The Bellwood-Antis baseball team has played it’s best baseball against the toughest teams on the schedule. This trend continued on Tuesday at Bellwood, when the Blue Devils, playing through scattered showers, came from behind to score four times in the fifth inning and then held on for a slim 4-3 victory over a veteran Moshannon Valley.
A disarming situation continued also for Bellwood-Antis, which has head coach Steve Conlon groping for answers. B-A left five runners stranded on the bases, including having the bases loaded in the first inning with one out, and getting runners to second and third again with one out in the third inning. In each situation, the Blue Devils failed to get a single score.
Senior right-hander Ryan Rhoades pitched through a bit of a control problem for the Blue Devils, walking five batters, but made only two bad pitches in six innings for Bellwood-Antis to pick up the win. Rhoades struck out three and scattered five hits.
In the second inning, Rhoades walked Mo Valley starting pitcher Andrew Mills to begin the frame. Steve Holencik took the first mistake Rhoades made to deep left field for a double that moved Mills to third base. Steve Rebo followed with a sacrifice fly to score Mills.
Then in the third, Rhoades again walked the first batter Scott Godin and then wild pitched him to second base for his second mistake. Matt Godin singled up the middle to score Scott Godin with the second run of the ballgame to give the Knights a 2-0 advantage.
As Bellwood-Antis came up to bat in the bottom of the fifth, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The Blue Devils also turned up the intensity scoring four runs to jump into a 4-2 lead over the once beaten Knights.
Andy Brisbin, who reached base all four times he came to the plate, received the second of his three walks to go with a first-inning single. Chris Alley, who walked twice and had a sacrifice, doubled to put runners on second and third. Shawn Weiand slammed the Blue Devils second straight double to score both runners to tie the score with still nobody out.
Following a ground out, Nick Treese and Tyler McClellan walked. Moshannon Valley changed pitchers with Steve Holencik walking Troy Brunner to load the bases. Adam DeArmitt looped a single to right to score Treese and McClellan with what would be the winning runs.
Mo Valley scored a run in the top of the seventh to edge to within one run 4-3.
Rhoades walked Matt Godin and was replaced by McClellan. Paul Hawkins doubled to put runners at second and third and Matt Belella reached base on an infield single off Treese’s glove to score Godin. McClellan turned it up a notch to get a pair of short pop outs. With two down and runners at first and third, Conlon brought in Troy Brunner to face Holencik, who had walked, singled and doubled. Brunner won this encounter, getting Holencik to hit a one-hopper to shortstop Chris Alley who turned it into a force play at second base for the final out of the game.
“Ryan Rhoades kept us in the game,” said Conlon. “He pitched a good game for a kid who hasn’t pitched that many innings for us this year. We finally got the timely hitting on offense. We got some guys on and Shawn came up with a big hit and Adam DeArmitt came up with another big hit that we finally needed to get a win.”
The Blue Devils have played six games now that have been decided by two runs or less, winning three and losing three to this point. Moshannon Valley slips to 6-2 on the season.
Bellwood-Antis (5-4) travels to Spring Mills for a game with Penns Valley this afternoon. The first pitch is set for 4:30 p.m.
Bellwood-Antis 4 Moshannon Valley 3
MOSHANNON VALLEY – S. Godin, 2b, 2-1-0; M. Godin, 1b, 3-1-1; Hawkins, c, 4-0-2; Hayward, cr, 0-0-0; Belella, cf, 4-0-1; Pa. Keith, ss, 0-0-0; Stine, dh, 4-0-1; Mills, p, 2-1-0; Pataky, 3b, 1-0-0; Holencik, 3b-p, 3-0-2; P. J. Keith, rf, 3-0-0; Rebo, lf, 1-0-0; Welder, ph, 1-0-0. TOTALS 28-3-7.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Brisbin, 2b, 1-1-1; Alley, ss, 1-1-1, Weiand, c, 3-0-1; Rhoades, p, 0-0-0, Coho, 1b, 0-0-0; Albright, dh, 1-0-0; Drost, dh, 2-0-0; Treese, 3b, 3-1-0; McClellan, 1b-p-lf, 1-1-0; Brunner, lf-p, 1-0-0; DeArmitt, cf, 3-0-1; Beech, rf, 3-0-0. TOTALS 19-4-4.
Moshannon Valley 011 000 1 3-7-0.
Bellwood-Antis 000 040 X 4-4-3.
2B: MV- Hawkins 1, Holencik 1, BA- Weiand 1, Alley 1.
RBI: MV- M. Godin 1, Belella 1, Rebo 1, BA- Weiand 2, DeArmitt 2.
SO: MV- Mills 4, Holencik 1, BA- Rhoades 3.
BB: MV- Mills 8, Holencik 3, BA- Rhoades 5.
WP: Rhoades LP: Mills SV: Brunner
