CENTRE COUNTY — The boys’ high school baseball season has begun and, even with some bad weather postponing some early games, most Centre County teams have seen action.
In the early going, Bellefonte by far has been off to the best start with three wins in its first three outings, the last one being a close LHAC win over Huntingdon on a cold Monday afternoon.
Both Bald Eagle Area and St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy also began their seasons with wins, while Hollidaysburg got the best of Philipsburg-Osceola in the opening game for those two teams.
Here is brief look at the early going:
Bellefonte 5, Huntingdon 3
The Bellefonte baseball team jumped out to a four-run lead after four innings against Huntingdon on Monday afternoon in Bellefonte and then held on for its third win in a taut, 5-3 LHAC decision over the Bearcats.
Bellefonte scored two runs in the first inning and two more in the fourth before Huntingdon struck back with two runs in the top of the fifth inning.
But a big RBI single by pitcher Zach Lehman in the bottom of the fifth restored the Raider lead to three runs, 5-2, and paved the way to the victory.
Huntingdon crept closer with a bases-empty home run in the sixth, but Lehman and reliever Triston Heeman did not allow another run and the Raiders finished with win No. 3.
Lehman gave up four hits and three runs overall with two walks and 10 strikeouts, and Heeman got the final five outs without a run and two strikeouts.
Evan Mattern led the offense for Bellefonte with three hits and two RBIs, while Lehman, Oliver Thornburg and Braeden Fortney each had two hits.
On March 19 in their LHAC opener at Central, the Raiders took a few innings to get going, but in the end they piled up nine runs in the last four innings and swept to a convincing 10-2 victory over the Dragons.
Bellefonte was ahead by only a run, 1-0, in the top of the fourth inning, but it rallied for three runs to take a 4-0 lead before adding six more runs in the sixth and seventh inning to clinch the win.
The Raiders collected 10 hits overall led by Isaac Gall, Mattern and Fortney who all had two, while right fielder Daxton Krieger added a double and three RBIs.
In the critical fourth inning for Bellefonte, Carsen Henry, Fortney and Gall all had RBIs as the Raiders broke open the game.
On the mound, Lehman took the win after throwing six innings with two runs, five hits, a walk and eight strikeouts. He was relieved by Gall who threw a perfect seventh inning.
Bellefonte is now 3-0 with a home game coming up against non-league DuBois.
Bald Eagle Area 1, Huntingdon 0
The Bald Eagle Area baseball team got an unearned run in the top of the second inning, and pitchers Kaleb Irion and Takoda Ripka did the rest as the Bald Eagles took their first win of the season with a 1-0 shutout over the Bearcats.
Irion started and threw five innings with three hits, no runs and nine strikeouts. He was relieved by Ripka with one out in the sixth, and Ripka finished with no runs, no hits and three strikeouts.
In the second inning for BEA, Drew Nagle walked with one out and then advanced to third base on a two-out single by Ripka. Three pitches later, with Riley Bucha at bat, Nagle crossed the plate with the game’s only run on a wild pitch.
Huntingdon did get base runners in both the fifth and sixth innings, but Lehman got two strikeouts to end the fifth inning, and Ripka did the same thing in the sixth.
Ripka finished the game with a 1-2-3 seventh inning.
BEA will face Chestnut Ridge at home on March 27.
St. Joes’s 6, Greenwood 5
The St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy baseball team opened at Greenwood on March 19 and promptly shot out to a 6-1 lead after four innings of play.
Greenwood crept back until the Wildcats scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull within one run and still had the tying run on third base and the winning run on second.
WolfPack pitcher Braedon Miller, working in relief of Joey Gearhart with two outs and the bases loaded, faced Wildcat first baseman Jackson Anderson with the game on the line.
Miller took the count to 1-and-1 before throwing two swinging strikes that ended the threat and gave SJCA its first win of the season.
The WolfPack broke ahead with three runs in the second inning, another in the third and two more in the fourth to take that five-run lead.
Greenwood came back with single runs four innings in a row, culminating with its bases-loaded threat in the bottom of the seventh.
SJCA collected eight hits overall in the game with Gearhart, Cameron Guss and Haden Lingle each getting two and Miller and CJ Grove adding one.
Grove, Guss, Lingle and Will Balazik each knocked in a run in the win.
SCA will face Newport at home on March 27 before traveling to Line Mountain on March 30.
Hollidaysburg 9, P-O 4
The Philipsburg-Osceola Mounties fell behind early in their season-opening LHAC contest at Hollidaysburg on March 19 and didn’t get moving at the plate until it was too late in a 9-4 loss to the Tigers.
Despite three P-O pitchers giving up just three hits in the game, a spate of wildness led to 11 walks and nine Tiger runs.
Hollidaysburg went ahead 5-1 after the fourth inning, and then the Tigers added four more runs in the bottom of the sixth on two-run hits by both Mason Mierley and Cole Hartman.
The Mounties, who outhit the Tigers 8-3, finally started to put their offense together in the seventh inning with hits by Parker Lamb, Fischer White, Warren Rafferty and Nick DeSimone that produced three runs.
But time ran out on them and they took their first loss of the season.
P-O will have a chance to recover with a home game against Bellwood-Antis on March 25 followed by a trip to BEA on March 26.
Bellwood Antis 13, Penns Valley 3
CORRECTION: In last week’s preview of the Ram’s baseball team, some members of the PV basketball team were erroneously listed on the roster of the baseball team.
After two weather postponements, the Penns Valley baseball team took the field for the first time on Tuesday afternoon at Bellwood-Antis in an LHAC contest, but things did not start well for the Rams.
Bellwood began by scoring six runs in the first inning, another in the second, and then added six more in the fourth in what eventually became a 13-3, five-inning win.
Penns Valley opened with a run in the top of the first, but the Blue Devils immediately countered with six runs in the bottom of the inning on five hits, including a two-run home run by Chase Plummer.
PV edged back to make it 6-3 on an error and a sacrifice bunt by Gavin Neidigh in the second inning, but again Bellwood answered, this time with a run in the bottom of the second and then six more in the fourth.
Now down by 10 runs heading into the fifth inning, the Rams were unable to get a baserunner and the game ended under the 10-run rule.
PV got two hits against the solid B-A pitching, by Rylan Birge and Kaleb Nixon, while Brayden Kurtz and Neidigh each drove in a run.
The loss puts PV at 0-1 with a home game against Richland coming up on March 27 followed by a trip to Hollidaysburg on March 30.
