Dragons escape NBC battle

04/19/24 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski /
Central catcher Britton Marko congratulates pitcher Mason Byler after the win as third baseman Lukas Black looks on.

By Michael Boytim

mboytim@altoonamirror.com

Central has grown accustomed to playing for Altoona Curve Classic championships over the years against larger schools, and the Scarlet Dragons take a lot of pride in the opportunity.

Friday afternoon, Central found itself on the opposite side of the coin as a smaller school, Northern Bedford, gave the Dragons all they could handle in the semifinals.

The Black Panthers took a one-run lead in the top of the sixth inning after rallying from a five-run deficit, but Central leaned on senior leadership and came away with a 10-8 win over Northern Bedford at PNG Field.

“I was really happy with that,” Central coach A.J. Hoenstine said. “I give credit to our seniors for that. We have a lot of underclassmen. We only have five seniors on the team, but they are fantastic leaders and take charge and don’t hit the panic button.”

After Northern Bedford made an error to start the bottom of the sixth inning, Hunter Smith walked and Griffin Snowberger singled to load the bases with no outs. Britton Marko’s bases-loaded walk tied the game, Troy McNichol’s sacrifice fly gave the Dragons the lead and Baron Dionis brought home an insurance run on a fielder’s choice.

“It’s a cool environment here,” Snowberger said. “We have a history here. We have played a lot of big games here, and it’s a really fun experience to be out here every year. Winning this is definitely pretty high up there on our goal list. It’s something we are trying to win every year, and it would be a huge accomplishment to win it this year.”

Snowberger finished 3-for-4 with three runs scored, and Marko had a pair of sacrifice flies while finishing with three RBIs.

Central took control of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning when Wyatt Dilling started a string of five straight singles, which included two bunts for hits and a hit-and-run single by Mason Byler, who was the game’s winning pitcher in relief.

“That was huge,” Hoenstine said. “The first couple innings there and even later, we were hitting balls hard but right at people. I think we started that inning off with the bloop to get things started and then that got us rolling. Wyatt Dilling has been really swinging the bat well for us. He got that inning started.”

Northern Bedford, which beat Bishop Guilfoyle in extra innings in the first round, played right with the Scarlet Dragons for the majority of the game.

“We played OK, but we had a bad fourth inning,” Northern Bedford coach Ryan Cherry said. “We gave up five runs, and they bunted the ball around. We were in spots to make plays, and that was the difference in the game. We matched them hit for hit, but that ended up being the difference in the game.”

The Black Panthers got back into the game with three runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth.

Rece Dibert and Josiah Bowser had RBI hits in the fifth, and Eion Snider hit a two-run triple that tied the game in the sixth before Dibert’s RBI single put Northern Bedford ahead, 8-7.

“Northern Bedford has a really nice team,” Hoenstine said. “A lot of those kids are two or three sport athletes and you can tell. They are gamers, and Coach Cherry runs a nice program. We have a lot of respect for them.”

The lead was short-lived thanks to a costly error to begin the bottom of the inning.

“When you start the inning with an error that should be an out, that kind of hurts you and it snowballs from there,” Cherry said. “Even in that fourth inning, we just didn’t make the plays. We battled back, which I’m proud of our team for doing, but we have to eliminate those big innings and big mistakes.”

Northern Bedford fell to 5-4 this season.

“I think we played well the last few days,” Cherry said. “We started well and then had a little bit of a lull with the rain where our bats went silent. We’re back to hitting really well, and I think this will help us next week.”

Central will play Altoona in the championship game Saturday at noon at PNG Field.

“They really look forward to this,” Hoenstine said. “We try not to get too high with it, because we have bigger goals, but we often meet Hollidaysburg or Altoona in the championship too, which is big to try and beat either one of those teams.”

NORTHERN BEDFORD (8): Bowers 1b 402, Horsh 2b 311, Musselman cf 321, E. Snider ss 412, Dibert rf 412, Bowser p-3b 302, Free cr 020, Gable 3b-lf 211, Watson 3b 200, Kagarise c 400, A. Kochara lf-p 000, N. Kochara dh 400. Totals — 33-8-11.

CENTRAL (10): Smith 1b 231, Snowberger 2b 433, Marko c 100, Moushlian cr 000, McNichol rf 301, Harbaugh p 000, Loucks cf 000, Dionis dh 300, Hoenstine cf-lf 401, Dilling ss 412, Black 3b 211, Byler lf-p 321. Totals — 26-10-10.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Northern Bedford 000 233 0– 8 11 4

Central 002 503 X–10 10 4

E–E. Snider, Bowser, Musselman, Kagarise, Smith 2, Harbaugh, Dilling. 2B–Bowser, Dibert. 3B–E. Snider. RBI–E. Snider 2, Dibert 2, Bowser, Marko 3, McNichol 2, Smith, Dionis, Byler.

PITCHING

Northern Bedford: Bowser (L)–5 IP, 9H, 3BB, 1K, 10R, 7ER, 101 pitches. A. Kochara–1 IP, 1H, 1BB, 0R, 0ER, 12 pitches.

Central: Harbaugh–5 IP, 8H, 3BB, 5K, 5R, 4ER, 89 pitches; Byler (W)–2 IP, 3H, 1BB, 3R, 0ER, 35 pitches.

Umpires: Dave Gildea (HP); Bill Wolf (bases).

Records: Northern Bedford (5-4); Central (9-1).