Penns Valley rallied for a pair of runs in the sixth inning against Bellwood-Antis at Spring Mills on Wednesday afternoon, then scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to post a 5-4 victory over the Blue Devils.
Both teams came into the contest with only five wins. Penns Valley scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first and Ram pitcher Andy Weaver made that stand through the first four innings.
In the top of the fifth, Bellwood-Antis, which had stranded six runners over the first four innings, finally got a clutch hit and a Penns Valley error allowed two more runs to score.
The Blue Devils took a 3-2 lead, when Adam DeArmitt started the fifth with a walk. With one out, Tyler McClellan singled to put runners at first and second. After Weaver picked up a strikeout for the second out of the inning, shortstop Chris Alley singled to right to drive in DeArmitt to get the Blue Devils on the scoreboard. Penns Valley shortstop Andy Foor made a great stop on a grounder by Chad Coho, but then threw the ball away allowing both McClellan and Alley to score to give Bellwood-Antis the advantage.
An inning later, the Blue Devils added another tally. DeArmitt singled with one out and Blaze Winterstein collected his first varsity hit to drive in DeArmitt with a two-out single.
Down 4-2, Penns Valley, which had been stifled by McClellan on two hits over four and 2/3 innings in relief of starter Kyle Drost, finally were able to figure the senior B-A lefty out. Josh Kieffer beat out an infield single and after McClellan recorded a fly out and strikeout, Jason Homan walked. Designated hitter Norman Wenrick, hitting for Ram pitcher Weaver, drilled a two-out double, his second two-bagger of the game to score both Kieffer and Homan to tie the score 4-4, at the end of six frames.
In the seventh inning, after Bellwood-Antis went down without getting a runner past second base, Penns Valley struck for the game winner on a sacrifice by Josh Hull. Steve Alterio led off the inning with a double to deep center. Foor bunted him over to second and was safe at first when nobody covered first base. With runners at second and third after Foor stole second base, Hull lifted a fly ball to right field that got Alterio home with the winning run.
“We are playing good baseball, but right now, we can’t seem to get a key hit or make a key play in the field to stop giving up runs.” said Bellwood-Antis coach Steve Conlon. “Tyler McClellan threw really well today, it was a shame he had to loss the game, but we couldn’t score runs when we needed them.”
Penns Valley took advantage of a Blue Devil error, one hit and two walks to score twice in the first. Just one of the runs was earned.
Bellwood-Antis completes their season 5-15 overall and 2-8 in the MAC Division 3. The Blue Devils lost 11 of their first 13 games, including dropping nine ballgames by at least eight or more runs, but recovered to win three of the final six games and lost the other three by only one run each.
Penns Valley 5 Bellwood-Antis 4
Bellwood-Antis – Gonzales, rf, 1-0-0; Kleinfelter, lf, 3-0-0; McClellan, lf-p-rf, 2-1-1; Drost, p, 1-0-1; Winterstein, 3b, 3-0-1; Brunner, p, 0-0-0; Alley, ss, 4-1-1; Coho, 1b, 4-0-1; Dorman, c, 2-0-1; Kelley, cr, 0-0-0; Beech, 3b-lf-rf; 4-0-2; Justin Manning, 2b, 4-0-0; DeArmitt, cf, 2-2-1. TOTALS 30-4-9.
Penns Valley – S. Alterio, lf, 4-1-1; Foor, ss, 2-1-1; Hull, cf, 3-1-0; Jo. Kieffer, 3b, 2-1-1; D. Alterio, c, 3-0-1; Ja. Kieffer, 1b, 3-0-0; Homan, 2b, 2-1-0; Weaver, p, 0-0-0; Wenrick, dh, 3-0-2; Myers, rf, 2-0-0; Brubaker, rf, 1-0-0. TOTALS 25-5-6.
Bellwood-Antis 000 031 0 4-9-2.
Penns Valley 200 002 1 5-6-1.
2B: Wenrick 2, S. Alterio.
RBI: Winterstein, Alley, Hull 2, Wenrick 2, D. Alterio.
SO: McClellan 11, Weaver 4.
BB: Drost 2, McClellan 2, Weaver 5.
WP: Weaver LP: McClellan
