P-O baseball district playoff run comes to a close

PHILIPSBURG — The Philipsburg-Osceola baseball team could not overcome Mountain League nemesis and No. 1 seed Central in the District 6 AAA semifinal game May 23 at Central.

The Mounties advanced into the game with a wipe-out, 7-0 win over West Shamokin, but Central rallied for five big runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to break up a close game and take a 7-3 win.

Central will now face No. 7 Huntingdon in the District 6 finals Wednesday, May 31, at a place and time still to be determined. The loss ends a very successful and encouraging season for Philipsburg.

With only two senior starters in the regular lineup, the convincing win over West Shamokin is a perfect example of why there is a growing optimism about the Mountie program.

Josh Earnest threw a five-hit shutout against the Wolves, striking out 10, walking just one and not allowing a runner to reach third base all afternoon.

If that wasn’t bad enough for West Shamokin, Earnest reached base all four times he came up to the plate, hit a single, a double and a triple, scored three runs and knocked teammate Logan Williamson in with the Mounties’ first run in the game.

That run, in the end, turned out to be the winner and sent P-O into the game against No. 1 Central.

‘I focus more on pitching the whole game,’ Earnest said. ‘I got to make sure they’re scoreless. But I also go out and try to put the ball in play at least.’

Earnest did both of those things.

In the first inning, he came up to bat against Wolves’ ace Ben Vicini with Williamson on second and two outs. He set the tone for the afternoon with a sharp single to left that scored Williamson and put the Mounties on top, 1-0.

Brian Kephart added P-O’s second run in the second inning with an RBI double that scored Gage Coudriet and gave Earnest a big — for him — two-run cushion.

Earnest then started things off in a big third inning that broke the game open. He led off with a double down the line in left field and scored almost immediately when Trey Shaw followed with another double.

After a long fly-out by Micah Martin, Coudriet drove in Shaw with a triple to the wall in center field. Two pitches later, a wild pitch by Vicini allowed Coudriet to score and P-O was sailing with a 5-0 lead.

‘Snoop (Earnest) had a great day for us,’ Philipsburg-Osceola coach Doug Sankey said. ‘Logan (Williamson) was on base five times, and I don’t think he had a hit. We put the pressure on them. We played really good defense, and they made a couple mistakes that hurt them. But you have to put the ball in play and I thought we did a good job of that with only a couple strikeouts.’

While the Mounties were clicking on offense, Earnest was holding up his end on the mound as well. West Shamokin began the game with two one-out hits in the first inning, but Earnest bore down and got a fly out and a strikeout to end that threat.

That seemed to give Earnest a confidence boost. He retired the next 10 batters he faced in order, a streak that was broken by Drew Orlosky’s ground-ball single in the fifth.

‘I just tried to relax (in the first inning), stay calm and make them put it in play,’ Earnest said. ‘Adrenalin pumping a lot, all the time. Right in the beginning, you have to keep them scoreless in the first one or two innings, make sure you keep it even.’

Earnest didn’t allow Orlosky to advance past first base, but in the sixth, West Shamokin put two runners on with two outs after singles by Devin Fairman and Vicini. What could have been a troubling inning was stopped short when Earnest got Brendon Mondi to fly out to center field.

Earnest then began a sixth inning rally that put the game away for the Mounties with a triple to deep left field. He scored when Shaw reached on an error to make it 6-0, and then Coudriet drove in Shaw with the final run of the game.

‘New pitcher (Fairman), and I’m thinking he’s not going to throw me any junk on the first pitch,’ Earnest said, ‘and it was right there.’

Earnest did allow two base runners in the seventh, but eventually got Jacob Allen with the final out of the game.

‘We are just looking to get farther than we have the last couple years,’ Earnest said about P-O’s playoff run. ‘Try to get the seniors farther than they’ve been.’