1971 District Tournament

“There are just no glaring weaknesses in that lineup. Bellefonte is strong down the whole lineup. They can give everyone a long night.” – Larry Breon – Nittany Valley All-Star Coach 

League Rosters Selected. (1971, July 7). Centre Daily Times, p26.

League Rosters Selected. 

Five of the six area Little Leagues have released their District 10 All-Star team rosters as they begin preparations for the playoff which will start later this month. Mountain Top will select its players later.

The Rosters:

Bellefonte: Mid-State Bank – Tim Robinson, Glenn Fisher, Todd McCartney; K of C – Steve Hancock, Ray Brown, Tom Dann, Ron Luther; Krout Pontiac – Dave Brooks, Don Holderman; Milesburg Lions – Richard Quay, John Delana; Plumb’s Drugs – Dave Houser, Time Myers; Bellefonte Lions – John Purnell; Alternates – Dave Smith of Bellefonte Lions, Bob Alterio of Plumb’s Drugs, Kirby Treece of Milesburg Lions and Tom Hartle of Mid-State Bank; Manger – Harold Rossman; Coach Frank Peters, Jr…

Baker, D (1971, July 22). Bellefonte All-Stars Win. Centre Daily Times, p20.

Bellefonte All-Stars Win

Over Nittany Valley, 18-1:

By DAVE BAKER Times Sports Writer

Pickle Rossman says that this year’s edition of the Bellefonte Little League All-Stars compares favorably with several of his past squads. And Nittany Valley coaches Larry Breon an Len Brush are quick to add that they want to see a District 10 team that is better than Bellefonte.

“This team compares favorably to some of my better teams,” Manager Rossman said after Bellefonte pounded Nittany Valley, 18-1 last night at Gill Field. “I wouldn’t say this was my best ever team, but it is a real good team.”

Bellefonte entertains Suburban tomorrow at 8 p.m. and the winner plays on its home field Monday for the Southern Tier title. The winner of Monday’s game then plays for the District title.

“There are just no glaring weaknesses in that lineup,” Breon explained. “Bellefonte is strong down the whole lineup. They can give everyone a long night.”

“They just completely outplayed us,” Brush agreed. “You have to come away impressed after playing them. Glenn Fisher reminds me a lot of Gary Drapcho (the Bellefonte pitcher who pitched them to the district title two years ago). He’s got that lanky build. I’m sure he’s their best pitcher, even though they didn’t use him. And he’s a better hitter than Drapcho.”

No one could dispute Brush’s last statement. The slick-fielding third baseman crashed three consecutive homers and finished with seven RBIs. Fisher easily cleared the center field fence in the first with Dave Houser aboard, homered off the top of the fence in center with a liner in the second with Houser again on and hit an outside pitch to right with Houser and Tod McCartney on base in the third. Fisher walked in the fourth and popped up in the fifth.

Houser wound up with four hits – all singles – and scored four times for the winners.

Don Holderman scattered nine hits and struck out nine to record the victory. But he isn’t the only pitcher on Bellefonte’s squad.

“I got 14 pitchers on my team,” Rossman said. “That’s plenty of pitchers, but you never can tell when you’re going to need them. If we get in a tight game , I might use four or five of them. At least I’ve got them there.”

“They got some real good fielding too,” Brush pointed out. “Fisher was good at third and that shortstop (Tod McCartney) was great. And their catcher (Dave Houser) has a real good arm.”

Nittany Valley went through three pitchers and only Mike Giedroc, who pitched the last two innings, could stop them, but he had the aid of two odd doubleplays.

Rich Hornstein was the loser. Terry Curley was the second Nittany Valley hurler.

Rick Quay line a hit to right on the second pitch of the game and hustled into second on a wild pitch. One out later, Houser singled in a run and Fisher homered.

Tim Robinson singled to center to start the second and one out later, Quay was safe on an error. McCartney doubled for a run and Houser was safe on an error. McCartney scored on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Fisher then homered.

In the third, McCartney and Houser singled with one out and Fisher homered to right. Two walks and a single loaded the bases and passed balls on three straight pitches gave the visitors three gift runs.

Two walks and Houser’s single drove in a run in the fourth and Fisher walked. Houser and Fisher pulled off a double steal for a run and Fisher scored on an error and Dave Brook’s hit. Brooks moved up on an error and a wild pitch and John Dalena’s single scored him.

Nittany Valley scored its only run in the first on C. J. Wagner’s single, a force out and singles by Terry Brush and Mike Brown.

Baker, D (1971, July 24). Bellefonte Wins, 6-2. Centre Daily Times, p6.

Late Rally Sinks Suburban:

Bellefonte Wins, 6-2

By DAVE BAKER Times Sports Writer

Powerful Bellefonte turned to its two smallest players last night to stave off Suburban’s bid to end a Little League All-Star jinx.

