DANVILLE -- The Tyler Coombe that took the mound Thursday night in the opening round of the Susquehanna Valley Legion playoffs against Danville for Bloomsburg may have exhibited some similarities to the Ironmen players with one exception: he's gotten better.
Mixing his fastball and curve to keep the home team off balance, Coombe displayed a gutsy performance to carry Bloomsburg past Danville 5-3 to advance against Selinsgrove, which slipped past Berwick, 3-2.
"He's a much better pitcher now than he was in high school," Bloomsburg manager Larry Bechtel said. "For one thing he knows at this level you just can't throw the ball past everyone."
Coombe cruised through the first four innings before losing his focus on the mound after a clap of thunder and bolt of lightning caught his attention in the fifth. That's when Danville sent eight batters to the plate and scored three runs highlighted by Chris Bohan's two-run single to cut the home team's deficit to 5-3.
"I knew about the no-hitter going into the fifth and talked about it in the dugout," Coombe said. "The lightning and wanting to finish the inning to make the game official caused me to lose my focus. Up until that point I was cruising along."
The same could not be said of the Danville squad, which looked uncharacteristically tight and played poorly in the field.
After an out, Mark Fulton reached on an infield single and was wild-pitched to second by losing pitcher Dan Winnie before Mitch Johnson singled to center. Adam Diltz hit a one-hopper to the mound but the ball was thrown away allowing two runs to come home.
Diltz moved to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
"This is the playoffs and you can't give a good team like Bloomsburg any more outs in an inning than what they need," Danville manager Harold Albertson said. "We didn't hit the ball early and made too many mistakes."
Bloomsburg upped the advantage to 5-0 in the fourth when Jack Breisch singled and Fulton walked while Mitch Johnson slapped a single to right that plated one run while a throwing error allowed the second to cross the diamond.
Albertson switched pitchers and Mike Smith kept the visitors in check the rest of the way, including striking out three.
Danvillle made one last attempt to tie or take the lead in the seventh when Bohan reached on an error and with two outs Smith singled to center but Coombe got Andrew Shoop to pop up and end the threat.
"The bottom of the lineup came through for us tonight," Bechtel said. "Tyler gutted it out and we took advantage of their mistakes and played tough."
Johnson paced the winners with two singles followed by Fulton, Breisch and Evan Grandizio all with one single.
"They did not have an earned run and our pitchers only gave up five hits,"
Albertson said. "We have to play better next time out."
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American Legion baseball: Coombe tames Danville bats in victory
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