Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Bellwood-Antis opened their baseball game at Williamsburg on Monday with three quick runs and the look of running away with the contest. Williamsburg however, had a few ideas about how the ballgame was going to go. The Blue Pirates scored three times to slice the deficit to a single tally and later scored a pair of unearned runs to knot the game at 5-5 until the very last inning.
Bellwood-Antis batted around, ending the game the same way they started, pounding out six hits and taking advantage of a pair of errors to score five runs in the top of the seventh. Williamsburg was able to score once, but B-A junior lefty Earnie Kelley got a strikeout and groundout to wrap up the 10-6 Bellwood-Antis victory.
Brandon Beech opened the game for the Blue Devils, but then got picked off first base and Justin Manning flied to center.
With two outs, Josh Kleinfelter walked and moved to second on a wild pitch. Kelley singled to score Kleinfelter with the first run of the game. Kelley stole second base, L. J. Seidel walked and Chad Coho doubled to score both Kelley and Seidel. Blaze Winterstein struck out, on a ball down in the dirt, but reached first when the Williamsburg catcher threw the ball away, with Coho scoring the fourth run of the frame.
The Pirates cut the lead to 4-3, beforee the Blue Devils added a run in the second to up their lead to 5-3. Beech singled with one out and scored when Williamsburg left fielder Drew Robley dropped Kleinfelter’s long fly ball.
Bellwood-Antis took their turn at throwing the ball around in the fifth, committing three errors to allow Williamsburg to score twice and tie the game 5-5.
The score remained the same until the seventh. Kleinfelter beat out an infield hit to start the Blue Devils’ big inning. Kelley singled and Seidel beat out a bunt to load the bases. Coho singled to center to drive in Kleinfelter and Kelley. Seidel scored from first when the ball got past the Blue Pirates’ center fielder and Coho went to third on the center fielder’s second error of the play. Justin Miller walked with one out, and after Miller stole second base, Jake Manning got Coho home with an RBI fielder’s choice. Beech rapped his third single of the game to score Miller.
\\With one more chance, Kelley limited Wiliamsburg to just one run for the 10-6 win.
Kelley gave up six runs, four earned in seven compete inning, striking out five and walking three.
Coho singled and doubled twice and drove in four runs, Beech had three hits and Justin Manning and Kelley each had two hits for Bellwood-Antis.
Drew Robley singled, doubled, scored three runs and Nick Rusich had two hits and two RBI to lead Williamsburg.
“I told the kids, they can’t wait around. That’s two games in a row we have waited until late in the game until we finally got some things going. You have to come out ready to play,” explained Bellwood-Antis head coach Steve Conlon. “Earnie did enough on the mound today to keep us in it. Chad Coho came up big with the bat a couple times and we were able to get a win.”
Blue Devil Notes: A battle for the lead in team batting average has suddenly flared up. Josh Kleinfelter, who has led the Blue Devils for most of the season, has encountered a mini-slump, but is still leading the team in hits and has a .385 (20-for-52) average. Earnie Kelley and Justin have both been red hot recently. Kelley has taken over the team lead with a .396 batting average (19-for-48), while Manning is just one at-bat away at .388 (19-for-49)…Manning has scored 20 runs, while Kleinfelter has 19 RBI and 16 runs scored and has 11 extra-base hits, and Kelley has 16 RBI….After allowing opponents to hit at a .331 clip in their first six games, the B-A pitching staff has cut that down to .289 limiting foes to just .236 over the last five games…. Bellwood-Antis (5-12) will play a MAC Division 3 game against Bishop Guilfoyle at Vets Field on Wednesday starting at 4 p.m. and then closes out their 2006 season by hosting Tyrone at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.
Bellwood-Antis 10 to Williamsburg 6
Bellwood-Antis – Beech, cf, 5-1-3; Ju. Manning, ss, 5-0-2; Kleinfelter, lf, 4-2-1; Kelley, p, 3-2-2; Seidel, 1b, 3-2-1; Coho, 3b, 4-2-3; Winterstein, c, 4-0-0; Mock, cr, 0-0-0; J. Miller, rf, 3-1-0; Ja. Manning, 3-0-0; Dougherty, ph, 1-0-0. TOTALS 32-10-12.
Williamsburg – N. Robley, rf, 3-0-1; A. Robley, lf, 4-3-2; Hoover, cf, 3-1-1; Ruscih, 3b, 4-1-2, Noye, cr-pr, 0-0-0; Young, ss, 2-1-0; Sheck, c, 2-0-1; Welch, c, 2-0-0; Shaffer, p, 3-0-0; Chamberlain, p, 0-0-0; Weyant, 2b, 3-0-0; Pearson, 1b, 3-0-0. TOTALS 29-6-7.
Bellwood-Antis 410 000 5 – 10-12-3.
Williamsburg 300 020 1 – 6- 7- 6.
2B: Coho 2, A. Robley, Hoover.
RBI: Coho 4, Beech, Kelley, Ja. Manning, Rusich 2, Hoover, Sheck.
SO: Kelley 5, Shaffer 3.
BB: Kelley 3, Shaffer 4.
WP: Kelley LP: Shaffer

By Rick