Baseball

Big fourth ends year for AAHS

STATE COLLEGE -- A six-run fourth inning for State College provided the difference Tuesday afternoon as the Little Lions registered an 8-5 victory over Altoona in a District 6 Class 6A semifinal-round playoff game at the State College baseball field.

"If you told me we were going to score five runs against them, I would have liked our chances,'' veteran Altoona coach Tom Smith said. "Unfortunately, we struggled in that fourth inning.''

Second-seeded State College (7-11) broke a 2-2 tie with the six runs on four hits in the inning to take a commanding 8-2 lead.

State College also benefited from a walk, a hit batsman and two Altoona errors in the big inning.

State College sent 10 batters to the plate in the fourth inning, with senior Alex Hlivia leading off with a single to right field against Altoona starting pitcher Kyle Wilson. After Garret Holzapfel bunted Hlivia to second, senior Ryan Terrizzi popped out for the second out of the inning.

But that's when the trouble started for third-seeded Altoona (6-12).

Senior Juman Sung, batting in the eighth spot, came up with an infield single to deep short, moving Hlivia to third. Second baseman Drew Moerschbacher followed by drawing a walk to load the bases, and junior catcher Ethan Schimony, batting out of the leadoff spot, drilled a sharp single to left-center. Hlivia and Sung scored on the hit, and Moersbacher crossed home plate with a third run when the ball was misplayed in the outfield, giving State College a 5-2 lead.

Schimony went to second on the play, and third baseman Jake Cooper was hit by a Wilson pitch. Center fielder Nate Polo followed with a single to right field, scoring Schimony, while Cooper and Polo moved up to third and second, respectively, on the throw in from the outfield.

An Altoona throwing error on a ground ball hit by senior Matt Ling allowed both Cooper and Polo to score and create the 8-2 State College lead.

"That inning was obviously the turning point in the game,'' Smith said. "Their number eight batter got a single, and we walked their number nine batter. Their leadoff guy (Schimony) has owned us all year, and he came up with a big hit there.''

State College coach Jeremy Dinsmore saluted Schimony for his key single in the fourth inning.

"That was a big hit by Ethan,'' Dinsmore said. "He's been unbelievable for us in every spot offensively and defensively that we've put him in. He seems to come through in every situation in which he is being counted upon.''

Altoona - which took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on junior Aidan Steinbugl's leadoff triple, senior Tyreke Green's RBI single, and another run-scoring single by senior Trevor Manley later in the inning that scored Green - kept battling the entire game.

State College tied the game, 2-2 with two runs in the bottom of the first inning on a run-scoring grounder by Polo and Ling's sacrifice fly, and Altoona tried to mount a comeback from the 8-2 deficit with two runs in the fifth inning when State College reliever Brady Bendik issued three consecutive walks. Altoona tacked on another run in the sixth inning when junior Matt Moyer drew a leadoff walk off Bednik and eventually came around to score on Green's groundout to make it an 8-5 game.

Altoona, however, left the bases loaded in the fifth and two more runners stranded in the sixth.

"To our credit, we showed some life after falling behind, 8-2,'' Smith said. "I love the effort thatthe players put forth today. We battled and scored some runs, but we missed some opportunities in the fifth and sixth innings.''

While State College faces top-seeded Mifflin County in the District 6 Class 6A championship game next Tuesday at Altoona's Peoples Natural Gas Field, the Mountain Lions - which jumped to the Mid-Penn Conference this season from the Central Penn Conference -- are looking ahead to 2022.

"We lose eight seniors,'' Smith said. "We lose some talent, but we should have enough coming back to be competitive.''

ALTOONA (5): Steinbugl ss-p 311, Weyandt ss 000, Green cf 311, Muffie 2b 300, Day rf 300, Manley 1b 401, Wilson p-dh 401, Yost cr 000, Moyer 3b 200, Rhodes lf 321, Carothers c 211. Totals - 27-5-6.

STATE COLLEGE (8): Schimony c 212, Yoder cr 010, Cooper 3b 221, Polo cf 411, Ling rf 300, Hlivuia ss 411, Holzapfel p-1b 200, Bendik p 100, Terrizzi lf 000, Allison dh 300, Sung 1b 211, Moerschbacher 2b 110. Totals - 24-8-6.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Altoona 200 021 0--5-6-2

State College 200 600 X-8-6-3

E--Steinbugl 2, Rhodes, Sung, Holzapfel. 2B--Cooper. 3B--Steinbugl. RBI--Green 2, Muffie, Day, Manley, Schimony 2, Pole 2, Ling. SAC--Holzapfel. SF--Ling. HBP--Cooper (by Wilson); Cooper by Steinbugl; Schimony by Wilson. LOB--Altoona 7, State College 6.

PITCHING

Altoona: Wilson (L) 3 2/3IP, 5H, 7R, 6ER, 1BB, 1SO; Bettwy 1/3IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 0SO; Alwine 1+IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 2BB, 0S0; Steinbugl 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2SO.

State College: Holzapfel 4+IP, 6H, 4R, 4ER, 1BB, 4SO; Bendik (W) 3IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 5BB, 5S0.

Umpires: Cody Cogan (plate); Jeff Holter (first base); Mike Kresovich (second base); Dave Urbanick (third base).

Time of game: 1:54.