Sweet Sixteen Run Ends for Seneca Valley With 3rd Title in 4 Years

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, May 29, 2014 | 11:38 PM

16-seeds are not supposed to be still playing in late May. Teams with overall records under .500b 20 game in are only supposed to see the district championship game if they purchase a ticket. Don’t tell any of that to Seneca Valley.  The Raiders bucked all odds by beating Baldwin 5-2 Thursday to win the schools third WPIAL Quad-A baseball title in the last four years.

It didn’t look like the magical postseason run for Seneca Valley would produce another gold crown early as the Baldwin bashers connected early and often. Nick Bernick lined a single to second. He was forced at second on a ground ball to Raiders shortstop Alex Hajduk, but the throw to first bounced away and allowed Morgan Schmitt to reach second. After Tom McCarthy was hit by a pitch, Alex Pantuso and Chris Eisel connected on back-to-back RBI singles to make it 2-0 Highlanders. Dylan Finocchi was then hit by a pitch to load the bases, but senior Connor Coward, who missed the regular season with a back injury but returned to go 2-0 in the postseason, struck out Jordan Gitzen and Tony Martinez to keep it a two run deficit.

An inning later, Seneca Valley cut the lead in half when with two on and two out, the Raiders #9 hitter, Hajduk singled home Matt Wagner to make it 2-1.

Baldwin senior starting pitcher Alex Pantuso struggled through four innings but was able to escape trouble more times than not. His luck ran out though in the fifth inning.

It started for the Raiders with a mammoth home run over the left center field fence by Matt Rafferty to tie the game at 2-2. Vince Augustine followed with a triple to the fence in right center field and Coward helped himself with an RBI single as the Raiders took their first lead of the game. Baldwin catcher Zach Murray had Coward picked off first base, but a botched run down throw allowed Coward to reach second. That was huge because two outs later when the inning should have been over, John Davis singled home Coward to make it 4-2. Davis then scored on a John Harper base hit to finish off Pantuso and the scoring for the night.

Coward was brilliant after the first inning. Baldwin, which had averaged nearly 9 runs a game in three previous playoff victories, had only three base runners against the Raiders senior after the first inning. Coward, the losing pitcher in last years title game, allowed 2 runs on 6 hits with no walks and 11 strikeouts.

Pantuso suffered the loss, allowing 5 runs, 3 earned on 9 hits with 5 walks and 7 strikeouts. Bernick in relief allowed 1 hit with 1 walk and 1 strikeout in 1 1/3.

Baldwin does not win their first ever WPIAL baseball title as they fall to 16-3. They will open up the PIAA state playoffs Monday by taking on District 9 champion DuBois.

Despite four WPIAL playoff wins, Seneca Valley is still under .500 as they improve to 10-11 overall. They will face the D-7 3rd place team on Monday when they battle the Moon Tigers in the opening round of the PIAA playoffs.

BALDWIN HIGHLANDERS : 2 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 = 2
SENECA VALLEY RAIDERS : 0 – 1 – 0 – 0 – 4 – 0 – x = 5

Tags: Baldwin