Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The Tyrone Teener League All-Stars opened play in the 53rd Pennsylvania State VFW with a come-from-behind 5-4 win over Schuylkill West on Thursday afternoon at Bellefonte.
The Schuylkill West team, also known as Vision 2, is the runner-up from the Area 2 tournament. Vision 2 jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Tyrone scored a single tally in the fifth The locals then blasted relief pitcher Anthony Fisher for four more in the sixth to take a 5-3 advantage and held on despite a last-inning home run for the single digit triumph.
Vision 2 scored two quick runs in the top of the first, with Tyrone serving as the home team. Starting pitcher Shane Stein doubled to begin the game. Brandon Maceno struck out the next batter for the first out. Jordan Reichert singled to left to send Stein to third and Stein scored on an error on the play. Reichert advanced to second on the misplay and third on a wild pitch. Maceno struck out Anthony Fisher for the second out before Russ Coover singled home Reichert with the second score of the inning.
Maceno, who went the distance to pick up the win, took command over the next three innings, allowing just two baserunners, both on board on errors. Overall, Maceno fanned five batters and walked one, giving up four runs, three earned on seven hits.
In the fifth, Schuylkill tacked on one more run. Jason Donahue singled to lead off the at bat, moved up on a sacrifice bunt and eventually scored on a sac fly to push the Vision 2 lead to 3-0.
The Tyrone Teeners were mostly silent through the first four innings with Stein scattering five hits and keeping Tyrone from crossing home plate.
In the bottom of the fifth, The slumbering giant began to show signs of awakening. Brice Mertiff, who drew walks in his first two trips to the plate singled to begin the frame. Brinton Mingle followed with another basehit to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Mertiff wandered a little too far off second however, and got picked off for the first out. Derrick Soellner and Clint Wilson singled to score Mingle to break up the shutout, but Stein recovered to strike out the next two batters to get out of the inning without any further damage.
The roof fell in for Vision 2 reliever Fisher in the sixth however as Tyrone sent 10 batters to the plate to score four times. David Miller belted Fisher’s first pitch for a double to left center and Billy Smith was safe on an error. Maceno helped himself with an RBI single that scored Miller to slice the Schuylkill lead to 3-2. Mertiff, who said after the game, “he wished he had more pitches to hit earlier in the game,” when Vision 2 walked him twice, crushed a pitch over the centerfield fence for a three-run home run that pushed Tyrone into a 5-3 advantage.
Vision 2 tried to come back, getting a leadoff home run from Nick Rolshausen in the top of the seventh, but Maceno got a pair of fly outs, sandwiched around a ground out to set the next three batters down in order to insure the victory.
“It wasn’t pretty,” said Tyrone Teener manager Bob Clites, “ but we got the job done. Their first pitcher was slow, he had everybody eating of his hand. When they made that pitching change, you know, you have a feeling sometimes something is going to happen. As soon as they made that change, I had that feeling that we were going to comeback and we did. Brice really hit that ball. I think that would have been out of Ferner.”
The Tyrone Teeners advance to a 1 p.m. game today at the Bellefonte High School varsity field against Mount Union, the Area 3 champion, who edged Suburban National, the Area 3 runner-up 7-6 in the Thursday morning game.
Tyrone Teeners 5 Schuylkill West Teeners 4
SCHUYLKILL WEST- Stein, p-lf, 4-1-2; Maidenford, cf, 2-0-0; Reichert, 3b, 2-1-1; Senor, 3b, 1-0-0; Fisher, lf-p, 2-0-0; Darosh, lf, 1-0-0; Coover, ss, 3-0-1; Haas, rf, 2-0-0; Wilhelm, rf, 1-0-0; Donahue, 1b, 2-1-1; Rolshausen, 1b, 1-1-1; M. Kacelowicz, 2b, 2-0-0; S. Kacelowicz, c, 1-0-0; Stricker, c, 1-0-0. TOTALS 25-4-7.
TYRONE- Maceno, p, 4-1-1; Mertiff, ss, 2-1-2; Mingle, cf, 4-1-2; Soellner, c, 3-0-1; Wilson, 1b, 4-0-2; Albright, 2-0-1; Levinson, ph, 1-0-0; Gillman, 2b, 2-0-0; Miller, lf, 4-1-2; Smith, 3b, 3-1-1. TOTALS 29-5-12.
Schuylkill 200 010 1 4-7-1.
Tyrone 000 014 X 5-12-3.
2B: SCH- Stein 1, TY- Miller 1.
HR: SCH- Rolshausen 1, TY- Mertiff 1.
RBI: SCH- Coover 1, Rolshausen 1, S. Kacelowicz 1, TY- Mertiff 3, Maceno 1, Wilson 1.
SO: SCH- Stein 3, Fisher 1, TY- Maceno 5.
BB: SCH- Stein 3, Fisher 2, TY- Maceno 1.
WP: Maceno LP: Stein

By Rick