HAZLE TWP. – A glance at the scoreboard at Schiavo Field and the game boxscore suggested another Hazleton Area blowout.
A closer look inside the numbers, however, revealed just how close Crestwood came to pulling off the biggest upset of the Wyoming Valley Conference baseball season on Wednesday.
Mired in a five-game losing streak, the fired-up Comets went ahead, 3-2, in the top of the fifth inning and then appeared to thwart a Cougar rally in the bottom half. But a two-out error allowed Hazleton Area to score two runs and reclaim the lead for keeps in what eventually became a 10-3 victory.
“I don’t think we played great, but I think Crestwood played great,” Hazleton Area head coach Russ Canzler said, after the Comets made his team work for its ninth straight win. “You’ve got to give them credit (because) their energy was awesome. It was noticeable from the start. Their at-bats were very competitive. It seemed like they didn’t want to go away.”
It was quite a difference from the teams’ meeting in Rice Twp. just 12 days earlier, when Hazleton Area pounced on the Comets early to sap their spirit on the way to a 10-1 win.
“We’ve had better approaches at the plate than we did (Wednesday),” Canzler added. “But with that being said, to see our guys win in a different way – with quality at-bats, walks, bunts … base stealing – I think we responded to adversity very well. These guys have been in these kinds of situations before. They didn’t panic.”
The Comets (3-8-1, 2-6) twice took one-run leads to make at least some Hazleton Area fans fidget in the stands.
“You could see there’s life here,” Crestwood head coach Sean Foley said, pointing to the Comets’ dugout. “If we swing at good pitches and …get timely hitting, we could play good baseball.”
Zach Stavish led off the second inning with a double down the right field line, took third on a wild pitch and came home on Bobby Reed’s two-out, two-strike single off Hazleton Area starting pitcher Jack Esposito.
Meanwhile, Crestwood freshman Avery Brace worked around a Dom Marino triple in the home first and his two-out walk to Freddy Corrado in the second to keep the heavy-hitting Cougars off the scoreboard through two innings.
“He pitched exceptionally strong,” ley said of Brace. “He was able to get his breaking ball over,so we could pitch them backwards a little bit and get them to fly out a few times and keep the score down and keep us in the game.”
The Cougars (11-1, 7-1) finally touched Brace for two runs in the third,. Freshman Anthony Masias, the No. 9 hitter in their batting order, and Logan Hearity both singled and Chris Knelly walked for the first of three time on the afternoon to load the bases with no outs. Marino followed with sacrifice fly and Mason Eckert bunted Hearity to give Hazleton Area its first lead.
After stranding two base runners against Esposito in the fourth, the Comets made sure that didn’t happen again one inning later.
With one out in the top of the fifth, Jack Rodgers blooped a double to end Esposito’s day on the mound. Nick Cunniffe came on to fan Patrick for the second out, before things got wacky.
Cunniffe’s 1-2 pitch grazed Jaxson Fedak and Stavish then hit a grounder to third baseman Jeudi Hidalgo, who slipped as he tried beat Rodgers to third for the force out. Instead, the bases were loaded for Chase Galella. Cunniffe’s second offering skipped past catcher Chris Knelly, allowing Rodgers to score the tying run. When the return throw went awry, Fedak came home to put the Comets back in front.
Cunniffe escaped further trouble, but his teammates now needed to stage their own comeback.
Hearity and Knelly led off the bottom of the fifth with walks and their successful double steal gave the Cougars runners and second and third with no outs and the heart of their order due up.
Miles McShea relieved Brace at that point, getting Marino to fly out and Eckert to look at a called third strike for the first two outs. Mason Rinker followed with an infield popup that was misplayed, bringing Hearity and Knelly to give the Hazleton Area the lead for good.
Cunniffe retired Crestwood’s last seven batters – four by strikeout, two on groundouts and one on Masias’ splendid catch of a Rodgers drive to the fence in left – to make sure the Cougars’ advantage stuck. A six-run rally in the sixth helped, too.
Hearity and Knelly started things with a single and walk, respectively, before consecutive RBI singles by Marino, pinch hitter LD Ventra, Rinker, Hidalgo, Corrado and Chris Peters put the game out of reach, but not before enduring some anxious moments.
“The conference is very balanced,” Canzler said. “There are good teams up and down our division. Anybody can pop anybody. …We’ve got to understand that.”
The Comets offered proof, as did Wyoming Valley West in a 6-5 loss to Canzler’s team earlier this month. The Cougars and Spartans will meet again Sunday, at 4:30 p.m., at PNC Field, Moosic.
Crestwood will regroup for a home game against Wilkes-Barre Area on Friday.
“This is a reset,” Foley said. “This is the second half of the conference (and) we’re all going to hit the reset button. Whatever happened before, we’re just going to let it go and go forward from here. I’m very proud of how they operated today.”
Game summary
At Schiavo Field, Hazle Twp.
CRESTWOOD (3) — Rodgers ss 4 1 1 0, Leroy rf 4 0 0 0, Fedak lf 2 1 0 0, Stavish dh 2 1 2 0, King pr 0 0 0 0, O’Neill c 0 0 0 0, Galella 2b 1 0 0 0, Wagaman 1b 3 0 0 0, Smith cf 0 0 0 0, Reed 3b 2 0 1 1, Brace p 2 0 0 0, McShea p 1 0 0 0, Wayno cf-1b 3 0 0 0. Totals 24 3 4 1.
HAZLETON AREA (10) — Hearity ss 3 3 2 0, C. Knelly c 1 1 0 0, Marino dh 3 1 2 2, Esposito p 0 0 0 0, Cunniffe p 0 0 0 0, Eckert lf 3 0 0 1, Ventra ph 1 1 1 1, Rinker cf 4 1 1 1, Hidalgo 3b 4 1 2 1, Corrado 1b 2 1 1 1, Peters rf-p 3 0 1 1, Glickert rf 0 0 0 0, Masias 2b 4 1 1 0. Totals 28 10 11 8.
Crest (3-8-1, 2-6)…. …….010 020 0 — 3Haz. Area (11-1, 7-1)…. 002 026 x — 10
E —Crestwood 2, Hazleton Area 2. LOB — Crestwood 6, Hazleton Area 8. 2B — Rodgers, Stavish. 3B — Marino. SB — Rodgers, Hearity 4, C. Knelly 2, Marino. CS — Fedak. S — Galella. SF — Marino.
Crestwood
IP H R ER BB K
Brace L………….4.0 3 4 2 4 3McShea………… 1.2 5 4 4 2 1
Brown…………… 0.1 3 2 2 0 0
Hazleton Area
IP H R ER BB K
Esposito…………. 4.1 3 2 2 3 5
Cunniffe W…….. 2.2 1 1 0 1 5HBP — by Brace (Peters), by Cunniffe (Fedak). WP — Brace, Esposito. PB — C. Knelly.
Brace pitched to 2 batters in the 5th.