Shortstop Tod McCartney blooped a two-out , two-run double in the fourth to drive in the tying and winning runs and winning pitcher Tom Dann blanked the vistors after two unearned runs in the first as Bellefonte won, 6-2, at Webster Field.

Bellefonte entertains Clearfield Monday at Webster Field at 6 p.m. Clearfield eliminated Osceola Mills, 17-4, last night to advance to the Southern Tier final in District 10.

In Norther Tier semifinals last night, Rod Silvis pitched a perfect game and slammed a homer as Brookville blanked Brockway, 1-0, while Emporium nipped Ridgway, 7-6. Those two teams play Monday at Bookville.

The district championship will be Wednesday at a site to be announced.

The victory game Bellefonte its fourth victory in the last five years of all-star play against Suburban. The last Suburban win came in 1968 when the State College team won the District 10 championship.

“I was rellay glad to see us come-from-behind,” Bellefonte manager Harold (Pickle) Rossman said. “I’m glad to know we can dot it. But I’d rather have the lead we had Wednesday,” in reference to the easy 18-1 victory over Nittany Valley in Bellefonte’s first game.

“Tom (Dann) did a real good job. All they got were the two errors in the first to score those runs.”

It looked like the two unearned runs in the first would stand up for Suburban until McCartney, an excellent fielder who made one of the errors in the first, took charge. Ron Luther led off with a walk on four pitches, but loser Jum Rhule struck out the next batter and then got a popup before Rick Quay bounced a single into leftfield. Then McCartney looped a 1-1 pitch into right to give Bellefonte a 3-2 lead.

A dropped throw at first and a dropped line drive scored McCartney and Dave Brooks and Don Holderman, defensive replacements in the top of the fourth, hit back-to-back RBI singles to ice the victory.

“I guess that’s the way it goes,” disappointed Suburban manager Don Ertel said. “Everone’s going to make errors, even major leaguers.”

“Just a couple of hits and a couple of errors was all it took,” assistant manager Cliff Warner chimed in.

“They just played heads-up baseball,” Ertel continued. ” They had better fielding and played a good game.

Bellefonte scored its first run in the second on a pair of one-out walks and Dann’s opposite field double to left.

the first two Suburban batters in the first were safe on errors. Tom Wolgemuth was aboard when first baseman Luther dropped a throw from Glenn Fisher and Rich Waltz was safe when McCartney bobbled his grounder and threw late to second.

Steve Anderson walked on a 3-2 pitch and Grant Meyers lined a two-strike delivery to center for a run. Dann struck out the next two batters, but walked Todd Kresge to force in a run.

An error and a single to open the second got Dann in trouble again, but he struck out the 2-3-4 hitters in the Suburban lineup.

Rich Wiser started the third with a hit, but McCartney made a great play on a high bouncer over the middle to force Waltz at second and almost got a double play. After Kresge singled, Mike Dugan laid down a great bunt and the alert McCartney beat the runner Todd Wheeler to the bag for a force at third on Fisher’s perfect throw.

After that, Dann permitted only tow runners to reach base – none to second – and finished with 10 strikeouts.

Wheeler pitched the front two innings for Suburban before Rhule relieved him.

The box score:

Clearfield to Battle Brookville. (1971, July 27). Centre Daily Times, p14.

Clearfield to Battle Brookville

It will be Clearfield against Brookville for the District 10 Little League championship tomorrow night.

Clearfield, which couldn’t do anything wrong, captured the Southern tier title by trimming Bellefonte, which couldn’t doe anything right, at Webster Field, 7-1, last night.

“We lost to a fine team,” Bellefonte All-Star manager Harold (Pickle) Rossman said after the game. “You have to give them credit. They made the plays and we didn’t . We couldn’t get anything started.”

Bob Frisco, Clearfield manager, said over-all team balance has been the reason for his team’s success to date.

“We have kids on the bench who are just as good as the regulars. This is the best Clearfield team we’ve had in years. Last year Bellefonte beat us 1-0, although we out hit them. We had five holdovers from that team so we got some revenge. We didn’t have any reports on Bellefonte. We just went out and played our game – good hitting and good fielding.”

Frank Peters Jr., assistant Bellefonte coach, came up with an interesting observation.

“We seem to fire other teams up,” he said. “In recent years the teams that beat us played pretty well.”

He reeled off State College Suburban, Newberry and Dubois, three teams that fared quite well in recent Little League playoff action.

Clearfield, which outscored four Southern Tier foes by a margin of 51-6, scored two runs in the first and five more in the second. Bellefonte’s downfall was six errors.

Gary Larimer pitched a perfect game as Brookville won the Northern Tier final last night, 7-0, over Emporium. Larimer fanned 15 batters. Brookville pitchers have now give up one hit in three games. Rod Silvus, who will face Clearfield, pitched a perfect game last time out against Brockway.