By HUNTER O. LYLE
BRADFORD, PA – Coming off the back of a blown lead the night before, the Bradford Legion Post 108 baseball team was in desperate need of a win as they entered the final stretch of the summer. However, battling through self-inflicted wounds, they ultimately left the diamond empty-handed once again, falling 12-5 to St. Marys Post 103.
The turmoil started early for Post 108. After a quiet first frame, in which they only surrendered one hit, the second started much the same. Opening the inning, Bradford collected the first two outs in rapid succession with a routine fly out being followed by Ben Woodhouse’s first strikeout of the night. But the tide turned quickly.
St. Mary’s third man to the plate cracked a grounder directly to shortstop, however, a fumbled fielding gave up real estate on first. Immediately after, a shot in the outfield from Post 103, which should have yielded just a base hit, was again mishandled and this time, allowed St. Marys to streak across home plate, tallying the first run of the day.
“I think we just needed to relax and make the play,” said Bradford head coach Jim Henry. “We needed to focus on getting the out.”
From there, the atmosphere changed. With Bradford’s budding momentum dashed, St. Marys would find three more consecutive hits, producing three singles and three runs scored.
While Post 108 was able to stop the bleeding right after, their own bats failed to reciprocate, failing to push a man past second during their next three at-bats. Seeing Post 103 tag on another run in the top of the fourth, Bradford was finally able to end the shutout in the bottom of the fifth.
Starring down two quick outs at the top of the frame, Lucas Wallace recorded his first hit of the day with a single, a feat that was replicated one batter later as he was joined on base by Tarren Reese. Not to be outdone by his younger brother, Talan Reese then stepped up and crushed a triple to the right field wall, bringing in Post 108’s first two scores of the afternoon. Two batters later, with Woodhouse on first, Reese then broke away on a tandem steal, reaching home and bridging the gap on the scoreboard to just two.
Post 108’s second wind, however, wouldn’t last long. After St. Marys opened the top of the sixth with a lead-off single, another costly error, again at shortstop and which would have resulted in a double-play, pulled the rug out from under Bradford.
“We just had to make the easy, basic plays and get the outs,” said Henry. “It would have been a whole different ball game. Our pitching was great, the hitting was good, it was just the basic mistakes that cost us the game today.”
Instead of needing just one more out, they now faced a man on first and second, and one batter later, Post 103 began rebuilding their lead. A subsequent double drove in their sixth run before a walk reloaded the bases and set the stage for three more St. Marys scores. With Bradford once again deflated, Post 103 doubled down on their cushion in the seventh, bringing in three more runners to go up 9-3.
Although Post 108 was able to tally two runs in the bottom of the seventh – an RBI-double from Braylan Austin and a RBI-single from Owen Strotman – the effort was largely symbolic. The deficit they faced was overwhelming and the outcome inevitable.
Tarren Reese led Bradford with a pair of hits through his three trips to the plate, producing one run and two RBIs. Wallace, Talan Reese, Lukas Miller and Jaron Lohrman all scored once in Bradford’s eighth loss of the season.
With the Legion playoffs beginning next Wednesday, Bradford had just one more game to find a spark. Having played their final game at home against St. Marys, they now head back out on the road for a Thursday contest against Coudersport – Bradford may have a make-up game slated on Friday or Monday, weather and scheduling prevailing.
“We have a great team. We’re hitting great, if we just start making those routine plays, I think we’ll be okay,” said Henry. “We got a great group of guys, they’re having fun, we just need to make the routine plays.
AT BRADFORD
St. Marys 040 104 3 R:12 H:14 E:2
Bradford 000 030 2 R:5 H:9 E:5
St. Marys: Gilmore (4 SO, 1 BB), Breindel (5) (2 SO, 2 BB) and Brem
Bradford: Woodhouse (1 SO, 3 BB), Collins (4) (1 SO, 1 BB), Strotman (6) (0 SO, 2 BB) and Gow, Iantorno
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