After an opening victory on the first day of the State VFW Teener Tournament, the Tyrone Teeners dropped a pair of games on Friday to fall out of the eight-team double-elimination tournament. The locals lost a 5-3 decision to Mount Union in a 1 p.m. ballgame, then dropped a wild and woolly 11-10 verdict to Bellefonte, the host team, at 4 p.m.
In the first game of the day, Mount Union pitcher Justin Inch kept the Tyrone Teeners pretty well off the bases for the first five innings. In fact, Inch allowed just two baserunners over those first five frames. Brice Mertiff reached base on an error in the fourth, after Inch had retired the first 10 Tyrone batters in order. Mertiff stole second base and advanced to third on the play when the catcher’s throw sailed into center field. Brinton Mingle worked a walk that including a wild pitch that Mertiff tried to score on. The Tyrone right-handed hurler was thrown out, catcher to pitcher, on a very controversial call, with Mount Union was leading 1-0.
Mount Union added a trio of runs in the fifth to increase the lead to 4-0 after five innings.
Tyrone mounted their only real scoring treat in the top of the sixth, bunching four hits and taking advantage of a Mount Union error to score three times.
Billy Smith drew a one-out walk to get things going. After Brandon Maceno lined out, Brice Mertiff singled up the middle and both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch. Brinton Mingle looped a soft liner into right field to plate both Smith and Mertiff. Derrick Soellner singled to put runners at first and second. Clint Wilson bounced a bad-hop single past the shortstop and when the Mount Union centerfielder had trouble with the ball, Mingle scored to close the deficit to 4-3.
The baseball gods just didn’t seem to spend too much time in the Tyrone Teeners’ camp during their short stay in this tournament. When a Tyrone batter hit the ball hard, it always seemed to go right at someone. After Mount Union scored an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth to take a 5-3 lead with Tyrone coming up for one last effort, Tyler Gillman opened the inning with a smash back through the box. Instead of bouncing into center for a basehit, it struck Inch squarely and instead of bouncing away at some weird angle like you usually see on a play like that, the ball caromed straight to the first baseman, who simply scooped up the ball and stepped on the first base bag for the out.
Brice Mertiff was a tough-luck loser for Tyrone going all the way in allowing five runs, three earned, on 10 hits, striking out five and walking three. Inch held Tyrone to three runs, two earned on just four hits with seven Ks and a pair of bases on balls to get the win.
Game two was a wild affair in which the Tyrone Teeners broke out on top with three runs before Bellefonte had a chance to come in off the field and bat.
Brandon Maceno and Brice Mertiff walked to open the game. Brinton Mingle’s single scored Maceno and Mertiff scored when the Bellefonte catcher threw the ball away on the play trying to nail Mingle taking second on the end of the play. Derrick Soellner scored Mingle with a fielder’s choice.
The host team quickly cut that score to 3-1. Leadoff hitter Zach Robbins lined a ball into the gap in left center and motored around the bases for an inside-the-park home run.
It seemed that every time one team scored, the other had the answer to come right back and score some runs of their own.
The Tyrone Teeners put two more runs on the board in the second. David Miller smacked a triple to get Tyler Gillman, who had reached base on an error, home. Miller then scored when Billy Smith hit a sacrifice fly.
Bellefonte scored three in the home half of the second with the big blow a two-run triple by Cody Young to draw to within a run 5-4. Bellefonte added a run in the third to tie the game at 5-5.
Tyrone moved into the lead in the fourth when Smith rapped a double, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Maceno sac fly.
After both teams took the fifth inning off without scoring, the action heated up.
Tyrone moved out to a 8-5 lead in the top of the sixth inning and then Bellefonte put on the biggest explosion of the game in their half of the inning.
Mertiff walked with one out and Mingle beat out an infield single, his third hit of the game with Mertiff going around to third base. Derrick Soellner lined a double to left that scored both Mertiff and Mingle, who was running on the play.
Bellefonte swamped Tyrone with a six-run outburst to take an 11-8 lead with one more trip to the plate for the locals. Four singles, three walks and a sac fly accompanied by two Tyrone errors did most of the damage with just about everybody contributing.
