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By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
BELLWOOD -- Bellwood-Antis has had a solid high school baseball program for more than 20 years, but last season's 5-13 finish raised some eyebrows.
Longtime head coach Steve Conlon, who won a PIAA Class 1A championship in his first season at the helm in 2003, retired after 20 seasons and more than 200 wins clearing the path for new head coach, Adam Plummer.
Plummer was the star pitcher for that Blue Devils title team in 2003 and won the state championship game, 2-1, over Elk Lake and he's now trying to prove last year was just a blip in the radar for a strong B-A program.
"I didn't see a lot last year, but we have come a long way," Plummer said. "The biggest thing was changing our mentality. We battle. We know what our weaknesses are and what our strengths are and play to our strengths. It's a different atmosphere. These guys have come together as a team, and they battle for each other. I like the mindset moving forward, and I think we're developing something pretty good here."
Bellwood-Antis won four of its first five games, losing only to defending PIAA Class 3A champion Central, and had a chance to match its win total from all of last season Tuesday at home against Curwensville.
After falling behind early, the Blue Devils took a three-run lead after four innings but couldn't make it stand up. The Golden Tide scored three runs in each of the next two innings and came away with an 8-6 win.
Bellwood left two runners in scoring position in the third, fourth and fifth innings and another in the sixth.
"You try to get it through to them that this is part of the process," Plummer said. "They are young, and they had five wins last year. We are going to get to a point where these games are going to happen. We should have been hitting the ball, but we weren't hitting the ball. We have to battle through that. Every inning, we've had runners in scoring position, and we have to realize we need to get the ball in play and get those runners in. We're going to have days where we have to battle through, and we talked about it after the game. We can't let this game get us down for games in the future. This game is done."
The Blue Devils have just one senior, Nick Kost, who bats leadoff and helps serve as a leader for the younger players who hope this is the start of big things to come.
"The future is bright," Plummer said. "Our middle infielders are sophomores (Matt Berkowitz and Zach Gonzalez). We have juniors at the corners (Vincent Cacciotti and Zach Pier), and we have a good young group coming up. We started junior high baseball this year. Our eighth-grade class is solid coming up. We're not rebuilding anymore, we're just refueling for the future."
Going into Tuesday's game, the Blue Devils had outscored their opponents, 64-25, but Curwensville came up with 14 hits -- three from catcher Andrew Pentz, including the go-ahead double in the sixth inning.
The Golden Tide had to make a coaching change just before the season when former head coach Thomas Harzinski was arrested and charged with felony rape of a child among other charges.
Tuesday's win evened Curwensville's record at 2-2 and was a positive in what has been a season of adversity.
"It's definitely good for us going forward," Curwensville coach Derek Dixon said. "We are just to just look at each game and find where we can get wins. We're trying to compete and play our best game. We are just trying to scrap together the best we can. We have a doubleheader on Thursday, and this will hopefully be an excellent building block for that and going forward."
Berkowitz, Gonzalez and Tanner Swogger each had two hits for the Blue Devils.
Plummer will likely be around the baseball program a long time, much like his coach, Conlon.
"I have lived here my entire life and continue to live here," Plummer said. "I love all the sports in Bellwood. I'm at all the football games. My kids, I have two boys in eighth and sixth grade and my two daughters are still in elementary school, but I love coming back and coaching. It's kind of my way to give back to what gave me so much growing up."
With area teams Tyrone, Central and Everett winning state titles in the past five years, Plummer said there's a lot of good baseball being played in the area and has been even dating back to when he played in 2003.
"There's a lot of talent," Plummer said. "There's a lot of great baseball right here in Central PA. I think it's the toughness for one, if you look at any sport in this area, teams around here are just tough. Every year, no matter what sport it is, you have someone making a long run in the state playoffs. I think that just goes to show the toughness in our area."
CURWENSVILLE (8): C. Fegert cf-p 411, Pentz c 513, Kunkle ss 422, A. Sutika 3b 201, Radzieta cr-pr 020, N. Fegert lf-p-lf 412, Neiswender 1b 402, M. Sutika p-rf-cf 402, Finn dh-p-rf 400, Pierce 2b 000, McCartney rf-lf 200, Butler 2b 211. Totals -- 35-8-14.
BELLWOOD-ANTIS (6): Kost lf 210, Dorminy cf 301, Pier 1b 300, Cacciotti 3b 401, Berkowitz ss 312, C. Swogger c 321, T. Swogger rf 412, Gonzalez 2b 312, Bardell dh 301, Cobaugh dh 100, Walls p 000. Totals -- 29-6-10.
SCORE BY INNINGS
Curwensville 011 033 0--8 14 2
Bellwood-Antis 001 410 0--6 10 1
E--M. Sutika, Pentz, Berkowitz. 2B--M. Sutika, Pentz, Gonzalez, C. Swogger, T. Swogger. RBI--Neiswender 3, N. Fegert, A. Sutika, Kunkle, Pentz, T. Swogger 2, Kost.
PITCHING
Curwensville: M. Sutika--3IP, 4H, 1K, 1BB, 3R, 3ER, 47 pitches; N. Fegert--1/3IP, 2H, 1K 2BB, 2R, 1ER, 17 pitches; Finn (W)--2 2/3IP, 4H, 3K, 1BB, 1R, 1ER, 38 pitches; C. Fegert (S)--1IP, 0H, 1K, 0BB, 0R, 0ER, 15 pitches.
Bellwood-Antis: Walls (L)--5 1/3IP, 12H, 6K, 2BB, 7R, 7ER, 94 pitches; Kost--1 2/3IP, 2H, 2K, 0BB, 1R, 1ER, 42 pitches.
Records: Curwensville (2-2); Bellwood-Antis (4-2).
Umpires: Matt Cursio (bases); Bill Straesser (plate).