Jason Wilson may be the Tyrone Legion’s fifth starter, but on Saturday he proved he’s just as tough on the opposition as anyone on Tyrone’s deep pitching staff. Wilson tossed a complete game yielding only three hits and one unearned run in five innings leading Tyrone to a 3-1 win. After the bottom of the fifth was completed, a heavy rainstorm left the field flooded, and because the game had went the required five innings it was considered complete giving Tyrone (4-2) the win.
The rain ended what had been a well played game between Sheetz and Tyrone up to that point. Sheetz got a leadoff walk in the top of the first from Sam Modico who stole second base, and moved to third after a one-out single by Matt Massaro. The threat was nullified by a great throw by catcher Derrick Soellner to throw out Massaro attempting to steal second, and pitcher Jason Wilson who struck out clean-up hitter Jeremaigh Champeno with a man on third to end the inning.
Tyrone took advantage of a Sheetz mistake to take the lead in the bottom of the first. With one out, Nick Friling hit a sinking line drive to Sheetz left fielder Jordan Dillen, and the ball slipped out of his glove to give the Legion their first base runner. Ben Gummo singled to move Friling to second, and with two outs Soellner hurt Sheetz again with an RBI single to plate Friling.
After Wilson retired Sheetz quickly in the top of the second, the Tyrone bats went back to work in the bottom of the inning. Wilson led off with a sharp single to left field, and he moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Nick Cushion. After a ground out moved Wilson to third, Sheetz pitcher Jeremaigh Champeno begin to lose control. He walked Barry Gummo, and after Gummo stole second Champeno threw two wild pitches to score both Wilson and Gummo. After two innings the score was 3-0 Tyrone.
Wilson cruised through the third and fourth giving up only one walk. However in the top of the fifth, Sheetz turned the table on Tyrone and took advantage of a Legion mistake to get on the scoreboard. Pinch hitter Chad Tragon reached on an error, and moved to third on a single by Modico. Sheetz second baseman Jared Pufka drove in Tragon with an RBI ground out, and Modico moved to third. Nick Cushion ended the Sheetz threat by fielding a hard hit grounder and tossing a one hop throw to first that Nick Friling made an excellent scoop on for the third out.
In the bottom of the fifth, Ben Gummo reached first with a two-out single and stole second. He moved to third on a wild pitch, but would get no farther as Andy Garofoli popped out to shortstop for the third out. The final out of the fifth inning was accompanied by the severe rainstorm that sent everyone running for the dugouts. The storm lasted only minutes, but was enough to flood the infield and close the book on the game giving Tyrone the 3-1 victory.
Despite winning the game, Tyrone continues to struggle getting base hits. They had only four Saturday with Ben Gummo collecting two of them, and have only six in their last two games. Coach John Harlow said after the game, “Even though we haven’t been getting a lot of hits, today we got them when we needed them.”
Tyrone 13 Locker Room 4
Fresh from a 3-1 win over Sheetz on Saturday with Jason Wilson tossing a complete-game two-hit win, the Tyrone Legion team made it two for the weekend by pounding Locker Room 13-4 at Hollidaysburg on Sunday afternoon.
Sunday, it was Brandon Maceno’s turn to excel on the mount for the Tyrone George B. Kelley Federation club. Brandon pitched four innings, allowing two runs on three hits with one strikeout and one walk. Rick Friling and Tyler Mertiff finished up with Friling pitching one inning and Mertiff two.
Leadoff hitter Barry Gummo banged out three hits, including a pair of two-run singles for a total of four RBIs. Andy Garofoli added three hits, including a double and knocked in three runs. Justin Clark scored three times and Garofoli and Matt Germino each scored twice.
Locker Room was led by Marcus Glover and Adam Krug with two hits each, while Brandon Marasco scored twice. Glover had their only extra-base hit, a third-inning double that scored Krug and Marasco to temporarily slice the Tyrone Legion lead to a single run, 3-2.
Both teams had trouble with control at times. Locker Room scored two runs in the fifth inning on four walks, a single and a fielder’s choice. Tyrone Legion scored six times in the fourth, with five of the six runners who scored getting on base on walks. Tyrone pitchers combined to walk six hitters, Locker Room issued eight bases on balls.
The Tyrone Legion defense turned two double plays. In the second inning, with one out and Krug on first, shortstop Tyler Mertiff gloved a ground ball moving toward second base, touched the bag and threw to first baseman Nick Cushion for the twin killing. In the sixth, Cushion, then playing third, grabbed a one hopper to start an around the horn DP, Cushion to second baseman Brandon Maceno to first baseman Rick Friling.
