The hits were even at four each when the Bellwood-Antis-Penns Valley baseball game was over on Monday evening. The only trouble was that Penns Valley handled the Blue Devils 7-1 at Bellwood’s Stadium Drive Field.
Or perhaps it could be said, that Bellwood-Antis mishandled the game committing three errors and B-A pitching walked seven Ram batters and hit two more with pitches. It was not a pretty sight to say the least. Four of the Penns Valley runners who scored reached base on walks and a fifth got on board on a error. One of the runs scored came home when Penns Valley hitter Matt Brubaker was issued a base on balls with the bases already loaded.
Brubaker was the biggest thorn in the Blue Devils side with three RBIs, but B-A did most of the damage walking him twice and hitting him with a pitch. Brubaker slammed a two-run homer in the fourth scoring Josh Hull in front of him. Hull had reached base on an error.
Following an unearned run by Penns Valley in the top of the first inning, Bellwood-Antis came right back to tie the score. After Ram pitcher Matt Smith had fanned the first two batters in the B-A lineup, returning veteran Shawn Weiand lofted a one ball pitch well beyond the left field fence for a game tying home run. Designated hitter Matt Albright followed with a double to right center, but Smith got his third “K” of the inning to nip any further threat right there.
Smith struck out the side in each of the first, third and fifth innings, totaling 13 whiffs in all, while allowing just two more hits to pick up the victory.
L. J. Seidel beat out an infield single in the bottom of the second and Chris Alley popped a short fly ball that fell in between three fielders for a bloop single in the seventh for the only hits Smith allowed after the first inning.
Freshman Ernie Kelley was one bright spot for the Blue Devils. Kelley relieved B-A starter Chris Alley with two down in the second and tossed four and one/third innings, giving up three runs, just one earned on two hits, fanning three and walking a pair. Senior Ryan Rhoades tossed a scoreless, one-two-three seventh inning for Bellwood-Antis, getting a groundout and two flyouts.
“It seems like he (Ernie Kelley) is going to be a pretty good pitcher for us this year,” Bellwood-Antis Steve Conlon. “He comes in, that’s twice now he’s thrown. He throws strikes, nothing seems to faze him. Hopefully we can keep him going, keep his arm good and get some more innings out of him this year.”
Doug Leitch drove in two runs for Penns Valley with a pair of singles. Penns Valley had a total of 17 base runners during the game, while Bellwood-Antis had nine.
“You walk guys and make some defensive blunders out there, it leads to runs,” lamented Conlon. “They made the plays defensively and their pitcher had a lot of strikeouts so we didn’t get the ball in play. Today they were the better team.”
Bellwood-Antis (1-1) has only one day to heal their wounds, then travel on Wednesday for a game at Mount Union with the first pitch set for 4:15 p.m.
Blue Devil notes: The Blue Devils will not complete the game rained out at Glendale with B-A leading 10-1 after three complete innings, since the two schools only appear on each other’s 2004 schedule once, since they are in different divisions of the new Mountain Athletic Conference (MAC).
Penns Valley 7 Bellwood-Antis 1
PENNS VALLEY – Foor, 2b, 3-1-0; Hull, c, 4-2-1; Brubaker, cf, 1-2-1; Leitch, 1b, 4-0-2; Smith, p, 3-0-0; Wert, lf, 4-0-0; Black, 3b, 4-0-0; Homan, ss, 2-0-0; Glasgow, rf, 1-2-0. TOTALS 26-7-4.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Brisbin, 2b, 3-0-0; McClellan, 1b, 2-0-0; Weiand, c, 3-1-1; Rhoades, ss-p, 0-0-0; Kelley, p, 0-0-0; Albright, dh. 3-0-1; Brunner, lf, 2-0-0; Luke, lf, 1-0-0; Alley, p-ss, 3-0-1; Treese, 3b, 2-0-0; Seidel, rf, 3-0-1; DeArmitt, cf, 3-0-0. TOTALS 25-1-4.
Penns Valley 130 201 0 7-4-2.
Bellwood-Antis 100 000 0 1-4-3.
2B: BA- Albright 1.
HR: PV- Brubaker 1, BA- Weiand 1.
RBI: PV- Brubaker 3, Leitch 2, BA- Weiand 1.
SO: PV- Smith 13, BA- Alley 1, Kelley 3.
BB: PV- Smith 2, BA- Alley 5, Kelley 2.
WP: Smith LP: Alley
