Tommy Smith, Logan Lutz Combine on Mound for Clarion-Limestone to Beat Union/A-C Valley

STRATTANVILLE, Pa. (EYT/D9) — The Clarion-Limestone baseball team collected just five hits, but took advantage of a couple defensive miscues while getting a solid pitching effort from Tommy Smith and Logan Lutz in a 5-2 victory over Union/A-C Valley on Thursday afternoon.

(Pictured above, Tommy Smith threw four strong innings and got the win for Clarion-Limestone/Photo by Diane Lutz)

Bailey Crissman pitched well for the Falcon Knights but was let down by those defensive lapses in suffering the loss.

Crissman allowed five runs, two earned, in six innings. He allowed five hits with one walk and six strikeouts while hitting one batter.

“Bailey is our ace and he’s pitched well for us all season,” said Union/ACV head coach John Irwin. “He did another nice job tonight, but the defense just let him down a little bit.”

Clarion-Limestone Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.

For C-L (8-4) Tommy Smith pitched the first four innings, allowing one earned run on four hits. He walked three and struck out seven. Logan Lutz pitched the final three innings, allowing one earned run on four hits. He walked one and struck out five.

“We wanted Tommy to go one more inning, but his pitch count was getting up there,” said C-L head coach Bill Smith. “We wanted to give Logan a chance to come in for the save and he came in and did a really nice job as well.”

Lutz paced the offense with two hits, including a double, and two runs scored. Jordan Hesdon, Nick Aaron, and Jesse Siwiecki each added one hit with Aaron and Tommy Smith each driving in a run.

Lutz doubled and scored on an error off a ball hit by Tommy Smith for a 1-0 lead. Smith stole second and moved to third on a fly out from Hesdon. Aaron then singled in Smith for a 2-0 lead.

Union/ACV scored their first run in the top of the second as Crissman drew a one out walk. Simeon Elder singled and a walk to Adrian Schmoll loaded the bases. Chase Ruth hit a single to drive in Crissman, but Elder was thrown out when he took too wide a turn around third base. A strikeout then ended the inning.

The score remained 2-1 until the Lions plated three runs as a result of two errors in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Siwiecki singled and stole second to start the inning. Lutz hit an infield single and Siwiecki moved to third on the throw to first, which got away from the first baseman, allowing Lutz to move to second. Smith hit a sacrifice fly to right field, driving in Siwiecki and moving Lutz to third. Hesdon was then hit by a pitch, and he moved to second on a defensive indifference play. After a strikeout, Kohen Kemmer hit a fly ball to right which was misplayed allowing two runs to score for a 5-1 lead.

The Falcon Knights then scored their final run in the top of the seventh as Zach Cooper hit a one out single, Seth Best drew a walk, and Trey Fleming hit an RBI single. On the Fleming single, Best was thrown out trying to move from first to third on the play. A strikeout then ended the contest.

“We weren’t able to string hits together when we had guys on,” said Irwin. “That’s hats off to Smith and Lutz as well for C-L as they each did a nice job of keeping us off balance at the plate.”

Cooper had a pair of hits for Union/ACV while Best, Fleming, Sebastian Link, Elder, Schmoll, and Ruth each had one hit. Schmoll hit a double.

“This was a conference game for us so it was a big win,” said Bill Smith. “After that first inning we got a little anxious at the plate and hit some fly outs early in counts and weren’t recognizing the situation. Part of that was probably that we’ve been hitting the ball pretty well these last couple of games, but sometimes you just have to know the situation and try and be a little more patient. We have a couple more important conference games next week so we’ll see what happens and hope the weather holds up.”

Clarion-Limestone Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.