BROOKVILLE — Playing a game that counts on McKinley Field on March 19? That actually did happen last Wednesday afternoon.
And for the Brookville Raiders, the bonus was that they walked off Bradford for a season-opening 3-2 win as Will Shofestall’s infield single with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the seventh pushed home Trenton Colgan for the winner.
Weather-permitting, a second March home game was played Wednesday against Punxsutawney. Friday, the Raiders visit Elk County Catholic for three road games next week — April 2 at St. Marys, April 3 at DuBois Central Catholic and April 5 against Moniteau at Slippery Rock University.
While the PIAA’s calendar recently moved back into March enough for this to happen, it still took good weather and some hard work on the grounds for playability. While it’s secondary to the Raiders’ walk-off victory, they’ve only played a March home game once — March 27 of 2019 — in past 11 years.
The last three years, it’s been April 18, April 11 and the whole way to April 27 back in 2022.
That doesn’t mean teams were ahead of schedule at the plate. In this one, the Raiders were a bit more effective out-hitting the Owls 8-2 while getting away with walking seven Bradford batters.
“I think pitchers are normally going to be ahead of hitters, and we saw that today,” Raiders head coach Chad Weaver said. “They struggled. We struggled, but defensively, I thought we played pretty well and we got a couple key hits when we needed them.”
In the bottom of the seventh, the No. 8 hitter Colgan set the tone of the rally by nearly blasting reliever Aiden Willard’s pitch over the fence in left, but it hit the top of the fence just foul of the pole in the corner. Still down 0-2, Colgan worked the count full then deposited a double into the left-center gap.
“He has scuffled a little bit on the mound as of late,” Weaver said. “He’s left that go and is focused on trying to contribute from the outfield and at the plate. And he was about six feet from sending us home with a big fly ball.
“He barreled three baseballs in that at-bat and was seeing it really well.”
Looking to bunt Colgan to third, No. 9 hitter Landen Marrara’s bunt wound up an infield single. Marrara stole second, Owen Fleming walked to load the bases and Shofestall ended it when his hard grounder back to the mound glanced off Willard’s glove. Colgan raced home ahead of Willard’s late throw and the game was over.
“Will’s job was to get it across the right side,” Weaver said. “He missed by a little bit, but we put enough pressure on the base paths to force an errant throw, and we get to start season 1-0.”
Bradford scored its only runs in the second inning, chasing starter Fleming out of the game after 1 2/3 innings after five walks with one run scoring on a wild pitch and the other on a bases-loaded walk. But Luke Burton got the final out of second and threw three more scoreless innings, working around three walks and a fifth-inning jam that doomed the Owls a chance to win, as it turned out.
Burton walked Anthony Lama to start the inning, but the Raiders turned a Lama base-running mistake into the first out when he ran into an out when Talan Reese grounded to Parker Kalgren at third. Brody Haviland’s hit-and-run single pushed Reese to third and the Owls were in business.
However, Burton got Lucas Wallace to hit a looping popup to Shofestall at shortstop and Evan Whitmore to foul out with Raiders first baseman Ladd Blake making a sliding catch in front of the Raiders dugout to end the inning.
Those two outs started an Owls 0-for-8 finish to the game as Parker Kalgren got the final six outs to get the win, striking out four including the side in the eighth.
“Parker is a sophomore and we’ve asked him to be our Swiss Army knife,” Weaver said. “He can play just about every position on the field. He came in and gave us some innings behind the plate and, obviously, some clutch innings on the on the mound.”
The Raiders scored runs in the second and third innings. Burton led off the second with a double and scored on Gage Miller’s single. In the third, Fleming walked with one out, went to third on a groundout and with Blake up and two outs, scampered home on a Reese wild pitch.
Reese got a no-decision, going the first six innings on 95 pitches, walking four and striking out nine while hitting a batter. The Raiders stranded Fleming at second in the fifth and two more in scoring position in the bottom of the sixth. Owls catcher Haviland threw Marrara out twice trying to steal.
