Hornet baseball falls to Montoursville, 2-0

By: Ed Weaver  /  May 27, 2013

The Wellsboro Varsity baseball team was eliminated from the District IV Class AA Playoffs on Saturday, as they fell to Montoursville, 2-0.

Junior Brandon Owlett pitched a complete game for the Hornets and limited Montoursville to just four hits and two runs. However, Owlett walked 5 batters, hit one batter, and threw a wild pitch as he suffered the loss.

Montoursville scored both of their runs on controversial plays, the first coming in the third inning when Freshman Dawson Prough had a fly ball drop out of his glove. Prough quickly threw the ball to Senior Matt Reese to tag the runner out at second base, believing the infield fly rule is in effect. After a timeout however, the home-plate umpire confirmed the infield fly rule was not in effect, and Montoursville scored on the next play on a wild pitch.

"The explanation given to me by the home plate umpire was that the ball was in the outfield. That clearly  tells me the home plate umpire (1) wasn't paying attention and more importantly (2) doesn't fully understand the infield fly rule," said head coach Philip Prough. "The rule states if the infielder can make ordinary effort to catch the ball, the infield fly rule is in effect. There's no doubt it was ordinary - even if the infielder drops it. Those are two different things. The rule makes no distinction if it's in the infield or the outfield. In fact, an infield fly rule can be called with the outfielder making the play! Yes, the error in and of itself didn't cause the run to score, but it's highly doubtful the runner advances to third if there isn't mass confusion and therefore, would not be in position to score on the wild pitch."

One inning later, Montoursville scored another run off a controversial play. After a lead-off double, Pierce Ranck hit a flair behind second base in shallow center field. Dawson Prough ran to catch the ball and does so, with everyone believing the third out has been made, but the ball drops when he begins to transfer it out the glove. The infield umpire signals no catch which allows the second run to score.

"What a change of events for us. Dawson caught the ball running. It was caught by his chin. In his natural running motion and instincts to take the ball out with his bare hand, the ball does not come out of the glove until it was at his waist. We beleive he clearly has position of the ball long enough to be considered an out. Again, another judgement call that has an impact on the game. When the opposing team, and more importantly, their many fans, aren't saying anything and are looking around in elated disbelief, you know it was a bad call."

The Hornets best scoring opportunity came in the 5th inning when Owlett and Reese each reache base. After a fielder's choice by Dawson Prough, Wellsboro had runners on first and third with two outs and Senior Ben Shaw at the plate, but Ranck was able to strike out Shaw on his best curve ball of the day.

"In the end, we can't say the errors or calls lost the game," Prough continued. "You can't win if you don't score a single run. But they did impact the game. When your down late in the game, you can't be as aggressive with your running game. That's what you don't want to have happen as a coach, player or umpire - have calls have such an impact on the outcome. But Pierce threw a career game. The difference today was he allowed no free passes. We allowed six. Mix in an error and a wild pitch, and that's the game.

"It's tough to end the season in that fashion when you truly believe you're the better team. But that's baseball. And as I told our players, that's life. We prepared diligently and worked hard. I told them that whatever they do in life, go about it the same way and they'll be guaranteed success. It took a career day from the district's top pitcher to beat us. Tip your hat to him. We end knowing it takes that type of performance to beat us, so our heads won't be hanging!"