PHILIPSBURG — Bellefonte pitcher Dominic Masullo and Philipsburg’s Josh Earnest battled to a virtual standstill in the two teams’ Mountain League showdown on May 2 in Philipsburg.
Both pitched complete games, with Masullo allowing just four hits and Earnest six, and neither defense committed an error.
The impasse broke when the Mountaineers pushed two runs across on two hits in the fifth inning and then added two more without a hit in the sixth. Those four runs, scored with just two hits, allowed P-O to steal a closer-than-it-looks 5-1 victory away from Masullo and the Raiders.
Philipsburg shortstop Logan Williamson swatted a two-run single that scored Earnest and Derek Shaw with the eventual winning runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
A bases-loaded walk and a ground out RBI by Shaw padded the Mountie lead to 5-1 in the sixth, and from there Earnest closed out the Raiders to give P-O its 10th win of the season.
“I was given a take sign on the first pitch,” Williamson said, “and it was right down the middle, so I was a little worried about that. And then I was just looking to put the ball in play. That was the major thing with runners on base, and then it just happened that I hit the ball in the right spot and helped out our team.”
Before Williamson’s hit, neither team was able to accomplish much on offense. Bellefonte came closest by putting runners in scoring position in all of the first five innings, but the Raiders only scored in the third.
That happened when catcher Greg Watson walked to open the inning and then came around to score on Logan Mathieu’s two-out, RBI double into the left field corner.
P-O came right back, however, with a two-out flash of its own. After Masullo struck out the first two batters in the bottom of the third, Earnest reached on a walk. He stole second and then tied the score on a clutch RBI single by Shaw.
“That (run) gave us a little bit of confidence,” P-O coach Doug Sankey said. “You know, we have four or five guys in the lineup who just have not seen that type of pitcher before. So to come out and face Dom (Masullo), it’s a little overwhelming for some of these guys. The younger guys are getting it, and with Derek’s (Shaw) big hit, they were, ‘OK, we can put the bat on it a little bit.’”
Shaw’s single was the first hit of the game for the Mounties, and they would only get three more off of Masullo. Yet they took full advantage each one.
In the fifth with one out, Earnest was hit by a pitch, stole second and then advanced to third on Shaw’s second hit of the game. Shaw moved up to second base on a first-and-third play, and then both runners scored on Williamson’s hit to put P-O ahead 3-1.
“Anytime you go through a lineup two or three times, you get a little more comfortable,” Bellefonte coach Dan Fravel said. “And when you’re playing with a delicate offense where you’re not scoring many runs, there’s not any margin for error in a 1-1, 1-0, 2-0 type of ballgame.
“That’s the pressure that our defense and pitchers are feeling right now. It’s that we have to do everything perfectly. And they (P-O) put some nice strokes on the ball for hits with guys on second base while we left guys in scoring position in the first five innings. We had a chance to execute a couple times and kind of really didn’t.”
Now ahead by two, Earnest posted his first 1-2-3 inning of the game in the top of the sixth and then was given another two runs to work with in the bottom of the inning.
Earnest helped himself by drawing a bases-loaded walk to make the score 4-1, and then Shaw drove in P-O’s final run with an RBI ground out.
“I think it was really big that everybody was getting sparked up and hitting the ball and stuff,” Earnest said. “I just tried to keep throwing strikes and getting the ball in play.”
For Bellefonte, Nick Jabco led the way with two hits, and Mathieu had the only extra-base hit and the only RBI.
Shaw led P-O with two hits and two RBI, and Williamson had two RBI with his big hit. Earnest chipped in with two runs scored, two stolen bases and an RBI.
“They (Bellefonte) are a tough team,” Williamson said, “and it is great seeing us play this well. We just have to keep playing our game. We’ve been hitting the ball all season and our pitching has been outstanding. We just have to keep bringing that to the plate every game.”
