Wildcats – Garbrick No-Hit Bellefonte
Both Teams Also Want to Strikeout Cancer
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP — It was a game for the ages at Mill Hall Community Park today and Central Mountain senior Alex Garbrick made sure it was a contest local baseball fans will never forget.
“Definitely a pitcher’s duel,’ said CM head coach, Mike Kramer as he described the game, “A great high school game with pitchers throwing strikes limiting the number of hits, I think there was only one hit all day.”
Garbrick, backed by a stellar Wildcat defense, pitched a complete game no-hitter and drove in the game’s only run with the game’s only hit, a third inning single over hard-luck Bellefonte loser Dominic Masullo. What made the contest even more remarkable was the fact that Garbrick and Masullo have both committed to play at Division I Morehead State of Kentucky next year and plan to room together.
“So we manufacture a run … we got a guy on, bunted him over and we got a clutch hit from Alex Garbrick to score a run,” Kramer said, “The icing on the cake was Alex throwing BB’s at the plate for a no-hitter.”
Both hard-throwing right-handers put up goose eggs into the bottom of the third inning. With one out Asher Corl drew a Wildcat walk. His brother Toner Corl sacrificed him to second base and the younger Corl scored easily when Garbrick drilled a pitch into center field for an RBI single.
The Wildcats put up a strong defensive effort to back Garbrick. Bellefonte’s best shot at a hit came in the top of the fourth when leadoff hitter Logan Mathieu hit a smash toward the hole on the left side of the infield. But shortstop Toner Corl raced to his right, made a headlong dive, fielded the ball, got up and fired a strike to first baseman Cole Reeder to nip Mathieu.
“Alex tipped his hat to his defense after the game,” commented Kramer, “Toner Corl making a play in the hole, Asher, Brandon and Landon covering the outfield, Treaster making solid plays at second, Talon making a play down at third … just good pitching and solid defense right down through.” he added.
Garbrick mixed his pitches and kept Bellefonte off balance, recording 10 groundball outs, three strikeouts, two infield pop-outs and six fly-outs. Both right-fielder Asher Corl and centerfielder Brandon Miller made nice running catches.
Bellefonte’s best chance came in the third inning when Garbrick allowed his only base-runners on two walks. But the Raider’s Mark Armstrong lined out to Asher Corl in right to end the threat. Garbrick retired the last 13 batters in a row and got a fly-out and two groundouts to end the game which lasted only 90 minutes.
Central Mountain moved to 4-1 with the win while Bellefonte fell to 1-6 on the season. The Wildcats travel to Milton Thursday and have a District 6 Quad-A showdown at Mifflin County (5-1) on Friday.
| April 13, 2016 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| BELLEFONTE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| CENTRAL MOUNTAIN | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 1 | 1 | 0 |
The Wildcat and Bellefonte baseball teams held a pregame ceremony with players from both teams sharing messages in regards to cancer awareness. Sadly, Bellefonte recently lost a student, Dylan Crunick, to cancer and CMHS’s assistant coach, Justin Kline, is currently battling leukemia. Cancer survivors attending the game were also recognized for battling back against the disease.
Through fund raising efforts, the activity also raised over $500 to be donated to Justin Kline to help offset the expenses for treatment.
