CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Dawson Smail and Tommy Smith led Clarion to a 16-0, three-inning win over Cranberry in the District 25 12-and-under Little League All-Star opener for both teams at Paul A. Weaver Park in Clarion Monday night.
(Dawson Smail is greeted at home plate after his second home run of the game in the second inning, a towering three-run shot that cleared the bleachers behind the centerfield fence. Photo courtesy of Diane Lutz)
Smail cracked a pair of home runs while driving in five runs and Smith threw a three-inning perfect game striking out six for a Clarion team that entered the tournament with high expectations but no pressure according to manager Bill Smith.
“There is no pressure on those kids,” Bill Smith said. “They have been here so much. They don’t play with any pressure on them whatsoever. You can talk to them, watch their actions, stuff like that, they just want to get out and play ball. They don’t feel any pressure whatsoever. I don’t see it in them. I don’t see any kind of nervousness. That was just hammer down. That was what we have preached all along.”
Clarion, which won the pregame coin toss and elected to be the home team, jumped all over Cranberry in its two at-bats scoring six runs in the first inning and 10 more in the second batting around both times. Eight different players had at least one hit.
“That is really important,” Smail said of the number of players who had hits. “In later games, like in bigger, important games, that will definitely help us out.”
According to Bill Smith, any one of the Clarion batters can be the hero on any given night.
With 13 guys on the roster, we keep telling them everybody is going to have a role,” Smith said. “Everybody is going to get an opportunity. Some of those guys that come in off the bench got hits (tonight). Every kid here is capable of making that one big hit at any given time. We are confident in all of them.”
Smail, as he has done so many times throughout his Little League All-Star career that has seen him help Clarion to District 25 titles in the 10-and-under and 11-and-under brackets in each of the last two seasons as well as a fourth-place finish last year in the entire state in the 11-year-old bracket, was right in the middle of a lot of the offensive action.
He started the scoring for Clarion with a shot over the right-field fence in the first inning that followed a Bryce Brinkley bunt base hit leading off for the home team.
Smail then had a pair of hits in the 10-run second starting the inning with a leadoff single — he came around to score on a Tommy Smith triple, one of two triples for Tommy Smith — and then got Clarion to 15 runs with a majestic three-run home run that cleared the bleachers out beyond the centerfield fence.
“Not it does not, especially in All-Star games,” Smail said when asked if it ever gets old hitting home runs. “It (the second home run over the bleachers) just feels good because I know the crowd and the press-box workers are going to treat it good, like where it went and stuff like that.”
See Smail’s complete interview.
Smail’s first home run was greeted by fireworks, but the press box was warned by the home plate umpire not to shoot them off again because he considered them an artificial noisemaker, which is prohibited by Little League rules during play.
Smail finished the game 3-for-3 with three runs scored and five RBIs.
Tommy Smith, meanwhile, was 2-for-3 with the two triples, two runs scored and an RBI with Derek Smail going 2-for-2 with a walk, a double, three runs scored and an RBI, Jase Ferguson was 2-for-2 with a walk, a run scored and an RBI, Brinkley went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and Kohen Kemmer had a hit and two RBIs.
“The kids were anxious (to play),” Bill Smith said. “This year wasn’t so bad with only one week of practice, but the kids still were chomping at the bit. The whole regular season, you can throw all that stuff (away). We are playing that whole thing to get right here. They were anxious to go.”
While Clarion’s bats were cranking out the 16 runs on 14 hits, three walks and a hit batter, Tommy Smith was cruising on the mound.
The right-hander struck out two in each inning and also had assists on two of the three outs on balls put in play by Cranberry. Dawson Smail, who else, had the other one when he made a nice catch on a ball hit into foul territory.
“He’s throwing well on the mound,” Bill Smith said. “We are a different kind of ball club when he is out there on the mound. It would be nice for somebody to get a few hits and let our other guys do something other than him field the ball and Dawson catch one foul ball. But it will come.”
The best thing from Clarion’s perspective was Smith was able to complete the three-inning perfect game in under 35 pitchers, meaning he will be able, if Clarion chooses, to pitch in the second-round game Wednesday against Titusville. Cranberry will take on the loser of the second-round game between Oil City and KRE (Knox-Rimersburg-Emlenton) in the loser’s bracket of the double-elimination tournament Friday.
“He was coming out at 35 (pitches) either way,” Bill Smith said. “That was the plan either way, whatever we had to do to get the win and keep everybody healthy for Wednesday night.”
In the other game Monday in District 25, Oil City beat Franklin 6-0. Oil City will take on KRE Wednesday while Franklin awaits the loser of the Clarion/Titusville game Friday.
CLARION 16, CRANBERRY 0, 3 INNINGS
Score by Innings
Cranberry 000 — 0
Clarion 6(10)x — 16
CRANBERRY — 0
Dalton Wenner cf 1000, Landon Burgdorfer p/1b 1000, Hudson Gall 2b 1000, Mason Brown 1b/p 1000, Cayden Baker c 1000, Ben Garland lf 1000, Tanner Myers rf 1000, Conner Miller ss 1000, Dane Wenner 3b 1000. Totals 9-0-0-0.
CLARION — 16
Bryce Brinkley cf 3220, Dawson Smail 1b 3335, Tommy Smith p 3221, Derek Smail 3b 2321, Jase Ferguson 2b 2121, Tanner Miller rf 0100, Brayden Murray ph 2000, Dauntae Girvan pr/rf 0100, Devon Lauer ss 0101, Jake Smith c 1101, Nick Aaron ph 1011, Kohen Kemmer lf 1012, Logan Lutz ph/lf 1110. Totals 19-16-14-13.
LOB: Cranberry 0. Clarion 2. Errors: Cranberry 4. Clarion 0. 2B: Derek Smail 3B: Tommy Smith (2) HR: Dawson Smail (2) SB: Derek Smail, Ferguson. SF: Lauer. HBP: Lauer by Burgdorfer.
PITCHING
Cranberry
Landon Burgdorfer 0.2 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HP
Mason Brown 1.1 IP, 10 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 0 HP
Totals: 2 IP, 14 H, 16 R, 16 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 1 HP
Clarion
Tommy Smith 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
Winning pitcher: Tommy Smith
Losing pitcher: Landon Burgdorfer
