Surprise party

By Pete Chiodo

July 21, 2008 11:37 pm

— SAEGERTOWN — The fans arrived at Ed Acker Field on Monday afternoon, set up their folding chairs around the diamond, settled in and watched all of 14 pitches. More significantly, though, they watched one of the most surprising runs in Crawford/Venango American Legion history come to a climax.
Cochranton, which came into the postseason seeded last among the five teams in the league, finished off a 7-6 win over top-seeded French Creek Valley to be crowned the 2008 CVAL champs.
The completion of the game was delayed about 28 hours. On Sunday, the two teams had played six-and-a-half innings when rain washed out the bottom of the seventh.
Cochranton was already ahead and yesterday needed just three outs to seal the deal. Closing pitcher Josh Chisholm got the first batter to ground to second base, got the second batter looking at strike three, and fielded the final out himself.
The streaking Bluebirds now move on to the Region 8 tournament in St. Marys. They’ll begin play on Saturday at 4 p.m., facing the Butler County champion.
“I wouldn’t have predicted it,” said Cochranton coach Randy Staudt. “I was confident in the kids, but I wouldn’t have predicted it.”
After winning just four of their 12 CVAL games during the regular season, Cochranton ran the table in the playoffs. First the ’Birds bumped off fourth-seed Franklin 5-3 in a play-in game. They dumped French Creek Valley in the opening round of the double-elimination tournament, 8-4. They then made their way to the championship game with a 7-5 win over No. 2 seed Meadville.
“They got hot,” FCV coach Brandon Crum said about Cochranton. “They got really hot at the right time.”
Like it did against Meadville on Saturday, Cochranton’s offense came out swinging to start Sunday’s action. Brad Peterson and Andy Boughner led off the first inning with back-to-back singles. And with two outs Mike Boughner hit a double to deep left field to bring both runners home. Cody Northcott went to the same spot for another double, scoring Mike Boughner and putting Cochranton ahead 3-0.
“Big,” said coach Staudt. “That was big. Our guys came right out and jumped on them.”
Blues catcher Craig Garofola made it 4-1 with a solo home run in the third inning.
Yet FCV wasn’t done yet rallying with four runs in the sixth inning to take a 6-4 lead. With two on and one out, Creekers center fielder Doug Farley — who had a solo home run in the first — ripped a two-run triple to right-center field. Jared Campbell plated Farley with a double. And Jake Carter got Campbell home with a sacrifice fly.
FCV couldn’t hold onto that lead, however. With a single by Andy Boughner, a sac fly by Zach Staudt, and three defensive errors by FCV, the Bluebirds scratched across three runs in the top of the seventh inning to take their final lead.
“(French Creek Valley) had just been a machine defensively,” said coach Staudt. “It almost seemed impossible that as young as they were they could keep playing such good defense.”
Brad Peterson earned the win for Cochranton. He pitched all six innings on Sunday. He allowed four earned runs on five hits, walked five and struck out six.
“Brad did a good job,” said Staudt. “I probably left him in an inning too long. But he only allowed one hit up until the fifth inning.”
“(Peterson) threw a bunch of curve balls at us and we were just pounding them into the dirt,” said Crum.
Matt Morian was hit with the loss. In seven innings he allowed four earned runs on 10 hits. He walked two and fanned three.
“We’re here with just 10 guys,” said Crum. “We had people moved around. I knew it was going to be hard to win this tournament. I told these guys, we’re going to have to stay on the top of the bracket to be successful. My hat’s off to Cochranton. They played well. But we did a lot with a little and I’m proud of these guys.”

Pete Chiodo can be reached at 724-6370 ext. 275 or by e-mail at pchiodo@meadvilletribune.com.