The Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils (2-0) opened their home season on Wednesday afternoon by downing Claysburg-Kimmel 8-2.
The Blue Devils pounded out 15 hits and senior right-hander Nate Carlson limited Claysburg to one unearned run in five innings on the mound.
Each team pushed across a run in the first inning. Then Carlson held Claysburg scoreless on three hits over the next four innings, while Bellwood-Antis scored three times in the second and fourth innings and added a single tally in the fifth.
Josh Lingenfelter singled with two outs to start a first-inning rally for the Bulldogs in the top of the inning. Daniel Ebersole’s single to right sent Lingenfelter scurrying to third base. A minute later a high throw got away at first that allowed Lingenfelter to score an unearned run to give Claysburg the early lead.
Bellwood-Antis came right back with an unearned score of its own to tie the game. Ricky Shannon walked to lead off the Blue Devil first, and stole second base. Zach Stere dropped a bunt down the first base line with Shannon going to third. Stere beat the throw out for an infield hit and when the throw got away from the second baseman covering the bag, Shannon continued home to tie the score.
An inning later, Carlson opened the at bat with a single to left. Claysburg pitcher Jonathan Furry threw wild trying to pick courtesy runner Chris Alley off first base, sending him to second. With two outs, Alley came home on a wild pitch to give B-A a 2-1 advantage. Ryan Myers singled to right, stole second base and scored on a single by Shannon, who had a perfect day at the plate with two walks, a single, double, two stolen bases and three runs scored. Stere bounced a ball right in front of home plate and beat it out for his second infield hit of the ballgame. Adam Plummer scored Shannon when he reached across and lifted an outside pitch over the shortstop’s head for an RBI-single.
Claysburg-Kimmel threatened in the top of the third to get back into the ballgame. Trailing 4-1, the Bulldogs put runners on second and third with just one out. Carlson reached back, got a come-backer for the second out and induced a grounder to first to end the threat.
In the fourth inning, with one gone, Shannon drew a walk, stole second and third and came home when the catcher’s throw to third ended up in left field. Stere singled, this time a shot into left center, stole second and scored on a line single to right by Plummer. Shawn Weiand sacrificed Plummer to second and Derrick Miller bashed a double to right to plate Plummer to give Bellwood-Antis a comfortable 7-1 lead.
The Blue Devils added one more in the fifth. Ryan Myers walked and came all the way around the bases to score on a double by Shannon.
Carlson hurled the first five innings to pick up the win scattering five hits, striking out five and walking a pair, and Myers came in to pitch the final two innings, giving up one run on one hit, three walks and three strikeouts.
“The hitting was definitely there tonight,” said B-A coach Steve Conlon. “At the top of the lineup, Ricky (Shannon) is really swinging the bat this year, getting thing started off. The best thing tonight was obviously pitching. We’ve given up three runs in two games and two of them are unearned. Most teams are just getting their pitching figured out, at this point in the season. Overall, we had a pretty good performance again. Hopefully we can keep it going.”
Bellwood-Antis 8 Claysburg-Kimmel 2
CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL – J. Weyandt, 2b, 3-0-0; T. Weyandt, cf-p, 3-1-0; Lingenfelter, 3b, 4-1-3; Ebersole, c, 2-0-2; Gochnour, ss, 3-0-0; Swindell, 1b, 4-0-0; Furry, p, 2-0-0; Fink, rf, 1-0-0; Helsley, rf-lf, 0-0-0; Leslie, dh, 3-0-1; Nale, lf-cf, 3-0-0. TOTALS 28-2-6.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS – Shannon, cf, 2-3-2; Stere, ss, 4-1-3; Plummer, 1b, 3-1-2; McClellan, ph, 1-0-0; Weiand, c, 2-0-1; Treese, ph, 1-0-1; Miller, 3b, 3-0-2; DeArmitt, ph, 1-0-1; Carlson, p-rf, 3-0-2; Alley, cr, 0-1-0; DelGrosso, ph, 1-0-0; Kenawell, lf, 2-0-0; Albright, dh, 2-0-0; Brisbin, 2b, 3-0-0; Myers, rf-p, 2-2-1. TOTALS 30-8-15.
Claysburg-Kimmel 100 000 1 2-6-3.
Bellwood-Antis 130 310 X 8-15-1.
2B: Ebersole 1, Shannon 1, Weiand 1, Miller 1.
RBI: Lingenfelter 1, Shannon 2, Plummer 2, Miller 1.
SO: Carlson 5, Myers 3.
BB: Furry 2, T. Weyandt 1, Carlson 2, Myers 3.
WP: Carlson LP: Furry.
