The Bellwood-Antis baseball team fell back into a big season-long problem at Moshannon Valley on Thursday afternoon- the big inning.
Mo Valley sent nine hitters to the plate to bat around in back-to-back innings to score seven runs-four in the third inning and three more an inning later in an 8-1 win.
Bellwood-Antis has made a habit of breezing along and then suddenly falling apart. All but two of their nine opponents have had an inning where everybody in the lineup bats. Three teams have batted around in two separate innings. It hasn’t been pretty. No pitcher has been immune. The Bellwood-Antis coaching staff is scratching their heads and trying to come up with a solution. At this point, nothing is working.
Ernie Kelley went through the first two innings striking out four, and allowing only a harmless first-inning walk. Then the roof caved in, the wheels fell off-you can pick out your favorite idiom here, you get the picture. After Kelley struck out the first batter for his fifth straight strikeout, the next two batters reached base on errors. Kelley picked the first runner off first base, but he was safe in the rundown that followed. Mo Valley catcher Andy Mills rapped a solid single for the first hit off Kelley. The B-A lefty got what should have been the final out of the inning on an infield fly. Then when the Blue Devils should have been in the dugout getting ready to hit, Black Knight cleanup hitter P. J. Keith drilled a grand slam home run to give his teammates a 4-0 advantage.
In the fourth stanza, with Fred Dorman on the mound for B-A, three singles and a sacrifice fly scored two runs and a third scored as a result of yet another error. In the seventh, P. J. Keith scored an insurance run on the fourth error of the game by the Blue Devils after walking with one out.
The Blue Devils solo tally in the top of the third inning, which temporarily gave Bellwood-Antis a 1-0 lead, was unearned. L. J. Seidel reached on an error to open the third, but was forced at second by Brian Hostler for the first our. Hostler stole second base and scored when Mo Valley couldn’t field Andy Brisbin’s grounder.
Brisbin led the Blue Devils with a pair of singles in three at bats. Bellwood-Antis stranded a pair of runners in the first and seventh, but Paul Keith allowed only singles by Troy Brunner with one out in the fifth and Brisbin leading off the sixth in between.
In the first, Brisbin singled and Chris Alley walked with one gone. In the seventh, pinch hitter Chad Coho singled and Seidel doubled to put runners at second and third with two outs. In each of those situations, Keith got out of the inning with no trouble.
Bellwood-Antis (2-7) has three games at home next week, beginning with local rival Tyrone on Monday, Penns Valley on Wednesday and Everett on Friday. Each is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m.
Moshannon Valley 8 Bellwood-Antis 1
Bellwood-Antis – Hostler, ss, 4-1-0; Brisbin, 2b, 3-0-2; Kelley, p, 0-0-0; Winterstein, c, 0-0-0; Alley, dh, 2-0-0; Drost, 3b, 2-0-0; Dorman, p, 1-0-0; Beech, lf-3b, 2-0-0; McClellan, 1b, 2-0-0; Coho, ph, 1-0-1; DeArmitt, cf, 2-0-0; Kubarek, ph, 1-0-0; Brunner, c-lf, 2-0-0; Gonzales, ph, 1-0-0; Seidel, rf, 3-0-1. TOTALS 26-1-5.
Moshannon Valley – Pa. Keith, p, 4-2-2; Mills, c, 3-1-1; Welder, 1b, 3-1-1; P. J. Keith, cf, 2-2-1; Pataky, 3b, 3-0-0; Kephart, ss, 2-0-1; Murarik, rf, 3-0-0; Dudurich, rf, 0-0-0; Whited, lf, 0-0-0, Zapsky, lf, 0-0-0; Bellella, dh, 4-0-0; Dombrosky, 2b, 3-2-1. TOTALS 27-8-7.
2B: Seidel 1.
HR: P. J. Keith 1.
RBI: P. J. Keith 4, Mills 1, Welder 1.
SO: Kelley 5, Dorman 2, Pa. Keith 9.
BB: Kelley 3, Dorman 2, Pa. Keith 1.
WP: Pa. Keith LP: Kelley.
