Funk sparks Red Raiders to come from behind victory over DuBois

By rscaife
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Updated: April 14, 2018

By Kenny Varner
BELLEFONTE – Cool under pressure.
Despite having one bad inning that put them behind 2-0, the Bellefonte baseball team refused to go away in their game against DuBois Friday afternoon at the Bellefonte baseball complex.
The Red Raiders battled back in the fourth to tie the game thanks to a 2-run home run by CJ Funk.
With the game knotted at two going into their final at bats, Bellefonte manufactured a run on a sacrifice fly to take the come from behind victory 3-2.
“We tell the kids that they have to forget any mistakes you make. You have to have a short memory when you do make a little fumble out there. The one thing you don’t want to do is make one mistake turn into multiple mistakes. Have a short memory. It’s history. We can’t change it. The only way we can change it is come back in the next inning and put some runs up on the board,” Bellefonte coach John Clark said. “That’s our mindset.Forget about it and take care of it on offense. That’s how we can make it up.”
Offensively, the Red Raiders were led by the multiple hits of Dylan Deitrich who was 3-for-4 with a run, CJ Funk who was clutch under pressure with a 2-for-2 night sporting a Home run and 2RBIs. CJ Lauck rounded out the leaders with a 2-for-3 effort.
In total, Bellefonte finished with eight hits while committing two early fielding errors which helped the Beavers in their 2-run inning.
Freshman pitcher Seth Shuey was awarded the starting spot and had a strong debut, going five innings, striking out six, allowing five hits, two runs and one earn run.
“We had a freshman come up today to throw. We weren’t expecting to have to throw him but because of all these games in short amount of days and all these pitch counts, we brought him up,” Clark said. “It shows what happens when you throw strikes.
Picking up the win was Bobby Marsh who kept the Beavers off the board in his two full innings. He struck out five while allowing only one hit.
Eric Schneider was the tough luck losing pitcher on the night as he came in from the bull pen.
DuBois struck first as it plated two runs in the third inning.
Schneider took a Shuey offering deep to left center giving him a one-out double.
Dylan McCluskey followed with another smash to centerfield which allowed Schneider to cross the plate.
McCluskey, with the help of two Bellefonte miscues, later scored to put his team up 2-0.
The score would remain the same until the bottom of the fourth, It was the Red Raiders time to show the fans what its offense was capable of.
Cade Fortney innocently reached on a walk from starter McCluskey.
One batter later, the whole landscape of the game changed with one crack of the bat.
Funk stepped in and blasted a shot over the centerfield wall and into the parking lot, tying things at two.
Both defenses took control of the game from there and neither one could find away to get their players home.
Finally, in the bottom of the seventh, the Red Raiders would make their move.
Dylan Deitrich led off with a single into left field to bring up Cade Fortney.
Fortney squared around to bunt and it was misplayed by the pitcher as the ball sailed over second base and into centerfield, putting runners on first and second with no one out and Funk up to bat.
Funk was very choosy during his last at bat and walked to load the bases for Colton Burd, still with nobody out in the inning.
Burd got contact with the second pitch he saw and drove it into deep center.
From there, Deitrich used his speed and tug up and blazed his way home to give his team the walk-off victory.
Despite the win Friday, the celebrating will be short lived as Bellefonte has to turn around and play a Saturday matinee game against a tough Philipsburg-Osceola team at the Red Raiders Home field at 2pm.