Two things happened for the Tyrone Golden Eagles yesterday that had to have them thinking it was their day.
\nSecond baseman Mike Moore homered as the Eagles\u2019 No. 2 hitter and catcher Chris Decker belted a round tripper from the nine-hole, giving Tyrone its first two home runs this season.
\nThe problem was that the surprising productivity didn\u2019t permeate the rest of the line up. The Golden Eagles managed only six other hits and 1 RBI in a 4-3, extra-inning loss to Juniata Valley in Alexandria.
\nThe Green Hornets won it in the bottom of the ninth when shortstop Drew Peterson, who finished 3-for-5 with a run, singled up the middle off reliever Johnny Shaffer with two outs, plating Ben Mohnkern.
\nThe run not only delivered Tyrone its eighth loss of the season, but it also spoiled one of the Eagles\u2019 strongest pitching performances in recent memory. Senior Matt Brooks started and gave up three earned runs without walking a batter, pitching into the eighth inning. He exited in favor of Shaffer, who closed out the eighth before surrendering the game-winner in the ninth.
\n“He deserved to win,” said Tyrone manager Dustin Schoening. “He pitched a heck of a game. Pitching and defensively, we\u2019re right there. We\u2019ve just got to find it offensively.”
\nBrooks\u2019 only mistake came in the bottom of the third inning when he gave up a two-out home run to second baseman Tyler Lalli that gave Valley the lead, 3-2. Aside from the one hiccup, Brooks was solid, and got stronger as the game went on. Over the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, he threw only 16 pitches \u2013 seven in the fifth, five in the sixth and four in the seventh \u2013 allowing him to continue on the hill into the extra frames.
\nIn truth, he was matched every step of the way by Hornet starter Zack Boyd, who allowed eight hits over eight innings, walking one and striking out five, before being pulled for the ninth in favor of Ethan Devore.
\n“Give them credit,” Schoening said. “They kept coming and their pitcher kept us off balance. We needed clutch hitting. It\u2019s not that we aren\u2019t hitting the ball. We hit it hard. But as far as clutch hits \u2013 it wasn\u2019t happening.”
\nTo Schoening\u2019s point \u2013 over the last four innings, with the game knotted 3-3, the Golden Eagles managed just a single hit.
\nIn the third, after Decker\u2019s homer gave Tyrone a 2-1 lead, the Eagles were poised to break the game open, putting runners on second and third with one out. But Brooks and Doug Rudy struck out in back-to-back plate appearances to end the threat and kill the momentum.
\n“We\u2019re getting guys in the right situations, but we haven\u2019t been able to get that big hit,” said Schoening.
\nThe one time the Eagles did produce a clutch hit allowed them to tie the game after falling behind by a run. In the fifth, Aaron Cunningham legged out an infield single and advanced to second on a errant throw by Terry Musser. One out later, Shaffer singled up the middle to bring Cunningham home and tie it at 3-3.
\nTyrone jumped to an early lead when Moore jumped on the first offering he saw from Boyd, depositing it over the fence in left for his first career home run. Valley answered in the bottom of the frame when Peterson doubled and scored on a pick-off move by Brooks that went into centerfield.
\nDecker\u2019s home run \u2013 his first varsity hit \u2013 made it 2-1 before Lalli\u2019s shot gave Valley the lead back.
\nJUNIATA VALLEY 4 TYRONE 3
\nTYRONE \u2013 Cunningham, cf, 4-1-2; Moore, 2b, 3-1-1; Shaffer, 1b-p, 4-0-2; Brooks, p-3b, 4-0-0; Rudy, ss, 4-0-1; Taylor, dh, 4-0-0; Hoover, 3b, 0-0-0; Hunter, lf, 4-0-1; Loose, rf, 2-0-0; Brush, 2-0-0; Decker, c, 3-1-1. TOTALS: 34-3-8.
\nJUNIATA VALLEY \u2013 Peterson, ss, 5-1-3; Lalli, 2b, 4-1-1; Devore, 1b-p, 4-0-1; Boyd, p-1b, 4-0-1; Myers, lf, 4-0-0; R. Musser, lf, 0-0-0; T. Musser, 3b, 4-0-1; Mohnkern, rf, 4-1-2; McCrum, c, 4-0-0; Johnson, cf, 3-2-1. TOTALS: 36-4-10.
\nTYRONE 101 010 000 \u2013 3-8-2
\nJUNIATA VALLEY 102 000 001 \u2013 4-10-1
\nE: Cunningham, Brooks, T. Musser
\nHR: Moore, Decker, Lalli
\n2B: Cunningham, Peterson, Mohnkern
\nRBI: Moore, Decker, Shaffer, Lalli 2, Peterson
\nSO: Boyd 5, Devore 1, Shaffer 1, Brooks 4.
\nBB: Boyd 1, Shaffer 1
\nWP: Devore LP: Shaffer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two things happened for the Tyrone Golden Eagles yesterday that had to have them thinking it was their day. Second baseman Mike Moore homered as the Eagles\u2019 No. 2 hitter and catcher Chris Decker belted a round tripper from the nine-hole, giving Tyrone its first two home runs this season. The problem was that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","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=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}