Bucktail’s season finale comeback bid falls short, 4-2
By Bees O’Brien
Montgomery- Bucktail baseball head coach Casey Friese made sure his team had one last game for the 2025 season.
In a make-up game that was originally scheduled to be played in Farwell, plans changed quickly.
Friese and his gritty club found out at 2pm that the scheduled umpires were assigned to officiate at Montgomery’s sports complex and not at Bucktail. Friese made the sacrifice and crammed his 10 players into a Keystone Central van and took off to face the Mid Penn leading Red Raiders in a home game that was away from home.
The Bucks were sure to make the trip memorable for their coach.
Keller Friese and Briar Persing put on a show on the hill and both showed why they’re two of the top hurlers in the conference. Friese fanned 6 batters and allowed just 1 earned run, while Persing took down 16 Bucks and only allowed a pair of Bucktail runs.
Montgomery took advantage of all three Bucktail errors in the top of the third inning to take a 3-0 lead.
Persing continued to hold the Bucktail bats in check, but eventually the underdog Bucks caught up to District IV’s premier arm.
Friese was phenomenal in his own right. Montgomery’s big sticks in the middle of their lineup were complete silenced. Parker Bennett, Briar Persing and Parker Persing went a combine 0 for 10 on the day against Friese. Parker Persing reached by way of walk, Friese’s only free pass of the game. Briar Persing and Bennett both fell by way of a strikeout.
The Red Raiders crossed a lone run in the fourth inning, but again failed to dent Friese or the Bucks’ defense.
Trailing 4-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, Bucktail began to dent Persing’s armor. The Bucks broke up Persing’s 1-hitter in a big way. Friese connected on a single, followed by senior Ethan Kalafut’s single. Friese scored on a Gavin Pick single and senior Ethan Charcalla collected an RBI in his final at bat as a Buck.
The Bucktail rally ended just as quickly as it began. Montgomery eventually held off Bucktail for the final out and held on to avoid the upset by a 4-2 count.
Friese led the Bucks with 2 hits. Kalafut, Charcalla and Pick rounded out the base hits for Bucktail.
Montgomery’s record is now at 14-4 on the season and will more than likely host Northwest (14-6) in the District IV 2A semifinals.
Bucktail’s season ends at 2-13 on the season.
