Bobcats Punch Their Ticket To PIAA State Class-1A Baseball Championship Game After Downing Southern Fulton 3-0 In Their Semifinal Matchup
Above photo by Nate Girvan – Bobcats celebrating their PIAA State Semifinal win.
Our Clarion Area Bobcats downed Southern Fulton 3-0, on Monday, June 12th, in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) State Class-1A Baseball Semifinal at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson.
With the victory, the Bobcats move on to the State Championship Game, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday, June 15th, at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park at Penn State, where they’ll face the winner of the DuBois Central Catholic – Dock Mennonite Game that was postponed due to weather and rescheduled for Tuesday, June 13th.
With the win, the Bobcats have now won three state playoff games by a total of 25-0. They defeated Harmony 15-0 in four innings in the First Round and Saegertown 10-0 in five innings in the Quarterfinals. This was only the second loss for Southern Fulton, the District Five Champion, as they finished at 25-2.
As has been the case throughout, good pitching, good hitting and good defense won the day for the Cats.
The Semifinal had a late start because of inclement weather.
After winning the coin toss, the Bobcats were the home team.
The top of the first saw Bobcats’ starter Devon Lauer shake off a two-out double off the fence in center, by fielding a grounder and throwing to first for the out.
The Cats had the bases loaded in their half of the inning but were unable to score.
Neither team scored in the second or third innings.
The Indians threatened in the top of the fourth with the bases loaded and two outs. But Lauer got the next batter to fly out to Bryce Brinkley in center.
The Bobcats’ fourth opened with Tanner Miller hitting the ball chopper to the third baseman. He beat the throw to first which was off line anyway and allowed him to move to second. Matt Alston had an infield single to short which advanced Miller to third, giving the Cats runners on the corners, with no outs. With Dauntae Girvan up, a wild pitch allowed Alston to second. Then Girvan hit a ball to short and the runners were caught up, but the Indians didn’t get anyone and the bases were loaded. Hayden Weber hit the ball to short who threw to second to get Girvan, but the throw to first was late.
Miller scored what proved to be the winning run on the play, and Clarion had runners at first and third with one out. Wyatt Watterson came in to run for Weber. Dawson Smail hit a line drive to right, which was caught, but Alston came around to score on the play, moving the Bobcats’ lead to 2-0.
Derek Smail came on in relief to start the fifth and with runners at first and third and two out. He got the batter to ground to short, with the throw beating the runner to second.
The Cats would fail to score in their half of the inning.
Derek Smail came up big on the mound in the sixth. After giving up a single to center, he got the next two batters looking. But after he walked a batter, the next player had a bunt single to load the bases with two out. But he got the next batter to fly out to Brinkley, who had a solid defensive game in center, for the third out.
Girvan hit a one-out single up the middle and stole second, with Dawson Smail at the plate. With two outs in the inning, Smail singled to the gap in left center to score Girvan, upping the Clarion lead to 3-0.
The Indians went down in order in the top of the seventh, with the first batter striking out looking, the second flying out to center and the third grounding out to short and the Bobcats and their fans began celebrating.
Key Bobcat Stats: Dawson Smail had a single and drove in a pair of runs. Dauntae Girvan singled and scored once. Tanner Miller and Matt Alston both singled and scored. Hayden Weber drove in a run. BryceBrinkley and Derek Smail both had hits.
Devon Lauer was the winning pitcher, going four innings, giving up no runs, striking out two and allowing four hits and issuing two walks. Derek Smail pitched three innings in relief, allowing no runs, striking out four, allowing two hits and issuing three walks.
Clarion Area Manager Rob Jewett had high praise for his team. “I want to start off by saying how proud I am of these guys playing, how well they are playing. I feel all three phases, from the beginning, all most every game our fielding our hitting our pitching even our base running.
“The last game we just played, I don’t think that maybe our hitting wasn’t quite all there. Maybe we were missing the clutch hits, but I think our pitching and defense kept us in that game the whole time. It’s really nice to see.
About his pitching duo for the game: “Devon pitched on limited rest. So I know he wasn’t feeling a hundred percent, but he gutted it out, put out a great performance like he’s been doing all year. And Derek coming in after him. He hasn’t gotten the opportunity to pitch in a while. I was hoping he wasn’t going to be wild or off a little bit. He came in throwing strikes and did a great job shutting the door.”
And the offense, Dawson had some clutch hits. Dauntae got on base. There were some really good things that happened. Our baserunning turned out to be good, even though we had some blunders here and there. That’s what good teams do. They find a way to win when things aren’t going perfect.
And the hard work, “I’m really proud of these boys, the work put in the work and it’s nice they’re beginning to see the pay off.”
Jewett shared special thanks for some folks who have really been special to the team. “We really enjoy all the fans that are traveling too. We’ve got a ton of support through this little run and they’ve been traveling miles and miles and miles to be there to see us. And we appreciate that. It doesn’t go unnoticed.”
As for Thursday, “It’ll be a good game, we’ll give you a good show.”
(Way To Go, Cats!!!! Let’s Win States!!!! Thanks to Stephanie Brinkley and Nate Girvan for their photos!!!!)
(Thanks to Chris Rossetti and YDL Sports Network/D9and10Sports.com for permission to use their broadcast for information for the article!!)