The varsity boys’ baseball team played State College on Thursday, April 20. The team lost by 10 runs.

“We handled the loss by discussing all of the areas in which we did not perform up to our expectations. We then turned around and played really well in a 13-4 win over Red Land,” head coach Tom Smith said.

Senior Sean Bettwy was one of many starters. He is Altoona’s catcher when they are on defense. 

“I felt confident starting the game. We have a decent field this year. We had a couple underclassmen on the mound, but they showed a lot of potential. I feel like it’s a good time for them to show what they have,” Bettwy said. 

By the end of the first inning the score was 3 to 0, Altoona was losing.

“We prepared for the State College game just like we did for any other game. We tried to highlight some of the areas where we needed to be successful in order to have a good game,” Smith Said.

Bettwey called a timeout and pulled his team into the middle of the field to talk to fellow players. 

“I told them that we have to relax; it’s not that big of a deal. We made a couple errors, and they kind of got ahead. I went out and told the infielders as long as we keep our heads high we will be able to get out of this inning in no time. That is what we ended up doing,” Bettwy said. 

Altoona player Brennan Freiwald was up to bat and sent Bryce Eberhart home, scoring the team’s first run.

“Scoring the first run felt good. It felt good to know we were getting things going on offense and that I could produce for the team,” Eberhart said.

By the end of the second inning the score was tied 3 to 3

“When the game was tied I felt that we were turning it around from the first inning, and it was going to be a close game,” Eberhart said.

The fourth inning ended with a score of 6 to 3. State College was winning.

“We had seven errors that game, that game before that we had seven errors too. We lost both of those games for that reason. If we can stay down on the errors, myself included, we will win these games with our offense and we won’t lose them because of our defense,” Bettwy said. 

The game ended with a final score of 14 to 4. Altoona had lost.

“The game actually got away from us in the last inning. We just didn’t make some plays that extended the inning and it sort of got away from us,” Smith said

The boys’ varsity team will play their next home game Wednesday, April 26 at 4:15 p.m.