“We hit the ball well today,” said Tyrone Legion manager John Harlow. “Brandon Maceno pitched solid. The key to this team is pitching and defense. We don’t have a lot of power. We have to play small ball. Little singles, take our walks, which is something we hadn’t done much before today, steal bases and play for one run at a time. We took a lot of walks today. Pitching and defense, we made a couple errors, but they were in situations where we had big leads so it didn’t really hurt us and we turned two double plays. Having Tyler back really jells this team. With everybody back, or nearly everybody, we can play people in their usual positions. Brandon Maceno is a second baseman, last week he had to play shortstop. We had a nice effort today. The kids played hard, didn’t do anything goofy and played good fundamentally.”
Tyrone Legion (5-2) travels to Bellwood to play Martin Oil (0-0) at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
Legion Notes: Although the bats have been slumping recently, four of the normal starters (Barry Gummo, Nick Friling, Ben Gummo, and Tyler Mertiff) are hitting at least .400 on the season. Tyrone is 5-2 with one game incomplete. They are tied with ReMax 4-4 in the top of the ninth in that incomplete game…. Through those eight games, Andy Garofoli leads the team with 14 RBIs and has the Legion’s only home run. Barry Gummo leads the team in runs scored with 10…. Jason Wilson has yet to give up an earned run in seven innings pitched this year.
Saturday
Tyrone Legion 3 Sheetz 1
TYRONE- Ba. Gummo, cf, 2-1-0; Friling, 1b, 2-1-0; Be. Gummo, ss, 3-0-2; Garofoli, lf, 3-0-0; Soellner, c, 2-0-1; Tremmel, rf, 2-0-0; Wilson, p, 2-1-1; Cushion, 3b, 1-0-0; Maceno, 2b, 2-0-0. TOTALS 19-4-4.
SHEETZ- Modico, cf, 1-0-1; Pufka, 2b, 3-0-0; Massaro, ss, 3-0-1; Champeno, p, 2-0-0; Nail, 1b, 2-0-0; Dillen, lf-3b, 2-0-0; Rhoa, c, 2-0-1; Massar, rf, 2-0-0; Greaser, 3b, 1-0-0; Tragon, cr-lf, 1-1-0. TOTALS 19-1-3.
Sheetz 000 01 1-3-1
Tyrone Legion 120 00 3-4-2
RBI: Soellner 1, Pufka 1.
SO: Ba. Gummo 1, Be. Gummo 1, Modico 1.
SO: Wilson 4, Champeno 5.
BB: Wilson 2, Champeno 2.
WP: Wilson LP:Champeno
Sunday
Tyrone Legion 13 Locker Room 4
TYRONE LEGION – Ba. Gummo, cf, 5-1-3; Friling, 1b-p, Mertiff, ss-p, 4-1-0; Be. Gummo, 3b-ss, 4-2-1; Maceno, p-2b, 3-0-1; Clark, cr-ph, 1-3-0; Soellner, c, 2-1-1; Garofoli, lf, 4-2-3; Cushion, 2b-1b-3b, 3-0-1; Wilson, rf, 3-0-2; Germino, cr-rf, 1-2-0. TOTALS 32-13-13.
LOCKER ROOM – Harris, p, 1-0-0; Marasco, cr, 0-2-0; Smith, p-1b, 0-0-0; Duraso, ph-lf, 2-0-1; Glover, 1b-p, 4-0-2; Lonero, 3b, 3-1-0; Diehl, cf, 3-0-0; Shaffer, rf, 3-0-1; Cala, 2b, 3-0-0; Michael, ss, 3-0-0; Krug, lf-1b, 3-1-2; Clawson, c, 2-0-0. TOTALS 27-4-6.
Tyrone Legion 032 620 0 13-13-4.
Locker Room 002 020 0 4-6-3.
2B: Garofoli 1, Glover 1.
RBI: Ba. Gummo 4, Garofoli 3, Cushion 2, Be. Gummo 1, Soellner 1, Maceno 1, Glover 2, Diehl 1.
SO: Maceno 1, Mertiff 2, Harris 1.
BB: Maceno 1, Friling 4, Mertiff 1, Harris 2, Smith 4, Glover 2.
WP: Ba. Gummo LP: Harris.
