DUBOIS – It was a comeback you had to see to believe.
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Trailing 13-9 going to the seventh inning, Clearfield erupted for a seven-run rally to stun St. Marys, 16-13 in the District 9 Class 4A championship game at Showers Field.
The first nine batters of the seventh reached for Clearfield courtesy of a hit-by-pitch, two walks, single, single, another walk, another single, another walk and another hit-by-pitch.
Hunter Rumsky, the seventh man to bat in the inning for Clearfield, hit a two-run single that ultimately gave Clearfield the lead for good, 15-13.
“We’ve been working so hard all season, and we kept our composure the whole game,” said Clearfield’s Christian Welker. “We never gave up.”
See Welker’s full interview:
Clearfield trailed 12-7 after St. Marys exploded for a 9-run third inning. Enter Welker.
Welker got it done both at the plate and on the mound. Having thrown just 9 ⅓ innings all season, he went 4 ⅔ innings in relief to get the win, allowing one run on five hits, striking out three and walking one.
“I can’t say enough about Christian,” said Clearfield coach Sid Lansberry. “He did a super, super job. St. Marys was hitting the ball, they have good hitters. Christian came in, and they were still hitting the ball, but we had some good defensive plays. We had a lot of discipline at the plate. Our guys dug in and tried to get to their bullpen, which they did.”
Cole Bloom started the rally getting hit by a pitch, followed by a Tony Lopez walk, a Welker walk, a Hayvin Bumbarger RBI single to make it 13-10, an O’Brian Owens RBI single, a Derrik Mikesell bases-loaded walk, Rumsky’s 2-run single, a Hayden Rumsky hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded and a Lopez RBI groundout.
The Bison sent 12 men to the plate in the inning.
“Never had a game like that,” said Lansberry, who has been head coach of the Bison since 1972. “The last inning when we came back, their closer was on the hill and he was throwing pretty good. But our kids stayed patient. We have great team leadership.”
St. Marys trailed 5-0 going to the third on the strength of a 2-run double from Welker, an RBI single from Hayvin Bumbarger, and a pair of St. Marys errors.
St. Marys trailed 7-3 after a two-run double from Cole Bloom in the top of the third but erupted for nine runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 12-7 lead.
In the third, Cameron Coudriet drew a bases-loaded walk, Ben Paul had a two-run single to cut the lead to 7-6, Ben Reynolds hit a two-run double to give the Dutchmen an 8-7 lead, Bauer drew a bases-loaded walk, Jackson Vollmer hit a two-run single, and Carter Redmond capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly.
Welker hit a 2-run single in the fifth to get Clearfield back within 12-9, but Redmond’s RBI single extended the lead to 13-9 in the fifth before Clearfield’s rally in the seventh.
“We had a plan coming in and obviously the plan was not to have three errors in the first couple of innings,” said St. Marys coach Jesse Beimel. “The big inning, we got nine there in the third, and everything kind of fell into place and then we just kind of lost it. That’s just the way it goes sometimes. We gave it away a little bit at the end there, but it was a great game. We outhit them, and we also out-errored them and out-walked them. There were a lot of positives but a lot of things we couldn’t overcome.”
For St. Marys, Reynolds was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, while Vollmer was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, Redmond 2-for-5 with two RBIs, Paul 3-for-4 with three RBIs and Mason Nicklas 2-for-3 with an RBI.
Bloom was 2-for-4 with three RBIs for Clearfield, while Welker was 2-for-5 with three RBIs, Bumbarger 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Rumsky 2-for-5 with two RBIs.
For Clearfield, it’s on to Bellefonte for a PIAA Class 4A subregional game next week. The two teams split during the regular season.
