1973 District Tournament

Tri-County Knocks off Bellefonte. (1973, July 17). Centre Daily Times, p14.

Tri-County Knocks off Bellefonte

It was 6-1 in the last of the fifth.

Bellefonte’s Little League All-Star team held the lead at Webster Field.

Tri-County, however, scored nine times in the inning and would up beating Bellefonte last night., 10-6. Tri-County’s next outing in the District 10 (Southern Tier) playoffs will be at Warriors Mark tomorrow at 6 p.m. Philipsburg will provide the opposition.

The key blow in the fifth inning was a grand slam homer by Jimmy Crust, who played for Matternville during the regular season.

Crust, who hit three homers in the league, made the first out. Jim Snyder, the winning pitcher from Matternville, tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ash Hall. A double, a single, an error , a walk and a single by Jerald Jones set the stage for Crust, whose dad, Jim teaches science at the Bellefonte Junior High School.

“I know what he can do,” the elder Crust said after the game. “I pitch to him quite a bit and he can hit them over the barn.”

Tri-County scored first. In the third a walk, a fielder’s choice, a two-bagger by Snyder and Randy Stimer’s infield made it 1-0.

Bellefonte scored five times in the fifth on three walks, singles by Pat Masullo and Dave Bowersox, a fielder’s choice error, a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch.

Don Drapcho’s solo homer in the fifth gave Bellefonte a 6-1 lead.

“We have pretty good balance,” said Manger Merle Wilson after Tri-County beat Bellefonte for the first time. “the kids never gave up. You know how it is. We were down a little bit until the last of the fifth.”

Bellefonte eliminated Tri-County several years ago in extra innings and most Tri-County fans (Port Matilda, Matternville, Huston Township, and Warriors Mark) figured last night’s come-from-behind win was sweet revenge.

“Give them all the credit in the world,” said Manager Andy Thal of Bellefonte. “Tri-County had more points on the board. They deserved it. Before we started in the playoffs it looked as though we had good defense but we didn’t have the over-all hitting to match last year’s team.”

Snyder, who never lost a game last year, is now 8-0 this season. He now has 100 strikeouts in 48 innings, thanks to 12 Ks last night.

The box score: