Bald Eagle Area Little League continued to fight its way back in the District 5 Playoffs, defeating State College 6-3 Thursday night at Montresor Field and ending State College’s playoff run.
With the win, Bald Eagle (5-1) gets a second shot at Clearfield (4-0) the only team to have defeated BEA in the playoffs. In their first meeting, BEA held a 7-2 lead after five innings, but Clearfield came back to win 8-7. They’ll meet again Saturday night, and a BEA win would force another game between the two next week to decide the district title and send the winner to sectionals.
‘We knew from the very beginning that we had a very good team,’ BEA manager Gary Heverly said. ‘We’re very proud of them. Our number one goal was to get by State College. We’ve done that and now Clearfield is in our sights.’
For State College, it was a tough ending after starting out 3-0 before falling at Clearfield and then BEA to be eliminated. Disappointing as the loss was, the team regrouped after the game and voted unanimously to play in an open tournament for eliminated teams this weekend in Milesburg.
‘I won’t lie and say I’m not disappointed,’ State College manager Eric Gulley said. ‘I think we felt we had enough talent to win the District title. I thought we had more pitching depth than anyone and that we had the fielding to win the District. But we found out we didn’t have the hitting, and we ran into a buzz saw the last two games.’
That buzzsaw came in the form of dominant pitching, first from Clearfield hurler Oliver Billotte and then from BEA ace Noah Williamson.
Bald Eagle put two on the board in the third, with starting pitcher Garrett Burns reaching on an error and eventually scoring on a single by McGwire Heverly. Noah Foltz would drive in catcher Ryan Kresovich, who reached on a walk, for the second run before the inning ended on a groundout.
State College tied it up in the bottom of the third with starting pitcher Drew Moerschbacher mashing a home run to right that also scored second baseman Jake Gulley. It would turn out to be State’s only hit. After Burns gave up a walk to Jaden Torres, Williamson entered the game and threw heat for the next 3 2/3 innings, allowing no hits and striking out six. Williamson also walked six and hit two batters.
‘That’s a tough group of kids over there,’ Eric Gulley said. ‘Noah threw hard. We knew what was coming — the fastball — but we just couldn’t hit it. They made the plays when it counted and we couldn’t get the big hit when it counted.’
BEA tacked on two more in the fourth, with Williamson starting things off with a single, moving to second on a single by Ethan Koleno and then scoring on a combination of errors while Koleno’s hit was still in play. Koleno then scored from third on a grounder by Justin Bisel.
Williamson furthered his own cause in the fifth with a two-out, two-run home run off Andre Marshall, who had come on in relief. Marshall, however, struck out the side.
Marshall reached on a walk in the sixth. Jake Gulley grounded to short, but the throw to first got away and Marshall scored. Gulley, however, got caught in a run down trying to take second and the game came to an end.
‘Williamson pitched against Clearfield and did a good job,’ Heverly said. ‘We knew if Garret Burns got in any trouble we could count on Noah Williamson.’
Despite the loss, Gulley comes away with fond memories of his team’s effort and community support.
‘The fan support we had at Bellefonte [in State’s first game], it was a great setting for Little League baseball, how tough a place it was to play and to come away with a win against a tough pitcher (Hayden Alterio),’ Gulley said ‘I’ll never forget that.”
