DUBOIS, Pa. – For six innings it looked like another heartbreaking District 9 title game loss for the Clarion baseball team.
And then it wasn’t.
A five-run top of the seventh inning lifted the Bobcats to their first-ever District 9 crown with a 6-3 win over two-time defending District 9 Class 1A and defending PIAA 1A champion DuBois Central Catholic Monday afternoon at Showers Field in DuBois.
Rewatch the game
“It’s always been close,” Clarion manager Rob Jewett said of the Bobcats coming up short multiple times. “We’ve always been on the other end of it. It was looking good at first. I was like, oh, here we go again. But these guys are resilient. They rallied. They didn’t quit.”
Down 3-1 going to the seventh, Daunte Girvan got the rally started with a one-out double to right-center.
Watch Girvan’s double
Hayden Weber followed with a walk putting runners at first and second for Dawson Smail, the Bobcats’ best hitter.
“I just told them, we needed to get base runners,” Jewett said. “Daunte saw a nice little pitch and went into the gap. That was huge. But Hayden’s at-bat was just as big, getting on base working that walk. And then the team captain clutched up, and it kind of rolled from there.”
Clutch up Dawson Smail did, hitting a ball off the top of the wall just to the right of the 333-foot centerfield fence for a game-tying double.
Watch Smail’s double
“It (my approach) was really calm,” Dawson Smail, a junior who has already committed to Xavier, said. “I didn’t hear much up in the stands. I was just kind of in my own world at the plate. Big props to Daunte Girvan and Hayden Weber got getting on. When you are down two runs in the last inning against a team like them, it is hard to come back from it. Our team is the team to do it.”
Clarion wasn’t satisfied with tying the game, as Bryce Brinkley followed with a go-ahead triple to right field to give Clarion the lead, 4-3.
Watch Brinkley’s three-bagger
“I wanted to get ahead in the count so I could get a pitch I could drive,” Brinkley said. “It was 3-0 I believe, and I took a strike and then I drove it to the wall. I didn’t want to make the moment too big. I took a nice relaxed swing to help us win this game.”
That was it for DCC’s Aiden Snowberger, who was forced into action earlier than he would have liked in the third inning when starter Carter Hickman complained about a sore arm.
Snowberger had been very good up until the seventh allowing just one hit but he seemed to run out of steam in the seventh.
“Snowy battled out there,” DCC manager Adam Fox said. “Maybe it was one too many times through the lineup.”
The Cardinals turned to Carter Hime,s but Himes walked three guys helping Clarion tack on a pair of runs on a Derek Smail groundout and then a bases-loaded walk to Matt Alston by Brayden Fox.
“It’s tough sometimes,” Adam Fox said. “You get into situations sometimes where guys haven’t thrown a lot lately. Bringing in Carter Himes who hasn’t thrown in a while, bringing in Brayden who hasn’t thrown in a while.”
Clarion found itself in the same position pitching-wise when it was forced to turn to Matt Alston, who hadn’t pitched in 13 days and who had thrown just 15 ⅓ innings all season in the fourth inning with the bases loaded and two outs. DCC had already scored three controversial runs in that inning – more on that in a second – and Alston was tasked with trying to keep the Bobcat deficit at 3-1.
He did that by getting Blake Pisarcik to fly out to right fielder Gary Matus.
Watch Alston get out of the jam
Alston went the final 3 ⅓ innings to get the unlikely victory allowing a hit and a walk while striking out one. His performance earned him the Allegheny Grille of Foxburg Player of the Game.
“The (strike) zone was kind of tight, so I kind of just put my head down and threw as many strikes as I could,” Alston said. “I couldn’t have done it without the fans behind me all the time, just all my teammates. I trusted my defense.”
Watch the full postgame interview with Alston, Dawson Smail, and Brinkley.
Jewett said Alston settled things down nicely for Clarion.
“He settled the crown down,” Jewett said. “He settled our team down and threw strikes and trusted his defense.”
The crowd, at least the Clarion portion of it, and the Bobcats themselves perhaps needed Alston’s cool demeanor after they believed the home plate umpire gave DCC three runs in the fourth inning.
With two outs and runners on first and second with Clarion leading 1-0, Snowberger hit a ball that Dawson Smail at shortstop made a nice play on. But Smail’s throw was a tad late to get the speedy left-handed hitter Snowberger. Andrew Green, who was running on the 3-2 pitch from second, never stopped around third. Alston, who was playing first at the time, threw a perfect strike to catcher Noah Harrison, who appeared to apply the tag in plenty of time to get Green.
But the home plate umpire ruled Green safe.
Watch Green steal the run
Jewett was rather agitated at the call at the plate, which was reminiscent of a call in extra innings in the 2017 title game against Oswayo Valley that didn’t go Clarion’s way.
“I thought that was clearly an out,” Jewett said. “I didn’t even know what his excuse was. That’s what it is. The game of baseball. But, yeah, I kind of felt like here we go again.”
To add insult to injury for Clarion, Hickman followed with a bloop single to left, and Kaden Brezinski drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead.
Watch Hickman’s base hit
Clarion had taken the 1-0 lead in the third inning when Dawson Smail and Brinkley singled leading off the inning and moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch before Harrison lofted a sacrifice fly to left to score Dawson Smail.
That came against Carter Hickman, who threw one pitch the next batter, Derek Smail, before removing himself from the mound with a sore right arm.
“I don’t have any comment on it right now,” Adam Fox said. “We are going to evaluate it and move on from there. He pitched Thursday. He’s been throwing harder the last few games. He was ready to come out.”
DCC had opportunities early against Tanner Miller getting five hits and two walks off the Clarion starter in two-plus innings of work. But the Cardinals had three runners thrown out on the base paths, including two in the first inning that cost them a chance to score against Miller.
“We didn’t play our best game,” Fox said. “At the end of the day (Clarion) deserves it. They earned it.”
Dawson Smail finished the game 2-for-4 with a double, two runs scored, and two RBIs, while Brinkley was 2-for-4 with a triple, a run scored, and an RBI. Girvan was also 2-for-4.
Hickman went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, a walk, and an RBI for DCC with Snowberger going 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Both teams move into the PIAA playoffs. Clarion will face the District 6 runner-up while DCC will face the District 6 champion. The D6 title game is Wednesday between Harmony and Bishop Guilfoyle. The first round of the PIAA playoffs is Monday, June 5.
Clarion and DCC are on opposite ends of the bracket, so it is possible a rematch of the D9 title game could take place in the state championship game, although both teams have a lot of work ahead of them.
Watch the postgame awards ceremony
Watch Clarion celebrate the title
