SOMERSET — The record book will read that the Coudersport baseball team logged no state playoff victories in the 2019 season.
The Falcons, understandably, will claim they actually had two.
Three days after securing its spot in the state tournament, Coudersport had to make the 180-mile, four-hour drive to Somerset for a first round game with District 5 champion Conemaugh Township. And though that’s where an impressive postseason run ended in a 5-3 loss Monday, that came only after a three-games-in-four-days venture.
After dropping the District 9 Class AA title game to Moniteau, 5-4, the Falcons were made to play not one, but two sub-regional contests to earn their place. They won both in consecutive days, beating West Shamokin, 6-2, in DuBois on Thursday night before returning on Friday at 11 a.m. and dominating Sayre, 13-0, in five innings.
Still feeling the effects of those contests, they took a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning Monday on a sacrifice fly from Jackson Glover before coming up just short of another inspired victory.
“We as a team, and as coaches, consider those two games (state playoff wins),” Coudy coach Doug McClintic said. “I don’t know of any other team in the state that had to play two games (against teams from outside the district), then turn around and have a four-hour drive for the PIAA game (compared to 20 minutes for Conemaugh).
“We’re not making excuses, (but) we definitely got off to a slow start. We kept urging them to get it in gear, but to their credit (Conemaugh) did. It took us awhile to get going, and that’s unlike us. We usually jump on teams as early as possible.”
Conemaugh scored runs in each of the first two innings and jumped back ahead with a three-run bottom of the sixth. The Indians led off the frame with a pair of base hits and sacrificed them over before the bottom of the lineup came up with a couple of RBI singles.
Owen Chambers had tied it on a two-run double in the fifth before Jackson’s sac fly gave Coudy the lead.
Both starting pitchers gave their teams a chance to win late.
Devin Foster allowed three runs on five hits while striking out seven over six solid innings for Conemaugh. Blake Burgett surrendered just two runs over five innings for the Falcons, who finished the year 17-5.
“It was really two pitchers of different makeup,” McClintic said. “One was a lefty who threw about 80 (Foster), the other was a right-hander who was throwing knuckleballs no faster than 58. Both pitchers did an outstanding job of keeping hitters off balance. Even with runners on base, both guys were able to work out of most jams.”
Though Coudy was only outhit, 7-5, it committed six errors to the Indians’ four.
“Errors played a factor,” McClintic went on. “We had way too many errors. That was uncharacteristic of our team based on the regular season. With a knuckleballer, we know they’re going to put the ball in play, and we’ve got to play better defense behind him.”
Given what his team had endured in the previous week, McClintic was proud of the way his team battled, coming within just an inning of advancing yet again. He loses six key contributors to graduation.
“We’ll have our work cut out for us next year,” he acknowledged. “Hopefully the underclassmen were paying attention as to what it takes to get to this point.”
