Plum baseball defeats Fox Chapel to create WPIAL’s 1st 4-way tie for section title in 20 years

By: Nathan Breisinger
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 | 9:00 PM

On the final day of section play, the Fox Chapel baseball team controlled its destiny for an outright title.

Instead, with help coming from another section matchup, Plum’s victory over the Foxes solidified an ultra-rare four-way tie atop the Section 1-5A standings.

With Plum’s 10-4 victory and Franklin Regional pulling out a 1-0 win over Penn-Trafford, all four teams finished 9-3 in the section. It’s the first four-way tie atop a section in the WPIAL since 2004, when Latrobe, Penn-Trafford, Norwin and Indiana went 6-4 in Section 1-3A.

Year after year, Plum has found itself in a similar situation with one section game remaining and the Foxes in their way. Once again, the Mustangs came up big.

“Ever since I’ve been in high school, it’s always been a battle with these guys at the end of the year. Both teams love it. That’s why you see the games get so heated. It felt good to really get this one,” Plum starting pitcher Colin Watson said.

Said Plum coach Carl Vollmer: “I’m proud of our guys. That’s three out of four years we’ve won a section. I’m happy we were able to pull it off today because our backs were against the wall after the first inning, and we were able to pull it off.”

Just 24 hours after Fox Chapel defeated Plum, 3-0, the Foxes picked up where they left off. Antonio LeDonne singled in the first, and Joey Geller followed with an accidental pop-up bunt that landed in front of Watson.

With two runners on, Jeremy Haigh drove a pitch to the right-field fence that drove in LeDonne, and Haigh scored after a throwing error to make it 2-0.

“He’s one of the top players in Western Pa. He’s a great player, and he’s a gamer,” Fox Chapel coach Jimmy Hastings said of Haigh.

Down by two early, Plum was looking for anything to break a 14-inning scoreless drought.

“Coming off of the two games, we did not play well,” Vollmer said. “In the first inning, things didn’t go very well for us. It did not look good. It felt like the sky was falling in the bottom of the first, and we got out of it and we limited the damage.”

After a pair of singles and a soft bunt from Jake Dombkowski, the Mustangs loaded the bases in the second inning. Dom Beyer then chopped one to first, and the throw home went to the backstop to allow Plum to break its scoreless stretch.

Two pitches later, Eric Streussnig dropped down a bunt, which was fielded by pitcher Blake Krushinski. However, his throw home was high, and on two simple bunts, the Mustangs had tied the score 2-2.

With the bases still loaded, Watson came to the plate. Knowing he needed to get his pitcher and leadoff batter back in check, Vollmer spoke to Watson between innings to settle him down, and it paid off as he singled to center to bring in two runs.

“He was sitting on the bench, and he seemed down but he’s a strong kid and I said, ‘You got to stay strong for us because we’re going to win this,’” Vollmer said.

The pressure mounted for the Foxes defense as a Jack Anderson slow grounder to short once again filled the bases. Sean Franzi hit a dribbler to short, and the throw pulled the first baseman off the bag, bringing home another run.

Then, on what seemed to be an inning-ending double play, the throw from second to first was dropped, allowing courtesy runner Domanick Miller to score to make it 6-2.

“We had the one bad inning. We gave them six runs,” Hastings said. “Simple throws, simple plays and we didn’t make the plays. Against a good team, you’re going to lose when that happens.”

For Hastings, the defensive effort was disappointing, especially when carrying momentum over after Monday’s win.

“I thought we were ready after yesterday and we came out of the gates hot. Blake pitched well; we just didn’t have the defense behind him,” he said.

Despite allowing another run on a Haigh single, Watson did what he needed to do on the mound, pitching 4 1/3 innings, striking out five and allowing eight hits and two earned runs. Offensively, Watson went 3 for 5 with two RBIs.

“First inning wasn’t ideal, but we knew we had six more innings to go and we just put the ball in play and you never know what happens,” Watson said. “We battled, they made some mental mistakes, and we came out on top.”

Plum wasn’t done scoring. In the fourth, Daniel Macioce drove in Watson on a sacrifice fly to make it 7-3.

Another throwing error in the top of the sixth brought home Watson and put Anderson on third before Franzi added another RBI single to make it 9-4. Plum scored its final run in the seventh.

“What I’m most proud of is we kept tacking on one run or two runs,” Vollmer said.

Both teams will find out their playoff seedings when the brackets are released Friday.

Tags: Fox Chapel, Plum