Top 15 baseball finals in 15 years at Wild Things Park: Chartiers Valley edges Blackhawk in 2016
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Wednesday, May 16, 2018 | 3:33 PM
The TribLive High School Sports Network is counting down the Top 15 WPIAL baseball championship games held over the past 15 years at Wild Things Park.
Catch all the postseason action on the exclusive broadcast home of the WPIAL baseball playoffs, the TribLive High School Sports Network.
Here's a look at No. 13:
2016 Class AAA championship: Chartiers Valley 4, Blackhawk 3
Usually the law of the high school baseball landscape is the underclassmen do the heavy lifting in bringing the coolers, ball buckets and anything else needed while the upperclassmen show up and begin to prepare for practice or a game in the hopes of success at the plate.
In the 2016 WPIAL Class AAA title game, roles were reversed for Chartiers Valley. It was the seniors that set the table early and the underclassmen who feasted on a golden banquet.
The Colts erased a one-run deficit with a pair of sixth-inning tallies en route to a 4-3 victory over Blackhawk for the program's first baseball championship.
Blackhawk junior Mark Engle and Chartiers Valley senior Cole Horew were deadlocked in a scoreless tie after four innings when the Colts struck first. Brady Gulakowski delivered the game's first runs with a two-run home run over the right-field fence.
But the Cougars responded quickly in the sixth when Mike Turconi singled home a run, followed by a two-run single by Engle to make it 3-2 Blackhawk.
Chartiers Valley's youth put the Colts ahead for good in their half of the sixth. With Horew at third and two outs, sophomore Konor Corchado tripled home the tying run and then scored on an infield single by another 10th-grader, Steve Alauzan.
Blackhawk, playing in its second title game in three years and third in five years, would not go quietly in the seventh against Horew. With two outs, back-to-back singles by brothers Tyler and Adam Robinson gave the Cougars hope. But Horew struck out Nicholas Zuchelli to seal the deal on the Colts' golden moment.
Don Rebel is a TribLive High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.
Tags: Blackhawk, Chartiers Valley
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