Pusateri tosses complete game as North Hills baseball tops Fox Chapel
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Wednesday, April 18, 2018 | 8:42 PM
Joey Pusateri did it with his bat and his arm Wednesday afternoon as North Hills defeated Fox Chapel, 8-3. The senior was 2 for 3 at the plate and pitched a complete game as the Indians secured first place in Section 1-5A.
“My catcher (J.T. Mazula) called a great game,” Pusateri said. “We've been playing together since we were 8 years old. Coach (Randy Miller) allows us to call our own pitches, and we always seem to be on the same page.”
North Hills batted around in a five-run third inning. With the bases loaded and one out, Tyler Zozos blooped a single to right-center field to score Jordan Pitchford and Garrett Barto. Then, Fox Chapel committed three straight errors — two on ground balls to third base and one when the catcher couldn't hold on to the ball on a double steal.
Fox Chapel cracked the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth when Mitchell Miles and Ryan Wagner singled and Miles scored on a James Patterson sacrifice fly.
The Indians added to their lead in the top of the seventh when Barto doubled and scored on Zozos' single. Pusateri's second hit chased Fox Chapel starter Alex Miles from the game. Then, against Ryan Wagner, Mazula delivered a two-run single to make it 8-1 Indians.
Things got a tad interesting in the bottom of the seventh when Patterson and Gavin Donaldson singled. One out later, T.J. Johnston reached on an error that drove home Patterson. Pinch hitter Luke Rayman walked and Matt Jerpe's second hit drove in a run to make it 8-3 with the bases loaded.
North Hills coach Randy Miller chatted with his senior starter and left him in to finish the game.
“This was his game,” Miller said. “He reminded me of a game similar to this one last year in which I took him out, and he said he wanted to finish it.”
Pusateri struck out Mitchell Miles and induced a fielder's choice groundout by Wagner to end the game.
North Hills (10-1) hits the midway point of section play with a perfect 6-0 record. Fox Chapel (4-3, 3-1) will close out the first half of section play Thursday with a makeup game against Mars.
Don Rebel is a TribLive High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.
Tags: Fox Chapel, North Hills
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