Tyrone wasn’t going to go gently out of this state tournament however, scoring two to close to within 11-10 and had the bases loaded before running out of steam.
David Miller reached on a error and Billy Smith singled. When Bellefonte stopped throwing the ball around, Miller had scored and Smith was at second base.
Mertiff cracked a two-out double to get Smith home, bringing in the second Bellefonte reliever. Brinton Mingle and Derrick Soellner walked to load the base and the count went to three and two, before Zach Robbins got Clint Wilson swinging for the final out of the game.
“We could have played a lot better,” said Tyrone Teeners coach Mark Mingle, “especially the second game against Bellefonte. Overall most of the kids gave it 100 percent. We are thankful we got this far. I don’t think most people would have predicted us to come this far. Overall, it was a great season, going 1-2 here can’t take that away from us.”
Game 2
Mount Union Teeners 5 Tyrone Teeners 3
TYRONE TEENERS- Maceno, cf, 3-0-0; Mertiff, p, 3-1-1; Mingle, ss, 2-1-1; Soellner, c, 2-1-1; Wilson, 1b, 3-0-1; Levinson, pr, 0-0-0; Albright, rf, 3-0-0; Gillman, 2b, 3-0-0; Miller, lf, 3-0-0; Smith, 3b, 2-1-0. TOTALS 25-2-4.
MOUNT UNION TEENERS- Brown, cf, 2-2-1; Baird, 1b, 4-1-4; Kuhn, c, 2-0-1; Inch, p, 3-0-0; Kane, 3b, 3-0-1; Edgin, lf, 3-0-0; Atherton, 3-0-1; Hoffmaster, ss, 2-1-1; McClain, rf, 2-1-1. TOTALS 24-5-10.
Tyrone Teeners 000 003 0 3-4-2.
Mount Union Teeners 100 031 X 5-10-3.
2B: MU- Brown 1.
RBI: TY- Mingle 2, MU- Kuhn 2, Brown 1, Kane 1.
SO: TY- Mertiff 5, MU- Inch 7.
BB: TY- Mertiff 3, MU- Inch 2.
WP: Inch LP: Mertiff
Game 3
Bellefonte Teeners 11 Tyrone Teeners 10
TYRONE TEENERS- Maceno, p-cf, 2-1-0; Mertiff, ss-p, 3-2-2; Mingle, cf-ss-1b, 4-2-3; Soellner, c , 4-0-1; Wilson, 1b-p, Albright, rf, 4-0-1; Clark, p, 0-0-0; Gillman, 2b, 4-1-1; Miller, lf, 4-2-2; Smith, 3b, 3-2-2. TOTALS 33-10-13.
BELLEFONTE TEENERS- Robbins, cf-p, 4-2-2; Shirk, pr, 0-0-0; Young, lf-cf, 5-2-3; Lutz, rf-c, 1-1-0; Kerr, c, 1-0-0; Reader, c, 1-0-0; Barndt, p-rf, 1-1-1; Orndorff, p-3b, 3-0-0; James, ss, 2-2-0; Williams, 1b-lf, 3-0-0; Leitzel, ph, 0-1-0; Burke, 3b, 2-1-1; Burger, 1b, 1-1-1; Smith, 2b, 4-0-1. TOTALS 28-11-9.
2B: TY- Mertiff 1, Miller 1, Soellner 1.
3B: TY- Miller 1, BEL- Young 1.
HR: BEL- Robbins 1.
RBI: TY- Soellner 3, Maceno 1, Mertiff 1, Mingle 1, Miller 1, B. Smith 1, BEL- Young 2, K. Smith 2, Robbins 1, Orndorff 1, Leitzel 1, Burger 1.
SO: TY- Maceno 1, Mertiff 2, Wilson 1, BEL- Orndorff 2, Brandt 1, Robbins 1.
BB: TY- Maceno 2, Mertiff 3, Wilson 4, BEL- Orndorff 3, Barndt 1, Robbins 2.
WP: Barndt LP: Wilson SAVE: Robbins
