PHILIPSBURG — It was a matchup of the new versus the not-so-new when the Howard Hawks visited the newly formed Spike Island Pirates on May 21 in the newcomers’ Centre County Baseball League home opener.
Spike Island is new in the sense that the program was reformed this year after a five-year hiatus from playing in the league, and May 21 marked its first game at home in Philipsburg.
The not-so-new showed up in the person of Howard starting pitcher Brian Pelka, who was making the first start of his 25th year with Howard in the CCBL. Pelka has more than 120 career wins, and he is the second-leading pitcher in league history.
And it wasn’t lost on many of the fans in attendance that Pelka is from Philipsburg, played for P-O High School, still lives in the town and is also presently the principal of the P-O Middle School.
So it was all of that coming together, but this time it would be the new guys who would carry the day.
Spike Island, with three hits and four RBIs by catcher Nate Gustkey and four RBIs by third baseman Jeremy Potter, took advantage of three Howard errors and scored six runs in the first two innings.
The Pirates added another four in the fourth inning and from there went on to a 10-6 win over the Hawks.
It was Philipsburg’s second win of the season after last week’s 1-0 win over 2022 league champion Blanchard.
Ryan Kephart, Gustkey and Potter all singled in the first inning as Spike Island jumped out against Pelka and began what turned out to be a 10-hit, 10-run afternoon.
Pirates pitcher Michael Kitko got the win, giving up two runs on five hits, and he was relieved by Jake Belinda and Carson Jones. Jones finished the game with a no-hit seventh inning.
Dylan Wormer and Ty Wormer led the Hawks with a total of five hits and four RBIs between them, but they were playing catch-up all day and couldn’t get back into contention.
The addition of Spike Island brings the league up to seven teams and was widely praised by everyone involved with the CCBL.
Even Pelka, who gave up just three earned runs in the game, was happy to see the Pirates return.
“It’s great,” Pelka said. “It’s great to see the Pirates back in the league. They have good, young players and they are going to be very competitive. They are going to be right there all season.”
Next up for the Pirates will be a trip to Lemont to take on the Ducks on May 28, while the Hawks will be at Howard. Both games are at 2 p.m.
