Luke Snyder shines on mound, at plate as Penns Valley tops Bellefonte

BELLEFONTE — The Penns Valley baseball team has to be very happy that Luke Snyder showed up for the game at Bellefonte on April 24.

The 6-foot-4 senior was everywhere for the Rams. He started the game at catcher, moved to the mound in relief of PV starter Luke Sharer, squashed a Red Raiders’ rally, and pitched four shutout innings in Penns Valley’s big 4-3 victory over arch-rival Bellefonte.

And, oh yeah, he drove in teammate Keith Butts with the winning run after a two-out single in the top of the fifth inning.

‘We never like losing to Bellefonte,’ Snyder said. ‘Beating Bellefonte is always one of the best things. I play three sports and haven’t beaten them yet this year. At least getting this win feels great, especially beating a team at the top of the division with only a few losses. It’s really special to do that.’

For a large part of the game, mostly early, it didn’t look good for Penns Valley to even be in the game. Bellefonte came right out in the first inning and put three runs on the board.

Raiders’ first baseman Logan Mathieu took care of the first two. After Tyler Kreger walked to open the game and an out, Mathieu lofted a Sharer fast ball far over the right-center field wall for a two-run homer and a 2-0 lead.

Cade Fortney followed that with a walk, stole second and then scored on a Garrett Reiter single that put the Raiders ahead by three.

‘I was a little upset there in the beginning,’ PV coach Jon Bowersox said. ‘I thought we took a couple. It didn’t matter anyway. We fought back. It was a good hard-fought game. We’ve now won five out of our last six so we finally turned things around from our 0-7 start.’

FIGHTING BACK

Penns Valley actually fought back all the way in just one inning. In the top of the third, Andrew Tobias led off with a single, and after an out, leadoff hitter Jared Kines put two men on with another single.

Butts was next, and he lined a shot over the head of Fortney in center field for a triple that scored Tobias and Kines. The Raiders then tried to make a play on Butts at third, but the ball got away and Butts came in with the tying run.

With a new start, Sharer got a 1-2-3 third inning, but he immediately got into trouble with two leadoff walks in the Bellefonte fourth.

With Sharer apparently tiring, Snyder came on in relief, but he was in a tough, two-on, no-outs situation.

No problem. Kreger sacrificed both runners with a bunt, but Snyder then struck out C.J. Funk and got Mathieu to pop out to second base to end the inning.

‘I love catching,’ Snyder said, ‘but pitching is just another aspect that is one of my favorites. I just try not to think about how tired my legs are from catching. I went out there in a sticky situation with two runners and I just forgot about everything else and tried to hit my spots.

‘I’ve been pitching a lot so I’ve been in shape for it and I’ve done it before, so I’m used to it by now.’

ON THE SPOT

As it happens so often in baseball, Snyder was immediately put on the spot again as a hitter in the top of the fifth. With one out, Butts drew a walk and immediately stole second. Kreger, now pitching for the Raiders, struck out Hunter Homan for the second out, which brought up Snyder with two outs.

Snyder took a curve ball for a strike and then lined a clean single to left field, scoring Butts with the go-ahead run.

‘I knew he was going to come back with another curve ball,’ Snyder said, ‘so I just sat back on it, caught it on the end of my bat and snuck between the two fielders. It felt good.’

The game was still just a one-run affair, however, and Bellefonte still had three at bats to make up the run.

Snyder stranded runners in both the Raiders’ fifth and sixth innings without damage, but Dylan Deitrich connected for a one-out double in the seventh inning.

Deitrich moved to third on a wild pitch — one of the few mistakes Snyder made — and represented Bellefonte’s last chance.

But Snyder was up to the challenge. He struck out Fortney for the second out and then got Reiter to pop out to first for the final out.

‘I just rushed that (wild) pitch,’ Snyder said, ‘got a little away from me. In a situation like that, you never want to make a bad pitch and when it bounced in the dirt, I knew nothing good was going to come of it. But I bounced back and got the ‘W.”

That W was Penns Valley’s fifth of the season, against eight losses, and the Rams’ fifth win in their last six games. Bellefonte is now 7-4.