Martin Oil downed Hoss’s 11-1 last Thursday, limiting the Hollidaysburg entry in the George B. Kelley Federation to just a first-inning score. A week later, Martin Oil jumped out in front 1-0 and 4-1, but they kept falling asleep, allowing Hoss’s to keep coming back, tying the score with a tally in the bottom of the first and then again with three more in the third.
The forces of Martin Oil manager Ed Davis picked that point to wake up. Martin Oil put five runs on the board in the top of the fourth and the game was for all intents, over from that point on, with Hoss’s merely going through the motions.
Martin Oil scored five times on just one hit, turning four walks, a passed ball and three wild pitches into a gold mine. The Bellwood-Antis based club stayed on the offensive, adding two scores in the sixth and four more in the seventh to win going away to improve their Kelley Federation record to 9-4.
Dustin Harris belted a three-ball-two strike pitch over the fence in left field to begin the contest, for his first home run of the year and a quick 1-0 advantage.
Luke Harella doubled to kick off the Hoss’s first and scored on a single by A. J. Beerbower to knot the score.
In the second, Martin Oil tallied three runs. Chris McDaniel bunted and went all the way to third base when the ball was thrown down the right field line. Harris got McDaniel home with a sacrifice fly to give Martin Oil a 2-1 lead. Earnie Kelley walked and Chris Alley ripped a double to put runners at second and third. Both scored on an error on a Troy Brunner bouncer.
Hoss’s got those three runs right back in the third. Ryan Conway bunted for a base hit and scored on a sac fly by Alex Marchi. Harella scored on an error and Beerbower scored on a wild pitch.
From that point on, Earnie Kelley shut down the home team on two hits and no runs over the final four innings. Kelley picked up the victory, going the distance, with 11 strikeouts and no walks.
“Earnie pitched a beautiful game today,” said Davis. “We didn’t give him all the support on defense in the first couple innings, but he just bore down and did the job, refusing to let it get to him. I believe his 11 strikeouts are the best for our pitchers this year. Pitching has been one of our strongest points all year and Earnie gave us another strong performance out there today.”
The defense did come through when they had to. Martin Oil catcher Troy Brunner threw out two runners attempting to steal and Kelley helped himself by picking off a third runner.
Brunner opened the sixth inning with a double to left and Chris McDaniel singled up the middle with two outs to score him. Chad Coho walked, stole second base and eventually scored on a wild pitch.
Finally in the seventh, Martin Oil batted around, sending 10 batters to the plate to score four more runs. Harris was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a single by Kelley. Kelley moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch and then while Chris Alley was receiving a walk came home on a wild pitch. Alley came home on three more wild pitches. Zach Tomchick walked and moved around to third on a wild pitch and balk and then scored on a groundout by Coho. Aaron Geis, McDaniel and Cory DeArmitt all walked to load the bases, but Matt Caputo re-entered the game to get Harris on a fly out to end the inning.
“On offense, we were able to take advantage of what Sheetz gave us and add some timely hits of our own,” said Davis. “Our front four in the batting order had two hits each for us tonight. Dustin Harris and Earnie Kelley have both been on a real hot streak lately. Chris Alley started real slow for us, he was only hitting in the .150s for awhile, but has brought that average back up around .300 now. Troy Brunner has been a real plus for us, playing all the infield positions, plus pitching and catching and doing the job at bat too. We are finally starting to get some of our players back and have gotten a couple new kids too, to help us get through this period where we play so many games in a row. We still have a long way to go.”
Game Notes: Chad Coho walked on each of his first four trips to the plate….Kelley fanned a total of 11 batters, but only struck out one batter twice….Harris, Kelley and Alley each scored three times….Alley hit his team-leading seventh double of the season, his first five hits were all two-baggers…Kelley continued his hot streak (seven-for-13, .538 in his last four games) to raise his season average to .405….Martin Oil (9-4) will play McMullen Furniture on Saturday at Juniata at 5 p.m. and return home to host Corporal Miller at 2 p.m. on Sunday
Martin Oil 15 Hoss’s 4
Martin Oil – Harris, 5-3-2; Kelley, p, 3-3-2; Alley, ss, 4-3-2; Brunner, c, 5-2-2; Tomchick, rf, 2-1-0; Coho, 1b, 1-2-0; Miller, 2b, 3-0-0; Geis, 2b, 1-0-0; McDaniel, lf, 3-1-1; Dougherty, 3b, 3-0-0; DeArmitt, 3b, 1-0-0. TOTALS 31-15-9.
Hoss’s – Harella, 2b, 4-2-2; Beerbower, 3b-rf, 2-1-2; Walkup, rf, 1-0-0, Marchi, ss, 2-0-1; Caputo, lf-p, 3-0-0; Smith, lf-p, 0-0-0; Winbush, c, 1-0-0; Barroner, c, 1-0-0; Marasco, p-cf, 3-0-1; Supp, cf, 1-0-0; D. Miller, p, 2-0-0; Baird, cr-lf, 0-0-0; Sagaites, 1b, 2-0-0; Holsinger, ph, 1-0-0; Conway, rf-3b, 2-1-1. TOTALS 24-4-7.
Martin Oil 130 502 4 15-9-1.
Hoss’s 103 000 0 4-7-5.
2B: Alley 1, Brunner 1, Harella 1.
3B: Marchi 1.
HR: Harris 1.
RBI: Harris 2, Brunner 2, Kelley 1, Tomchick 1, Coho 1, McDaniel 1, Beerbower 1, Marchi 1.
SO: Kelley 11, Marasco 4, Miller 3.
BB: Marasco 6, Miller 3, Smith 4.
WP: Kelley LP: Marasco
