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Bearcats upset Central in 3A

The Huntingdon Area High School baseball team entered Saturday afternoon’s District 6 Class 3A championship game against top-seeded Central as the seventh seed with a modest 12-7 record.

But Huntingdon proved that numbers, just like appearances, can be quite deceiving.

The Bearcats rode the stellar pitching of junior right-hander Jared Showalter, who threw six shutout innings, to a 2-0 upset victory over the Scarlet Dragons, who went into the game with a 20-2 record.

“We were the seventh seed entering this tournament, but had we won our last two games in the regular season, we would have been the second seed,” Huntingdon coach George Zanic said. “We feel like we can play with any team in District 6. Central is a great team, but we were geared up for them.”

So was Showalter, who tied the senior-laden Scarlet Dragons’ lineup up in knots while allowing just three singles over six innings.

“I was trying to throw my fastball up and in, to keep them off-balance the whole game,” Showalter said. “I felt really good today. All of my pitches — fastball, curve and changeup — were working.

“It’s a great feeling,” Showalter said of his team winning the district title. “Coming in as the seventh seed, we were underestimated. People didn’t think that we were as good as we are.”

Showalter battled through a 30-pitch first inning in which Central loaded the bases with one out before Showalter got two batters to ground out to keep the Dragons off the scoreboard.

Had it not been for the tough first inning, Showalter undoubtedly would have been on the mound in the seventh inning to finish what he started.

But Showalter reached the PIAA limit of 100 pitches after six innings, and Huntingdon coach George Zanic was forced to replace him. Junior Alex Mykut moved from catcher to the pitcher’s mound and tossed a scoreless seventh inning for the Bearcats, who, like Central, will move on to the PIAA state tournament.

“Today was a great pitching performance by Jared Showalter,” Zanic said. “He threw 30 pitches in the first inning, then gutted it out and was very strong from the second through sixth inning. He was exactly at 100 pitches after the sixth inning.”

Central coach A.J. Hoenstine was impressed with Showalter, who led Huntingdon to victory Saturday after the Dragons had won both of the two regular-season Mountain League meetings between the two teams.

It was only because Showalter was so effective that Central senior right-hander Jarrett Imler, who pitched a complete-game three-hitter of his own, did not end up as the winning pitcher.

“There were two excellent high school pitchers out there today,” Hoenstine said of Imler and Showalter. “Jarrett Imler threw a great game for us, like he always does. But hat’s off to their pitcher. I don’t know when the last time we were shut out. We pride ourselves in putting the ball in play, but we struck out too much (six) today.”

Huntingdon pushed across an unearned run in the top of the first inning, courtesy of two Central errors, the first of which enabled junior center fielder Nick Zanic to reach, and the second of which moved him to third base, from where he scored on a groundout by senior right fielder Seth Baney.

Huntingdon scored its other run in the sixth inning, when Nick Zanic drew a leadoff walk, stole second, and scored on Showalter’s double to deep left field.

“We did just enough to win the game offensively,” George Zanic said. “We made them pay for the mistakes they made early in the game.”

Even so, Central had a couple decent chances later in the game to get back into the thick of things. In the fifth inning, senior catcher Jacob Muthler started the frame with an infield single and was run for by freshman Noah Muthler.

Noah Muthler eventually wound up at third base with two outs before Huntingdon shortstop Nick Holesa made a nice short-hop grab of Alex Hoenstine’s tricky grounder to retire the side.

Central also had runners on first and second with nobody out in the sixth, before Showalter got Hunter Liebal to pop up and Michael Speck to fly out into what turned into a double play on a baserunning mistake by Central’s lead runner.

Both Huntingdon and Central will move on to play state-tournament games on Monday, June 5. Huntingdon meets the runners-up from District 7, and Central will face the survivor of Wednesday’s District 5-8-9 Class 3A championship game between Chestnut Ridge and Karns City.

“We’ve got a great group of kids, and we’ll regroup,” A.J. Hoenstine said. “There are 16 teams left in our classification in the state tournament. This is a fun time of year.”

HUNTINGDON (2): Zanic cf 220, Holesa ss 300, Showalter p 201, Baney rf 301, Mykut c 300, Fleming c 000, Wagner cr 000, Huntsman 2b 000, Fisher dh 301, Weglarz lf 300, Briggs 1b 200, Conner ph 100, Gearhart 3b 200. Totals — 24-2-3.

CENTRAL (0): Corle 2b 400, Hoenstine ss 301, Smith cf 100, McKnight 3b 201, Liebal lf 300, Speck rf 200, Brumbaugh 1b 200, Nicewonger ph 100, J. Muthler c 101, N. Muthler cr 000, Imler p 200. Totals — 21-0-3.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Huntingdon 100 001 0–2 3 0

Central 000 000 0–0 3 3

E–Corle 2, McKnight. 2B–Showalter. RBI–Showalter, Baney. LOB–Huntingdon 2, Central 7. SAC–Imler. SB–Zanic 2, Wagner. CS–N. Muthler (Mykut to Holesa). DP — Huntingdon turned 1 (Baney to Holesa); Central turned 1 (Liebal to J. Muthler to McKnight).

PITCHING

Huntingdon: Showalter (W), 6IP, 3H, 0R, 0ER, 5BB, 5 SO; Mykut (S) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 1SO.

Central: Imler (L) 7IP, 3H, 2R, 1ER, 2BB, 5SO.

Records: Huntingdon (13-7); Central (20-3).

Umpires: Plate–Brent Dorofey. First base–Ron Goisovich. Second base–Seth Matthews. Third base–Rich Horner.

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