PHILIPSBURG — The Philipsburg Spike Island Pirates seemingly have it all going for them in their Centre County League first-round matchup against the Clarence Coyotes.
The Coyotes are in their first year in the CCBL and playing in their first-ever playoff series. They finished as the No. 7 seed, which matched them up against the defending champion and No. 2 seeded Pirates.
Still, favorites or not, the Pirates were keenly aware of the upset-filled recent history of the CCBL playoffs, and they brought their “A” game in the 5-1 opening-day victory over the Coyotes on July 10 in Philipsburg.
Spike Island broke open a close contest with a four-run outburst in the fifth inning while Parker Watson pitched a complete-game three hitter for the win.
Matt McCamley and Brandon Quay supplied the power for the Pirates with RBI extra-base hits as Philipsburg jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
“Right before the game I told these guys that as of now, everyone is 0-0,” Pirate player-coach Quay said. “Everybody’s waiting for their first win. Everybody has new life, and with the way the payoff system works, everybody’s in. We have to come out and play our baseball and play confident. If we do that, we’ll be alright.”
Philipsburg’s performance in Game 1 was everything that Quay asked for. The Pirates took a 1-0 lead after an unearned run in the third inning. Josh Earnest led off with a triple, and he scored after a misplayed fly ball to center field for the game’s first run.
Earnest’s hit was the first one against Coyote starter Andy Stover, but the Pirates would add four more in the deciding fifth inning.
With one out, catcher Derek Shaw singled, and then Matt Curtis singled to put runners on first and third base. Shaw scored the Pirates’ second run on a wild pitch, and Logan Williamson followed with a walk to put two men on base for McCamley.
The veteran center fielder cleared the bases with a triple to the center field wall, and then Quay doubled in McCamley, giving the Pirates a 5-0 lead.
“He (Stover) got behind in the count a little bit and got to 2-0,” McCamley said. “I knew he had to bring something over the plate. I got the pitch I was looking for, and luckily our guys got hot at the same time and it was a good one-two punch. When I hit it, I thought he (center fielder Ben Verbitskey) had a bead on it, but it just kept carrying.”
The runs were more than what Watson would need. He did give up a run in the sixth on a hit, an error and an RBI groundout by Dillon Schall. Other than that, the Coyotes did not advance a runner to third base and managed only two other hits — both singles and both in the first inning.
Watson struck out Tyler Bennett to end the threat in the sixth, and then went 1-2-3 in the seventh.
“I felt pretty good,” Watson said. “I was just throwing strikes and trusting my defense. I knew we would get around to scoring a few runs, and hopefully that would be enough, and it was.”
Quay led the Pirate offense with two hits and an RBI, while McCamley had two RBIs and one hit. Five other Philipsburg starters hit safely in the game.
Bennett, Stover, and Schall had the hits for Clarence, which will now have to try to stop the Pirates in Game 2 in Clarence.
“Upsets happen,” McCamley said. “Whether it’s the first round, second round, somebody takes someone lightly. We have a young group that hasn’t really been here a lot. So we’re trying to instill in them the fact that anything can happen.”
