Cochranton storms into CVAL final

Local Sports

Discussion

July 19, 2008

By Pete Chiodo The Meadville Tribune Sat Jul 19, 2008, 11:55 PM EDT

SAEGERTOWN — Cochranton is playing some outstanding ball right now.

That’s, really, all that needs to be said. There are a lot of words following this sentence, but they’re essentially superfluous. The bottom line is this: The Cochranton American Legion baseball team is playing some outstanding ball right now.

Here’s Cochranton — the fifth seed out of the five-team Crawford/Venango American Legion baseball league. The Blues needed to win a play-in game just to get into the championship tournament, which they did, downing No. 4 seed Franklin 5-3 on Thursday.

That win matched Cochranton up with the league’s top seed, French Creek Valley, in the tournament’s first round. And so Cochranton dispatches French Creek Valley to the loser’s bracket, beating the top seed 8-4 on Friday.

This brings us to Saturday at Ed Acker Field. It’s Cochranton — the fifth seed, remember — against second-seed Meadville. Cochranton dumps Meadville 7-5. Cochranton finds itself in today’s championship game.

Why?

Because Cochranton is playing some outstanding baseball right now.

“We finally started hitting,” said Cochranton’s Zach Staudt. “We’ve been in a slump all summer long. We came into this thing batting something like .240 as a team.”

It was .223, actually.

“Our biggest problem was that we had no offense,” said Bluebirds coach Randy Staudt. “Our fielding percentage was the highest its been ever since I’ve been keeping stats here. Our team ERA was decent. So the only reason we couldn’t win games was that we couldn’t score.”

Piling it on; for yesterday’s game Cochranton was facing Meadville pitcher Ben Lowmaster, who had already fired two no-hitters at Cochranton this season.

Yet, the bubble finally burst in the first inning as Cochranton jumped on Lowmaster and the Red Dogs for five runs on four hits.

Cochranton loaded the bases on a pair of walks and an error. And Zach Staudt shook off the 14-inning Lowmaster curse with a single to left, driving in a run. Mikel Boughner followed with a single to the right side, driving in another run.

With one out, Dalton Pence brought two home with a single to right. And Zac Culbertson kept the party going with an RBI single to left.

Needless to say, Cochranton’s pitcher Cody Northcott liked what he saw.

“I didn’t even throw a pitch and already we had a 5-0 lead,” he said. “That definitely takes a lot of pressure off.”

Northcott went on to pitch a complete game for the win, allowing five runs on five hits while walking five and striking out three.

This, after he pitched four innings in the win over Franklin on Thursday.

“Cody really toughed it out for us,” said Randy Staudt.

“The last inning (on Saturday) was pretty hard,” said Northcott. “But we really wanted this one. We had to play in the play-in game. And now we’re in the championship game.”

Cochranton chalked up the decisive two runs in the second inning. With one out, catcher Craig Garofola hit a two-base gapper to left-center. Zach Staudt followed and went yard — 0-1 count, left field, two runs scored.

“It was right around thigh high,” said Staudt. I’ve been in a slump lately too, so I was just trying to hit line drives. I guess that’s what you get when you try to hit line drives.”

Lowmaster and the Meadville defense kept Cochranton off the scoreboard the rest of the way. Meanwhile, the offense tried to dig its way out of the hole — and came close to doing so.

Dillon Tabar, for example, was 2-for-3 with a two-run double in the third. Kyle Unice singled and scored in the fourth. Boomer Schleifer scored on an error in the sixth. And, down by two, Meadville got the first two batters on board to start the bottom of the seventh. But Northcott and the Cochranton “D” got out of the jam.

The loss sent Meadville to yesterday’s elimination game against French Creek Valley.

Pete Chiodo can be reached at 724-6370 ext. 275 or by e-mail at pchiodo@meadvilletribune.com.

