what you could have done differently, but it\u2019s over now and we have to get ready to play Friday.\u201d
\nThe Eagles face Bishop Guilfoyle in the first round of the Altoona Curve Classic at Blair County Ballpark at 1 p.m.
\nGAME NOTES: Tyrone is hitting just .236 in its last two games \u2026 Tyrone led BG 5-0 earlier this season in a game at Tyrone that was suspended after two innings because of rain \u2026 Eagle pitchers have gone the distance in three of the last four games.
\n Juniata Valley 3 Tyrone 2
\nJUNIATA VALLEY \u2013 Lightner, 2b, 4-0-1; Peterson, ss, 3-0-0; Hall, c, 3-1-2; Basil, cf, 3-0-1; Borst, 1b, 3-0-1; Walker, 3b, 3-1-0; Burkey, p, 2-0-1; Musser, cr, 0-1-0; Boyd, dh, 3-0-0; Smith, lf, 0-0-0; Devore, rf, 3-1-0. TOTALS: 27-3-6.
\nTYRONE \u2013 Schopp, cf, 4-0-1; Golden 2b, 3-0-0; Gillmen, ss, 3-1-1; Stotler, 1b-c, 3-0-0; Levinson, p, 3-1-2; Brooks, 3b, 2-0-0; Mingle, ph, 1-0-0; Hertzler, dh, 1-0-0; Moore, rf, 1-0-0; Anders, c, 0-0-0; Hunter, ph, 1-0-1; Morrow, 1b, 2-0-1; Clark, lf, 2-0-0. TOTALS: 26-2-6.
\nJUNIATA VALLEY 010 001 1 \u2013 3-6-3
\nTYRONE 000 200 0 \u2013 2-6-2
\nRBI: Morrow, Levinson, Devore, Basil
\nSB: Hall 2, Schopp, Gillmen
\nE: Stotler 2, Peterson, Walker, Devore
\nSO: Burkey 8
\nBB: Burkey 1, Levinson 2
\nWP: Burkey LP: Levinson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyrone pitcher Jamie Levinson probably deserved better yesterday against Juniata Valley in his second start of the season. The junior put together the best start the Eagles\u2019 pitching staff had seen this season \u2013 a performance that a week ago when Tyrone was scoring 10 runs at a clip would have easily been enough for […]<\/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-41311","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\/41311","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=41311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}