Chucks Baseball opens season with win over ECC
PUNXSUTAWNEY – The Punxsutawney Chucks and Elk County Catholic Crusaders finished a cold week on Friday in Punxsy, as ECC came to town in the season opener for the Chucks.
After pushing runs through in the second, third, fifth and sixth innings, the Chucks opened the 2024 season with a 6-1 win over the Crusaders.
“We’re a work-in-progress as a different team, with today as a first-time Varsity experience for a lot of these guys,” said Chucks Head Coach Mike Dickey.
After a scoreless first one-and-half innings, the
Chucks started the second inning with a single from junior Coy Martino, and shortly after that, Ty Limrick had a big double to score Brody Stouffer and Parker Stahlman to give the Chucks a 2-0 advantage early on in the game.
Limrick’s double set a theme for the Chucks this game, as it was his first big Varsity hit. And that followed in other players stepping into their first Varsity game after a large group of seniors graduated last year.
Some third-inning action saw sophomore Nevin Day hit a double, and he was eventually scored by Stahlman to make it 3-0. With it 4-0, the bases where loaded by the Chucks, but the ECC defense ended that threat.
Punxsy threatened in the fourth inning with a big hit from Day, but the Crusader defense stifled that with the Chucks still up 4-0.
A single by Punxsy's Luke Miller scored Stouffer in the fifth inning to put the Chucks up 5-0 early in the inning.
The Crusaders scored a run in the sixth inning to make 5-1, while Day had a sac fly for an RBI to make it 6-1.
The seventh inning for ECC was a quick one, as the Chucks defense clamped down for a 6-1 win.
“Nevin was sharp and hitting spots with his fastball, and Coy did some good things today,” said
Dickey. “Offensively, we have some things to work on, but our base running was pretty good.”
He added, “We put Limrick in the DH spot earlier on and he came up with a big hit for us.”
For the Chucks, Day was 2-for-3 with one RBI, while Martino was 1-for-4. Stahlman was also 1-for-4 with an RBI, and Stouffer went 2-for-2. Miller went 1-for-2 with two RBIs, Limrick was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and Donny Bender was 1-for-3.
On the mound, Day worked four innings and struck out nine, while Martino struck out three in relief. Also, Stahlman put in two innings of work and struck out three as well.