To say Punxsutawney has been a dominant baseball program would be an understatement.

Up until last year the Chucks had won a whopping 13 consecutive District 9 Class AAA titles. Even with a fairly pedestrian 10-7 record coming into Wednesday’s game against Bradford, they were a still team that deserved respect.

So it says something that Bradford was able to sweep the regular season series with the Chucks in two completely different ways.

After staging an epic come-from-behind 11-10 victory down in Punxsy on April 23, the Owls won a pitcher’s duel yesterday to defeat the Chucks 1-0 and improve to 10-9 on the season.

The significance of going 2-0 against their district rivals wasn’t lost on Bradford coach Andy Carlson.

“I don’t know the last time that Bradford has swept Punxsy,” he said. “They’ve been a great baseball team for a long time. We played a heck of a game — I don’t think we made an error.”

Fittingly, the Owls were led on Senior Day by senior pitcher Adam Boyer, who went all seven innings and allowed just two hits and four walks to go along with one strikeout.

“He just battled,” Carlson said of Boyer. “They hit maybe three or four balls hard all day. That’s baseball: you’re going to let up some hard-hit balls every now and then, so it was a great job by Adam.”

The Chucks were able to get a runner to third base in the opening frame, but that would be the extent of their offense for most of the game. Apart from the free passes, Boyer controlled the zone well, didn’t give Punxsy much to work with at the plate, and induced a lot of harmless contact.

Of course, Bradford didn’t have a great day at the plate either. After Tyler Gigliotti and Caleb Nuzzo opened the bottom of the first with a pair of singles — which would be wiped out by a baserunning error and a double play — the Owls wouldn’t get another runner in scoring position until the fifth inning.

Despite taking the loss, Punxsy’s Logan Johnston pitched a strong game as well, working 4 2/3 innings, striking out five and allowing four walks and just the two opening hits.

But in that fifth inning, the Owls were able to manufacture all the offense they would need.

Isaac Gralak began the inning with the walk, and was quickly advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Patrick Caskey. Gralak then came home on a pair of Punxsy miscues — a passed ball and then an overthrown ball — to finally make a dent in the scoreboard.

“We scored when we needed to score,” Carlson said. “We only had one run on the day but they only got a guy to second base a couple times.”

Bradford would eventually load the bases, but Punxsy’s Isaac Stouffer — who came in to relieve Johnston — was able to work out of the jam and keep the score 1-0.

In the sixth inning, a Dan Manion single marked Bradford’s first base hit since the second batter of the ballgame, though once again it came to nothing.

“We’re getting there; we hit a few balls hard,” Carlson said. “(Punxsy’s) a good team. Sometimes you’re going to have to win a game 1-0. The swings look better — we fouled off more pitches; we didn’t go down lightly. We drew some walks and we made a good pitcher battle.”

The Chucks showed signs of life in the seventh inning when Derek Huey led off with a single. Punxsy would eventually get the tying run to second and the go-ahead run to first with one man out. But Boyer, as he had all game long, took care of business, inducing a pop-up to shortstop and a groundout to second in quick succession to end the game and complete the shutout.

The Owls will head down to Johnsonburg this afternoon for their fourth game in as many days.

“We’ve played a lot over the last week,” Carlson said. “I think one of the biggest things this team needs is some rest. We’re going to look for a way in the next couple days to find some people some time to rest.”

They will finally get that much-needed break as they wait to see who they will travel to face in the D-9 Class AAA playoffs next Wednesday (likely either Clearfield or St. Marys).

“We’ll play next Wednesday,” Carlson said. “We don’t know who we’ll play but we’re going to show up and we’re going to try and beat them and hopefully get to the district title game.”

For now, the Owls will be able to hang their hats on the fact that they were able to send out their group of seniors — Boyer, Manion, Gralak, Hunter Gray, and Brody Nay — with a sweep of a traditional powerhouse.

“It was an honor to coach these five seniors,” Carlson said. “It was a great thing to get them a win on Senior Day.”

AT BRADFORD

         R H E

Punxsutawney 000 000 0   0 2 1

Bradford           000 010 X 1 3 0

Logan Johnston (5 SO, 4 BB), Isaac Stouffer (2 SO), and Tyler Richardson

Adam Boyer (1 SO, 4 BB) and Caleb Nuzzo