'One bad inning' curse strikes Trojans again
The story remains the same for Chambersburg's baseball team after another tough Mid Penn Commonwealth Division loss Tuesday.
"Pretty much every game so far out of our eight losses, it's typically been one bad inning there within those middle innings," Trojan coach Scott Folmar said. "Us falling apart is probably not the right word, but they put stuff together, and it ends up costing us the game."
That was exactly the recipe for disaster in a 6-3 defeat at the hands of State College.
In the third inning, the Little Lions (7-7, 6-5 MPC) scored five runs on six hits. That accounted for all of State College's hitting and all but one of its runs scored.
"It's frustrating because that's been the story of the season," Chambersburg third baseman Hayden Kissel said. "Other teams have had that one big inning that we just can't seem to avoid, and that was the deciding factor today."
Folmar said, "They had a bunt in that inning that wasn't an error but probably a play we should've made, but nothing terrible happened. It's just that they hit the ball a little bit, got a couple sac flies and did what they needed to do."
Chambersburg did its best to come back, though. The Trojans (6-8, 4-6 MPC) immediately cut into the deficit with a two-run single by Carlin Christian in the bottom of the third, and Chambersburg's pitching duo of Austin Suders and Brenton Byers did not allow another run until the seventh inning.
"Every pitcher has different velocity and mechanics, so it just took us some time to figure them out," State College coach Troy Allen said. "In that one inning, they were just falling for us, and that's kind of the name of the game. It wasn't anything too special."
The Trojans finished with more hits than State College, smacking nine singles - Christian had three, while Kissel and Dakota Bitner each had two. But the Trojans still left something to be desired.
"They were hitting their spots pretty well, and we weren't aggressive enough at the plate today," Kissel said. "We were seeing too many pitches and got behind in the count, and that cost us today."