Rams stun Trojans in 10-run rout
SPRING MILLS — Penns Valley used its ability to stay patient and hit the ball to all fields to defeat Mount Union, 16-6, in a nonleague baseball game Friday afternoon.
The Rams saved their best performance for last, doubling down on scoring in the home half of the sixth.
Kaiden Brenneman had a great performance going for himself in relief up to that point, but couldn’t get past the first two batters.
Brenneman came in relief for starter Quinton Posey, who lasted just one inning. He gave up two hits — both doubles — and three walks, but none of his outs came easy. He was forced to throw 46 pitches to eight batters.
Cole Breon worked a leadoff walk in the sixth and quickly came around two pitches later when Clay Upcraft doubled in the left-center field gap to drive in Breon.
That’s when Mount Union coach Tim Hicks went with a fresh arm in hopes of limiting the damage and giving the Trojans a chance to maybe close the gap in the seventh.
That chance never came.
Instead, Matt Harshbarger got two of his first four batters out via a strikeout and fielder’s choice before the Rams put together a string of six straight batters to reach base and walkoff with the mercy defeat.
“They’re a really good hitting team, especially with the fastballs,” Hicks said. “We had to get ahead. We didn’t get ahead and they hit the ball hard. We fought hard and made it a game again, and Kaiden Brenneman did a fantastic job coming in in relief. He definitely did not deserve the outcome on the scoreboard.”
The Rams got consecutive singles from Dylan Treaster, Jesse Darlington and Cameron Shaffer.
The unraveling continued as Harshbarger walked Breon on the team’s second time through the lineup for an RBI before losing control of his pitch and giving Upcraft an RBI hit by pitch.
That set up the heroics for Logan Snyder, who drove the ball to left to score both Shaffer and Darlington.
The Rams had 12 at-bats reach a three-ball count with six of those occurrences finishing with walks. The patience was vital as the Trojans had to throw a pitch in the zone just to climb back in the count. That led to the Rams collecting 16 hits — four going for extra-base hits, all doubles. Treaster nearly added to that line by missing a home run by inches in the second inning.
“Today it just seemed once it went wrong, it just seemed to snowball for us,” Hicks said. “Once we got down, we hung our heads and it wasn’t good. Nobody seemed to have a spark to get us back in the game.”
The performance relieved Penns Valley coach Shawn Meyer.
“We got a lot of grit on this team,” he said. “We do everything we can to make every at-bat count. Sometimes it takes small ball. Other times it takes some extra-base hits. There were so many different things that happened in this game, and it feels real good to come back in a win like that.”
Mount Union twice held a lead in the game.
The first time was in the team’s first at-bats when Grayson McClain doubled to start the game and came around to score on a Harshbarger two-out single.
The second time happened in the fourth inning when the Trojans put together their best offensive inning with five runs scored.
Dylan Gearhart homered to center to start the inning and the rest of the lineup caught on by hitting three doubles in the frame.
Quinton Posey had a double that split the gap in left-center field and was replaced two batters later by Kobe Hand, who had doubled to center.
Hand’s double started off a chain of six straight batters to reach base. In the midst of that run, McClain got a ball past a sliding too early Jakob Daniels in left to score Hand and Tyler Renninger who reached on a single he took the other way.
“I thought we were patient and after we saw the pitcher once, we looked a lot better the second time around,” Hicks said. “We hit the ball a lot better and our guys usually take good swings and hit the ball hard so that was no exception.”
If there was ever one time the Trojans hurt their chances of winning, it happened in the third.
After an infield error by the Rams to get Seth Smith aboard, the woes continued when McClain hit a ball hard to the outfield where they again had a tough time coming up with the ball. That didn’t matter any as the Rams gunned down Smith at home and then got McClain out in a pickle between second and third.
“We ran ourselves right out of an inning,” Hicks said. “Terrible base running there took us right out of it, and we had the heart of the lineup due then.”
With the loss, Hicks hopes the team can have a short memory and play heads-up baseball as it prepares for Claysburg-Kimmel on Monday.
“Base running mistakes. Errors on the field. You name it, we did it wrong today,” Hicks said. “Hopefully we learn from it and come back to practice on Sunday by wanting to get better. The season’s not even halfway over, but we have to work harder, get better and go back to fundamentals.”
Penns Valley 16, Mount Union 6 (6 inn.)
Mount Union 100 500 — 6-8-3
Penns Valley 030 418 — 16-16-2
WP: Dylan Treaster. LP: Kaiden Brenneman. SO: Quinton Posey 2, Brenneman 5, Harshbarger (MU); Matthew Tobias 4, Treaster (PV). BB: Posey 3, Brenneman, Harshbarger 2 (MU); Tobias 2, Treaster 2 (PV). HR: Dylan Gearhart (MU). 2B: Grayson McClain 2, Posey, Kobe Hand (MU); Clay Upcraft, Jakob Daniels, Aaron Tobias, Jesse Darlington (PV). MH: McClain 2-for-4 (MU); Cameron Shaffer 2-for-5, Upcraft 2-for-5, Logan Snyder 2-for-4, A. Tobias 3-for-4, Treaster 2-for-3, Darlingston 2-for-4. RBI: McClain 2, Gearhart 3, Hand, Renninger (MU); Shaffer, Cole Breon 2, Upcraft 2, Snyder 4, M. Tobias, A. Tobias, Darlingston 2 (PV).
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