Ferndale at Conemaugh Valley April 17.

        Pitching and defense are usually a good recipe for success in High School Baseball.  The Ferndale Yellow Jackets got just that in their 3-2 road victory at rival Conemaugh Valley Tuesday afternoon. The Yellow Jacket's Senior pitcher, Ian Helsel pitched a gem and sparked his team to a hard fought conference victory on the road.  Helsel dominated early by striking out six of the first seven batters he faced en route to his ten strikeout performance. When asked about his key to the game Helsel replied, "Keeping the ball down and not giving them anything good to hit." Helsel's strategy proved to be true as Conemaugh Valley mustered just five hits throughout the game.  The defensive play that saved the game came from an unsuspecting player as reserve freshmen outfielder Mike Hockensmith caught a fly ball and gunned out the potential winning run at third.

       

         The game saw quite the pitchers dual as Conemaugh Valley's starter Chris Horten also went the distance and racked up twelve strikeouts himself.  The game started out slow as the teams combined for only one hit through three innings.  The offense got going in the top half of the fourth inning when Ian Helsel started the Yellow Jacket rally with a single and a stolen base. Cody Berkebile plated him with a single and later scored on a Nate Hoffman single to set the score at 2-0.  The Blue Jays answered in the bottom of the inning with a two run double by Damon Markiewicz. The score remained the same until the top of seventh. A rare catchers interference call gave Ferndale a base runner. Following the strange play, Freshmen pinch hitter Zach Beneke came through in the clutch with an RBI single to give Ferndale the 3-2 lead, and ultimately the victory. The Blue Jays went down in order in the seventh capped off with Helsel's tenth strikeout.  The win improves Ferndale to 3-4, as Conemaugh Valley drops to 6-3.


Top Performer- Ian Helsel (Mt Aloysius recruit) 7.0 IP. 5 Hits. 2 Earned Runs. 0 Walks. 10 Strikeouts. 1-3 Stolen Base. One run scored.