In a sport where nine players on a team fill a role at any given time, you wouldn\u2019t think it would be easy for individuals to impose their wills on an opponent as often happens in baseball.
\nBut you see it often: think of Reggie Jackson\u2019s 1977 October or Randy Johnson\u2019s World Series in 2001.
\nSo what was the impact of one individual on in the MAC Division III rematch between Bellwood-Antis and Tyrone yesterday at the Harry K. Sickler Sports complex, a reset of a game Tyrone won 17-3 in April?
\nIt was substantial, to put it mildly. Back from a shoulder injury that kept him from pitching until the latter weeks of the Blue Devils\u2019 season, senior Chris Alley did things B-A pitchers couldn\u2019t do against Tyrone\u2019s powerful lineup three weeks ago, not the least of which was get batters out. He fanned 12 Golden Eagle hitters in seven innings, walked only one and pitched six shutout frames to lead B-A to an 8-4 upset that eliminated Tyrone from contention in the MAC.
\nThe Devils improved to 5-13 overall and 2-7 in the MAC, while Tyrone dipped to 10-6 and 5-4.
\n\u201cWe got better pitching this time around, but lately we\u2019ve been playing better baseball,\u201d said B-A manager Steve Conlon. \u201cChris had some shoulder trouble earlier this year and he was out about three weeks. The trainer worked on some mechanics with him, and he\u2019s come back now and two games in a row pitched pretty well.\u201d
\nSo dominant was Alley through the first six innings, that Tyrone \u2013 a team averaging nine hits and 10 runs per game \u2013 managed to advance only two runners to second base and beyond. Part of it was poor decisions on the base paths, as three Eagles were picked off base, and part of it was Alley\u2019s ability to work ahead of batters and keep Tyrone hitters off balance.
\nTyrone had its leadoff hitter on board in the first, second, sixth and seventh innings, and only in the seventh did the Eagles bring him around to score. In the second inning, when a Tyler Gillmen double had runners on second and third with no outs, Alley forced an infield pop-up and struck out the last two batters to retire the side.
\n\u201cOffensively, we got into a struggle putting the ball in play,\u201d said Tyrone manager Tom Coleman. \u201cWe had too many strikeouts today and we need to bat better in the situational phase of the game.\u201d
\nBut while the Eagles\u2019 bats weren\u2019t what they have been, the game was in essence decided over the first two innings, and the problem wasn\u2019t Tyrone\u2019s sticks, but the gloves.
\nStarting pitcher Ben Gummo was knocked out of the game in the second inning after surrendering seven runs in an inning-and-two-thirds, but only two of the runs were earned as three errors opened the floodgates to a pair of big innings for the Blue Devils.
\nB-A scored four in the first \u2013 none of which were earned \u2013 and three more in the second to lead 7-0 before Tyrone had even brought its cleanup hitter to the plate.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s always big to come out and get a couple runs for a pitcher,\u201d Conlon said. \u201cWe were able to come out and get a couple in the first, and then we worked well from there.\u201d
\nGummo struggled a bit with his control early in the first, walking the first two batters of the game and then allowing a Brandon Beech bunt single to load the bases, but he was poised to get out of the inning without any damage after striking out Alley and getting Josh Kleinfelter to pop to third.
\nThat\u2019s when the wheels started to fall off for Tyrone. Chad Coho lined a two-hopper to second that was mishandled by Matt Morrissey, who hurried to get the throw to first but threw in the dirt. The error plated Tyler McClellan and Andy Brisbin.
\nFreddie Dorman walked and Kyle Drost then drove in Beech with a single to right, and Justin Manning walked with the bases loaded to bring home another, making it 4-0.
\nAfter Andy Brisbin led off the second with a double deep to the right-center gap, two more Tyrone errors led to three more B-A runs. The first came with one out when first baseman Clint Wilson misplayed a ball hit by Alley, and the second came when left fielder Jeremy Myers let a Kleinfelter single get past him. Kleinfelter and Dorman each had RBI in the inning as B-A went ahead 7-0.
\nBrandon Maceno came in with two down and went the rest of the way, scattering two hits and allowing just one run over the last five-and-a-third. It was the second time in two games the senior was called on early to shut down an opponent that was rallying, and in those 10 and two-thirds innings he has allowed only three runs.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s a competitor, through football and baseball,\u201d said Coleman. \u201cThis is the second time in a row he\u2019s come out and shut the other team down when they had a big lead. Hat\u2019s off to him.\u201d
\nTyrone scored four in the bottom of the seventh \u2013 one on an RBI single by Morrissey and three on a Brice Mertiff three-run homer – but Alley whiffed three in the frame to seal the Devils\u2019 win.
\nMertiff finished 4-for-4 with three singles to go along with his third round-tripper.
\n Bellwood-Antis 8 Tyrone 4
\nBELLWOOD-ANTIS \u2013 McClellan, cf-rf, 4-1-0; Brisbin, 2b, 2-2-2; Beech, rf, 3-1-1; DeArmitt, cf, 1-0-0; Alley, p, 4-1-0; Kleinfelter, lf, 3-1-0; Coho, 1b, 4-1-1; Winterstein, c, 0-0-0; Dorman, dh, 1-1-0; Drost, ss, 3-0-2; Manning, 3b, 3-0-0. TOTALS: 28-8-4.
\nTYRONE \u2013 Mertiff, ss, 4-1-4; Mingle, rf, 4-0-1; Wilson, 1b, 3-0-0; Soellner, c, 2-0-0; Levinson, cr-cf, 1-0-0; Gillmen, 3b, 2-0-1; Stotler, ph, 1-1-1; Gummo, p-lf, 2-0-0; Graham, ph, 1-1-1; Maceno, cf-p, 2-0-1; Rodgers, ph, 1-0-0; Morrissey, 2b, 1-1-1; Golden, 2b, 2-0-0; Myers, lf, 0-0-0; Clark, cf, 2-0-0. TOTALS: 28-4-9.
\nBELLWOOD-ANTIS 430 010 0 \u2013 8-4-0
\nTYRONE 000 000 4 \u2013 4-9-3
\n2B: Gillmen, Brisbin.
\nHR: Mertiff.
\nRBI: Kleinfelter, Dorman, Drost, Manning, Mertiff 3, Morrissey.
\nSO: Alley 12, Gummo 3, Maceno 4.
\nBB: Alley 1, Gummo 5, Maceno 4.
\nWP: Alley LP: Gummo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a sport where nine players on a team fill a role at any given time, you wouldn\u2019t think it would be easy for individuals to impose their wills on an opponent as often happens in baseball. But you see it often: think of Reggie Jackson\u2019s 1977 October or Randy Johnson\u2019s World Series in 2001. […]<\/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-42965","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\/42965","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=42965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}