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Northern Cambria eliminated by Blairsville

BLAIRSVILLE — Earlier this year, Northern Cambria stormed back in a home game against Blairsville to hand the Bobcats one of their three losses this year.

The Colts again had an opportunity to stage a come-from-behind win over the Bobcats, but Blairsville ace Ryan Shirley had no intentions of experiencing any deja vu on Friday afternoon at WyoTech Park.

The game was shortened to six innings due to the mercy rule.

Shirley tossed his best game of the year and fired a four-hit shutout to lift the second-seeded Bobcats to a 10-0 win over the seventh-seeded Colts in a quarterfinal-round game of the District 6 Class 2A baseball playoffs.

Shirley struck out five and walked two. He allowed four singles and just one runner to advance beyond second base.

“Coach (Mark Zerfoss) preached the whole week that we can’t play like we did the first time against them,” Shirley said. “We were up 5-1 in that game, and we let them come back. Today we were up 1-0 and we stopped their momentum. That was the big difference between this game and the first game.”

The Bobcats were clinging to a 1-0 lead when they plated three runs on three singles, a double, a walk and an error to make the score 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Two innings later, and after Northern Cambria coach John Bonatesta replaced starting pitcher Logan Marino with reliever Logan Onkst, Blairsville amassed six runs on four walks, two hits, a hit batsman and an RBI sacrifice fly to enforce the mercy rule and end the game.

“It was a great game in the first four innings,” Bonatesta said. “People are going to look in the paper and see 10 (runs) after six innings, but it could have been 1-1 after the fourth inning, depending on how you saw that close call at the plate, so in that aspect, it was a heck of a game.”

Shirley, who improved to 8-1 on the season, earned his 25th career win, which is a school record.

“We struggled at the plate, but he threw a phenomenal game,” Bonatesta said. “Blairsville has a good group of guys. I’ve been here for six years and I feel like Ryan’s been here for about eight.”

Tyler Moran went 3-for-3 to power the Bobcats. Dakota Sunday singled, doubled and drove in two runs, and Ricky Shirley finished 2-for-2.

Losing pitcher Logan Marino struck out four and walked five in five innings. Marino finished the season with a record of 4-2.

Blairsville (15-3) plays host to the winner of today’s quarterfinal round game between Bellwood-Antis and Bishop Guilfoyle on Tuesday.

NORTHERN CAMBRIA (0): Wiewiora 2b 300, Onkst lf-p 301, M.Marino c 301, L.Marino p-lf 301, Yingling cf 301, Kirsch ss 2-00, Wise 1b 000, Ashurst dh 100, Pershing 3b 100, Totals –19-0-4.

BLAIRSVILLE (10): Ri.Shirley c 212, McConnell lf 212, Sunday ss 402, Ry.Shirley p 210, Ratkus 2b 211, Knupp 310, Burkhart dh 211, Moran 1b 323, Hrebik 3b 310, Totals — 23-10-10-7.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Northern Cambria 000 000 X — 0 6 3

Blairsville 001 306 X –10 10 0

2B — Sunday. RBI–Ri. Shirley, McConnell 2, Sunday 2, Moran, Hrebik. WP — Ry.Shirley. LP — L.Marino. SO–Ry. Shirley 5, L. Marino 4. BB–Ry. Shirley 2, L. Marino 5.

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