Chance McClure hits walkoff to lift Chambersburg over CD
It was like a scene from a movie.
Tie game. Two outs. Bases loaded. Bottom of the seventh, and Chambersburg's No. 2 hitter Chance McClure walked up to the plate with a brand new pitcher on the mound.
McClure worked up a full count and smacked a ball foul into leftfield. The very next pitch he sliced a ground ball into left for a walkoff RBI, to hand Chambersburg a 1-0 win over Central Dauphin in a Mid Penn Commonwealth Division game.
"I was extremely nervous but I just wanted to put the ball in play and give my team a chance to win," McClure said.
Before McClure stepped up to the plate, Central Dauphin made the decision to put in a relief pitcher, Christian Fox-Klein, after starter Garrett Foster struck out the first two batters of the inning, allowed a hit to Bryce Kendall, and walked the next two.
McClure said, "Bringing in a new pitcher kind of worried me because the other pitcher was struggling to make pitches so I figured I could get an easy walk, but I came through in the end."
"(Foster) is able to mix up speed and keep hitters off balance, but his pitch count was getting up, and once he lost a couple of those batters we needed to switch it up," Central Dauphin coach Brian Zellers said.
"I think it's tough for that guy to come in in that situation," Chambersburg coach Scott Folmar said. "It's tough, but I told Chance the pressure is on them, and he went in there and had a great at-bat."
Through the first six innings, Chambersburg's Hunter Brindle and Central Dauphin's Foster were in a pitchers' duel, as Brindle threw one of his best outings of the year. He pitched a two-hit shutout and kept his pitch count low thanks to seven pop-ups in the game's first nine outs. He faced no more than four batters in any inning.
"He was throwing all of his pitches well today and he was throwing them for strikes," Folmar said. "He was making them hit the ball and the defense did well. It's great for his confidence."
Brindle also had the game's only extra base hit for Chambersburg (6-5, 4-4 MPC), with a double in the bottom of the sixth, but was caught stealing third.