WPIAL Baseball Recaps From Tuesday, May 30th

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, May 30, 2017 | 8:58 PM

A second chance. That is what the consolation game is in the district playoffs. Yes, your dreams of a WPIAL title have been dashed with a Semifinals loss, but there is still gold to be had on the state level if you can win and advance to the PIAA postseason. Here are recaps from the three WPIAL consolation playoff games from Tuesday at Ross Memorial Park at the W&J College Sports Complex in Washington including a gem in the 4-A fray.

A special thanks to Sean Meyers, Steve Nagler and Rob McKinney for their help on these recaps.

WPIAL CLASS 5-A Consolation:

West Allegheny Indians 12 – Chartiers Valley Colts 5
West Allegheny fell into an early 4-0 deficit to Chartiers Valley in the 5A consolation game on Tuesday, but the Indians scored 11 consecutive runs to take command, ultimately prevailing 12-5. As a result of the victory at Ross Memorial Park in Washington, the Indians (20-2) advance to the PIAA postseason, which begins on Monday, June 5. Chartiers Valley, which claimed WPIAL gold last season, struck in the first inning against West Allegheny ace Michael Crawford. After Crawford retired the first two Colts’ hitters, Dante Panucci doubled and Tristen Zimmer walked. Reed Bruggeman plated the first run with a double, and Zack Pilossoph, Steve Alauzen and Jason Orzechowski all followed with RBI singles. While Crawford’s day ended after just one inning, the Indians attack teed off against Zimmer, CV’s starter. After scoring a run in the bottom of the first on a steal of home by Logan Malatak, the Indians struck for six runs on six hits in the second. Chasen Claus opened the frame with a double, followed by a single from Michael Starkman. Next, Justin Usenicnik executed a perfect bunt, inducing an errant throw by the CV catcher, Bruggeman. The error allowed both runners to score, and Usenicnik advanced to third. Nick Ross subsequently plated him with a single, and Steve Twardy and Trey Zeroski both scored later in the stanza on a triple from Malatak. Freshman standout Austin Hendrick’s groundout scored Malatak, accounting for the six-run outburst that put West Allegheny in the driver’s seat. An RBI single by Zeroski against Chartiers Valley (13-10) reliever Ross Wilkerson extended the Indians’ lead to 8-1 in the third, and West Allegheny scored three more times in the fifth to seal the outcome. In that stanza, Ross singled, Twardy was hit by a pitch and Zeroski singled to load the bases. Malatak came through again, delivering an RBI single, followed by a two-run hit by Hendrick. The teams exchanged runs in the sixth, but the result was no longer in doubt. Overshadowed by the West Allegheny offense was the performance of Indians’ pitcher Conner Bartley, who held the Colts scoreless in nearly four innings of relief.

WPIAL CLASS 4-A Consolation:

Hopewell Vikings 1 – Deer Lakes Lancers 0
For the third time in these WPIAL playoffs, Joey Rock stifled the bats of opposing hitters as he registered his third shutout and the Hopewell Vikings earned a spot as the 3rd place team in the 4-A PIAA playoffs by defeating Deer Lakes, 1-0, at Ross Memorial Field on Tuesday.  This time, however, Rock tossed a complete-game no-hitter.  Rock was dominant from the first pitch of the game, moving his fastball in and out on hitters and hitting spots with all of his pitches.  Rock struck out ten Lancers and didn’t allow a base on balls on the afternoon.  Only Jake Spirlock was able to reach base for the Lancers as he reached base on an error twice, once in the 2nd inning and once in the 5th inning.  Rock faced only two over the minimum all day.  His mound opponent, Zach Lubick, matched Rock pitch-for-pitch until the 6th inning when the Vikings would score the game’s only run.  With one out, Mitch Heranic singled into right field.  It was Heranic’s second hit of the game.  Heranic’s courtesy runner, Sean Curry, stole second base and with two outs, Tyler Beck delivered the big hit, an RBI triple into the right-centerfield gap to score Curry.  That’s all Rock needed as he retired the Lancers final six hitters in order in the 6th and 7th innings.  Rock got a great diving catch from freshman Jake McGovern off of the bat of Shawn Logan with one out in the 6th inning to preserve Rock’s no-hitter.  Rock has pitched 19 innings of shutout baseball in defeating Deer Lakes, Knoch and Derry.  Hopewell’s lone loss in the postseason came against 3rd seeded South Park in the 4-A semifinals.  Hopewell (14-10) will play on into next week when the PIAA state playoffs begin while Deer Lakes season ends with a record of 15-7.

WPIAL CLASS 3-A Consolation:

Ellwood City Wolverines 5 – Brownsville Falcons 3
On Tuesday evening, the Ellwood City Wolverines defeated the Brownsville Falcons 5-3 in a consolation matchup in WPIAL Class 3A. With the win, Ellwood City has earned a spot in PIAA Playoffs and will face the District 10 Class 3A champion on Monday, June 5th. Ellwood City exploded in the first inning scoring 4 runs and it started with an Anthony Roth single. The first run came in on an error, second run came on a RBI single by Mitch Frazier and throwing error on the single scored the third run. On a dropped third strike, the fourth run would score for the Wolverines in the top of the first inning. Ellwood City would notch another run in the sixth inning and carried the Wolverines to the 5-3 victory. Wolverines Anthony Roth was Ellwood City’s top hitter and went 2-4 and scored once. Despite the loss, Brownsville hitters Colton Dellarose and Jaryn Addis tallied two hits each.  As mentioned, with the win, Ellwood City will the play the District 10 Class 3A champion in PIAA Playoffs Monday, June 5th.

Tags: Ellwood City, Hopewell, West Allegheny