Feathers

NEW ENTERPRISE — Sophomore pitcher Kolson Feathers tossed five innings of no-hit ball for the Northern Bedford baseball team Tuesday afternoon at home in helping the Black Panthers to a 7-1 win over Rockwood in the District 5 Class 1A quarterfinals.

NBC (11-9) will now take on Meyersdale Friday at 4:30 p.m. at Salisbury-Elk Lick in the semifinals.

Feathers, who was lifted after five frames with a 5-0 lead, finished with nine strikeouts, three walks and one hit batsmen.

“He’s been consistent the whole way through the season. We knew he was going to be around the plate, and he was the best guy to put on the mound at this time,” NBC coach Ryan Cherry said of his young right-hander.

Junior Ty Kagarise worked the final two innings, surrendering a run on one hit with four strikeouts.

“(Feathers) had a good fastball, good off-speed pitch and we knew he would be competitive,” Cherry added. “He has good composure out there.”

Feathers had five baserunners to deal with in his five innings — Eli Show, who reached on an error, plus three walks and a hit batsmen.

“I didn’t think about (the no-hitter) very much, but I was a little bit aware of it,” Feathers said. “I think I got a little tired. It was hotter than it has been, but I got through it. It was up to coach, but I was going to go as long as I could. Each pitch worked when it did. We never faced them before and I didn’t know what to expect, but we got the job done.”

In the third inning, Feathers had a 1-2-3 frame on just eight pitches. In his last inning, he had two strikeouts and a bizarre out to get out of the frame. Show walked with two outs and was on first when Cooper Harbaugh swung and missed at a ball in the dirt as Show took off for second. The Rockwood runner thought it was a foul ball and started heading back to first. NBC catcher Silas Weitzel alertly threw down to first where Carter Watson tagged him out.

“I had to ask what happened,” Cherry said.

The Panthers went up 1-0 on Show in the first when Jordan Free tripled and scored on a Kagarise single. Watson made it 2-0 in the third when he singled home Feathers.

Rockwood made three errors in the fourth inning that led to a 4-0 NBC lead. Feathers got credit for an RBI fielder’s choice. Kagarise scored in the fifth on a Zach Bowers single for a 5-0 advantage, and two more crossed the plate in the sixth on two Rockwood errors.

“We had a good scouting report on them. We knew if we could put the ball in play, we could come out on top,” Cherry said. “We knew we didn’t want to strike out a lot. I was a little nervous before because if we started popping the ball up, and then we were walking guys … but we came through when we had to with some clutch hits.”

Free and Bowers each finished with two hits for NBC. The Panthers now head to the semifinals — against a 16-5 Meyersdale team — with a roster that looks pretty young on paper.

“We start five sophomores, two freshman and a senior,” Cherry said.

ROCKWOOD (1): E. show p 200, Harbaugh ss 300, N. Show 3b 311, Hale c 200, Kemp cr 000, Svonovec 2b 200, Sembower lf 100, Kinney pr 000, Davis cf 300, Kinney rf 300, Bergstresser 1b 300. Totals — 22-1-1.

NORTHERN BEDFORD (7): Feathers p-cf 221, Free ss 312, Kagarise 2b-p 311, Watson 1b 401, Weitzel c 000, Snider dh 300, Bowers lf 312, Swanseen 3b 310, Lloyd rf-2b 200, Baker cf-rf 311. Totals — 26-7-87.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Rockwood 000 001 0 — 1 1 6

No. Bedford 101 212 X — 7 8 1

E–Zembower 3, Kinney, Harbaugh, Kagarise. 2B–N. Show. 3B–Free. RBI–Feathers, Kagarise, Watson, Bowers. WP–Feathers. LP–E. Show. SO–Feathers 9, Kagarise 4, E. Show 4. BB–E. Show 4, Feathers 3.

Records: Rockwood (8-12), Northern Bedford (11-9).