Baseball Summary: Bobcats Go 4-1 In Last Week Of Regular Season, District Playoffs Next (05/21/17)

(By CSN Sportswriter, Kenn Staub)

Clarion Splits Doubleheader, Bobcats Dominate East Forest But Fall To North Clarion

(Monday, May 15th)

Game 1: Clarion Dominates East Forest, 27-0 (3 innings)

In the first game of a doubleheader the Clarion Bobcats used a 20 run first inning and no hit pitching to propel them to a three inning 27-0 road victory over the East Forest Bears.

Clarion banged out 22 hits and was the beneficiary of 12 walks, with 7 batters reaching base on East Forest errors.  Three Bobcats had multi-hit games, seniors Reed Anthony and Ryan Anthony and freshman Lake Staub, each rapping 2 singles.  Junior Cam Craig had the only extra base hit of the game, a double.  Other Bobcats who singled during the course of the game included senior Dominc Fleming, juniors Sterling Conner and Spencer Miller, sophomores Drew Whren, and freshmen Josh Craig and Skylar Rhoades.  Four Clarion players were credited with 3 RBI: Ryan Anthony, Fleming, Conner, and Josh Craig.  Reed Anthony and Cam Craig both had 2 RBI.  Also chipping in RBI were senior Kyle Patterson, Miller, Whren, freshmen Donald Dunkle, Rhoades, and Staub.

Rhoades and Patterson both saw action on the mound, combining to face only 9 East Forest batters in their no hit effort.  Rhoades started for Clarion, striking out 3 in the bottom of the first on 10 pitches.  Patterson, in his first pitching appearance of the season, struck out 4 in two innings of work.

Immediately following this game, the Bobcat players boarded a bus and headed to North Clarion for a game against the Wolves.

Game 2: Clarion Falls To North Clarion, 3-1

The Clarion Bobcats’ 11 game win streak came to an end in a close game later in the day against the North Clarion Wolves.

(Photos by Christie Datko) Nate Datko had two hits against the Wolves.

North Clarion jumped on the board in the bottom of the first to take a 2-0 lead.  Both teams were then held scoreless until the fifth, when Clarion broke through with its only run of the game.  The Wolves added an insurance run in the sixth and then held the Bobcats in check during the top of the seventh to take the 3-1 win.

Bobcat batters were limited to 3 hits, all singles.

(Photos by Christie Datko) Cam Craig on the mound for the Bobcats!

Freshman Nate Datko had 2 of those, with junior Sterling Conner responsible for the other.

Cam Craig pitched the first 4 innings for Clarion, striking out 1.  Ryan Anthony came on in relief to pitch the sixth and seventh, fanning 1.

Clarion Shuts Out Keystone 10-0, 5 Innings (Tuesday, May 16th)

The Clarion Bobcats rebounded from Monday’s loss at North Clarion in dominant fashion, shutting out Keystone 10-0 in five innings on Tuesday at County Park.

Reed Anthony rounding the bases after towering homerun against the Panthers!

After a scoreless first inning, Clarion plated 1 run in the second and 2 in the third to go up 3-0.  The Bobcats then proceeded to rip the game open in the fourth, scoring 5 runs to make it an 8-0 ball game.  Clarion scored 2 more in the bottom of the fifth to close out the game.

Four Bobcats, senior Kyle Patterson (2-2), junior Spencer Miller (2-4), and freshmen Nate Datko (2-3) and Skylar Rhoades (2-3), had multiple singles.  senior Reed Anthony (1-3) hit a home run over the left field fence.  Senior Dominic Fleming (1-3) doubled and senior Ryan Anthony (1-4) had a single.

Spencer Miller steals second.

Patterson, Miller, and Datko each were credited with 2 RBI, with Reed Anthony, Ryan Anthony, and Rhoades contributing 1 apiece.

Reed Anthony started on the mound for Clarion and earned the win, surrendering 3 hits and striking out 3 in four innings.  Rhoades threw 1 hitless inning of relief.

Clarion Blanks Clarion- Limestone 13-0 On Senior Day, 5 Innings (Wednesday, May 17th)

On a day in which the Clarion Bobcats honored their seniors, it was two upperclassmen who played significant roles in Wednesday’s victory over the Clarion-Limestone Lions.  Senior Reed Anthony combined with two other pitchers to toss a no-hitter, while fellow senior Kyle Patterson (1-3) hit a grand slam and led the team with 5 RBI.

As they have done most of this season, the Bobcats jumped out to a lead early, scoring 4 runs in the home half of the first inning.  They followed this up by adding 7 in the second, including 4 in one pop, when Patterson homered to left field.  Though they were blanked in the third inning, Clarion scored another 2 in the fourth to claim the 13-0 five inning win.

In addition to Patterson’s homer, several Bobcats had extra base knocks.  Senior Ryan Anthony (2-2) tripled, with senior Dominic Fleming (1-3) and Jjuniors Spencer Miller (2-3) and Sterling Conner (2-3) connecting for doubles.  Clarion also took advantage of 7 walked batters.

Reed Anthony worked the first three innings and was credited with the win in the Bobcats’ combined no-hitter.  He struck out 5.  Conner pitched the fourth and Miller closed the game, striking out 1 in the fifth.

Prior to the game the Bobcat seniors were recognized.  Playing their last season as part of the orange and black nine are Reed Anthony, Ryan Anthony, Dominic Fleming, and Kyle Patterson.

Clarion Downs Brockway 15-5 To Close Regular Season (Thursday, May 18th)

The Clarion Bobcats closed out the 2017 regular season the way they opened it, with a win.  Rather than a 1-run squeaker like on April 3rd however, Clarion won by a sizeable 10 run margin over the visiting Brockway Rovers in six innings of play.

Brockway got things going right off the bus, scoring 2 runs to open the first inning.  Clarion responded with 7 runs in the bottom of the inning and then, after holding the Rovers scoreless in the second and waiting out a rain delay, added 3 more to take a 10-3 lead going into the third.  Both teams plated 2 runs in the third and 1 in the fourth, setting the Clarion advantage at 13-5.  No Brockway runner would cross the plate after the fourth, while Clarion scored 1 in the bottom of each the fifth and sixth innings to clinch the 15-5 victory.

Enjoying multi-hit games for the Bobcats were senior Reed Anthony (2-5, double), junior Spencer Miller (2-4; double, triple), freshmen Josh Craig (2-4) and Skylar Rhoades (2-3, double).  Also having hits were seniors Ryan Anthony (1-4), Dominic Fleming (1-4, double), and Kyle Patterson (1-3, double).  Rhoades led Clarion with 4 RBI, followed by Reed Anthony’s 3, Josh Craig and Fleming’s 2, and Ryan Anthony and Cam Craig’s 1.  Brockway walked 8 Clarion batters and put another 7 on as the result of errors.

Rhoades hurled the first three innings, striking out 6 on his way to picking up the win. junior Sterling Conner closed out the game, striking out 4 and yielding no earned runs in the 3 innings he pitched.

Clarion (16-2), the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference champions, enters the District 9/10 playoffs as the first seed in 1A.  They will open the playoffs by hosting the winner of Tuesday’s Clarion-Limestone/North Clarion match-up at County Park on Thursday, May 25th.

(game stats from MaxPreps, playoff information from D9Sports.com)

(Thanks to Kenn Staub for this article and to Christie Datko for the photos. Great work, Bobcats; Keep it going in the playoffs!!!!)