Text Only

Local Sports

DISTRICT 10 BASEBALL: Big Reds shut down Lions
SLIPPERY ROCK — The Linesville baseball team, with its mix of experienced and lesser-experienced players, has been capable of two different kinds of games this season.
The first is the sharp, skillful kind of effort the Lions put together Monday in their 10-7 win over Cochranton in the District 10 Class A quarterfinals.

May 26, 2012
DISTRICT 10 BASEBALL: Mercyhurst outslugs Lake in D-10 semis
ERIE — After a District 10 Class A championship game appearance last year, the Conneaut Lake baseball team lost four seniors who were important to the team’s success.
Even though the talented quartet graduated and Lake featured just three seniors this year, the team came together and reached the district semifinals. The team’s end result, and the school’s last game as a baseball team due to Conneaut Lake, Conneaut Valley, and Linesville consolidating into Conneaut Area Senior High, was a 15-4 loss in six innings to Mercyhurst Prep on Friday at Ainsworth Field in Erie.

May 26, 2012
DISTRICT 10 BASEBALL: Panthers edge Tigers, reach D-10 title game
ERIE — The Saegertown baseball team made an art form of compiling mercy rule wins this season. Nearly all of the Panthers’ 20 regular season victories were by 10 runs or more, as double-digit hits and runs scored were the norm.
The playoffs have been a different beast for the defending District 10 Class AA champion Cats, but they continue to find ways to win.

May 26, 2012
BOYS VOLLEYBALL: Cardinals come back from losers’ bracket to win D-10 title
The very first word spoken by Cochranton boys volleyball coach Brad Custead in his post-match interview will sum up Friday night’s District 10 championship finale better than all the words that follow it.
“Incredible,” he said.

May 26, 2012
Bulldogs' trio ready for state track and field meet
Meadville’s best now look to be among Pennsylvania’s best as Paige Kassab, Chaykala Lindsey and Heather Sternby compete in the PIAA Class AAA Track and Field Championships, which run Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium.

May 24, 2012
D-10 SOFTBALL: Tigers no-hit in loss to Braves
HARBORCREEK TOWNSHIP — The Maplewood softball team had no answer for Iroquois starting pitcher Megan Martin on Tuesday during the District 10 Class AA quarterfinals on the campus of Penn State Behrend in Erie.
Martin worked around two errors during a no-hitter that included zero walks. And the Braves’ offense was sure to back her up during Iroquois’ 10-0 victory in five innings.

May 23, 2012
D-10 BASEBALL: Prep rolls past ’Dogs in four innings
ERIE — Hitting, they say, is contagious. And the Cathedral Prep baseball team had a full-blown outbreak against Meadville on Tuesday at Ainsworth Field, notching 13 base hits in a 16-1, four-inning rout of the Bulldogs during opening round action of the District 10 Class AAA playoffs.

May 23, 2012
DISTRICT 10 BASEBALL: Lake storms past Eisenhower
ERIE — The Conneaut Lake baseball team started off its postseason with a bang. Numerous bangs, actually.
The Indians (12-7) slugged 19 base hits while bumping off Eisenhower 15-5 in six innings during opening round action in the District 10 Class A playoff tournament Monday at Ainsworth Field.

May 22, 2012
DISTRICT 10 BASEBALL: Lions top Cards
ERIE — If this story had to describe every clutch hit, gutsy pitch, run-saving defensive play, or momentum-shifting moment during Monday’s playoff classic between Region 3 foes Cochranton and Linesville; there wouldn’t be room for much else in today’s newspaper.
The bottom line is: You should have been there.

May 22, 2012
BOYS VOLLEYBALL: Bulldogs stop Trojans to cap perfect region slate
Meadville junior Matt Izbinski laced a hard spike down the line, and so ended the regular season for the Bulldogs boys volleyball team — with a 3-1 win over McDowell, and a 9-0 run through Region 1. It all summed up on Friday night at the House of Thrills.

May 19, 2012
More Local Sports Headlines

Local Sports

Search Results

Discussion

Cochranton storms into CVAL final

If the presidential election were today, my vote would go to:

Site Map

Contact Us