By Nate Ritchey
nritchey@altoonamirror.com
MCCONNELLSBURG – Northern Bedford’s Aaron Bowers had a game of firsts.
The junior had not hit a home run this season and he delivered a crushing blow to center field on a 3-2 pitch as the first batter of the night.
Then in the sixth, Bowers smacked the first grand slam of his career over the right-center field wall in for what was the eventual winning hit.
The Black Panthers survived a wild rally from McConnellsburg in earning a 10-7 victory and punching their ticket to the District 5 Class 2A championship game.
“They were both of 3-2 counts. I focused on staying short and thinking fastball and if he came with off speed, I was going to react,” Bowers said. “But, he came fastball and I was on it. I thought it (grand slam) was gone but at the same time I thought he might catch it.”
NBC, the third seed, will play top-seeded North Star on Tuesday at Bedford High School with first pitch slated for 2 p.m.
“Aaron Bowers came up huge,” Northern Bedford coach Ryan Cherry said. “That grand slam in the sixth was huge.”
Bowers’ solo shot held up until the Panthers put up four more runs in the top of the fourth as back-to-back-to-back singles from Reece Musselman, Josiah Bowser and Receiver Dibert were followed by a two-run double from Eion Snider.
Ben Gable and Tyler Kagarise lifted sacrifice fly’s on consecutive batters to score Dibert and Snider to put Northern Bedford up 5-0.
The Black Panthers appeared ready to end the contest with a five-run sixth inning rally with two outs.
Snider landed on first on a fielder’s choice, Gable singled to left field and then Kagarise reached first on a throwing error by Spartan shortstop Andrew Mellott that allowed Snider to cross home plate and Gable to advance to third.
Alex Kochara walked to load the bases, then Bowers worked another 3-2 count before connecting for the grand slam that put NBC up 10-0.
“Most high school kids pitch to the zone,” McConnellsburg coach Robert Koontz said. “They don’t know where the ball is going once they let it go — they can’t spot the ball. He’s a good hitter, and he had two strikes on him there. He swung at the fastball and we got the ball up on him. Our pitchers threw the ball up too much tonight.”
Northern Bedford needed just three outs to put the game to rest and move on.
However, McConnellsburg, which had trouble figuring out and getting to Musselman through five innings, righted the ship to make a game of it.
Musselman only faced the minimum of three batters in the second, fourth and fifth innings, while only surrendering two hits — a single by Jackson Clevenger in the first and a gap-shot double from Gavin Fowler in the third.
Both times, no damage came from the hits.
“Musselman has been that way all year — I think he’s been into at least the sixth inning in every game he’s pitched,” Cherry said. “He’s our ace. He doesn’t lose his composure, he throws a lot of strikes and a lot of ground balls.”
In the bottom of the sixth, the Spartans jumped on the junior from the first batter as Fowler singled, Clevenger doubled and then Reese Alexander had a two-run double to make the score 10-2 before Shafer Earley grounded out.
Ben Sattazahn produced an RBI infield single, Hoyt Glenn singled to right and then Landin Gress flew out to left field for the second out.
Riley Shafer got things going again for McConnellsburg with a single to center that drove home Sattazahn and Gress to draw the score to 10-5.
Andrew Mellott knocked in Shafer for the final run of the inning on a single to right before Fowler walked and Clevenger grounded out to second to end the inning with NBC clinging to the 10-6 edge.
“We needed that fight the whole game,” Koontz said. “Hats off to Musselman because he threw a good game — we finally got to him there. But it was too late, the damage was done.”
The Panthers got groundouts from Musselman and Bowser before Dibert was hit by a pitch but then stranded when Snider grounded to the second baseman.
With Bowser, who came on in relief with two outs in the sixth, pitching for NBC, Alexander led off the bottom of the seventh by singling to center before moving to second on a hit by pitch and to third on Sattazahn’s groundout.
Glenn would ground out to second but produce the RBI as Alexander scored before Gress struck out looking to end the game with Earley stranded on third.
“Even in other sports, these guys have been in tough situations, so we didn’t panic,” Cherry said. “We said that we just needed to get the outs, get the win and get out of here.”
NORTHERN BEDFORD (10): Bowers 1b 422, Horsh 2b 400, Musselman p-dh 411, N. Kochara rf 000, Bowser dh-p 411, Dibert cf 211, E. Snider 3b 421, Gable lf 111, Kagarise c 210, A. Kochara ss 210. Totals — 27 10 7.
MCCONNELLSBURG (7): Mellott ss 301, Fowler 2b 312, Clevenger p-3b 412, Alexander c 322, Early rf 301, Sattazahn 411, Glenn 3b-1b 411, K. Gress 1b 100, Marpoe p 100, L. Gress p 200, Shafer lf 211, Genescritti ph 100. Totals — 31 7 11.
SCORE BY INNINGS
Northern Bedford………… 100 405 0 — 10 7 1
McConnellsburg………… 000 006 1 — 7 11 1
E–N. Kochara, Mellott. 2B–E. Snider, Fowler, Clevenger, Alexander. HR–Bowers 2. RBI–Bowers 5, E. Snider 2, Gable, Kagarise, Alexander 2, Shafer 2, Sattazahn, Glenn. SB–Glenn. WP–Marpoe.
PITCHING
Northern Bedford: Musselman (W) –5 2/3 innings, 10 H, 3 K, 0 BB, 6 R, 6 ER, 76 pitches.
Bowser (S) — 1 1/3 innings, 1 H, 1 K, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 ER, 27 pitches
McConnellsburg: Clevenger (L) –4 innings, 5 H, 3 K, 1 BB, 5 R, 5 ER, 73 pitches.
Marpoe — 1 2/3 innings, 2 H, 0 K, 1 BB, 5 R, 4 ER, 35 pitches.
L. Gress — 1 1/3 innings, 0 H, 1 K, 0 BB, 0 R, 0 ER, 23 pitches.
Records: Northern Bedford (14-6); McConnellsburg (15-6).
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