Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic baseball wins WPIAL championship

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, May 29, 2018 | 8:15 PM

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With eight seniors in the lineup for Tuesday's WPIAL Class 2A baseball championship game against Serra Catholic at Washington's Wild Things Park, an experienced Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic group hoped to bring home the program's first WPIAL crown since 2007.

Mission accomplished.

The Trojans scored a pair of runs in both the third and sixth innings and added another in the fifth for a 5-2 victory over the Eagles.

“We've checked two boxes: Section title and WPIAL title,” CWNC coach John Haggerty said. “We don't want to stop until we have the state title. We've talked about that all year.”

The WPIAL title is the Trojans' third overall as they also claimed championships in 1995 and 2005.

“I give Serra Catholic all the credit in the world for what they've accomplished. They are such a classy group,” Haggerty said. “But we proved today that we are one of the top teams in the state. We can't wait for the state tournament.”

Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic (18-5), as WPIAL champion, will begin the state tournament against District 10 runner-up Union City on Monday at a site and time to be determined.

Serra Catholic will match up against the District 6 champion, Southern Huntingdon, also on Monday.

“We're going to refocus and come back in a whole new tournament,” Serra Catholic coach Brian Dzurenda said. “I told the kids that we couldn't have practiced any more or prepared any better. It just wasn't in the cards for us today. We give the credit to North Catholic. They played a great game.”

Serra Catholic (21-2) scored 10 or more runs 14 times in the regular season and averaged seven runs in playoff victories over Shenango and Laurel.

But Tuesday, sophomore Ryan Feczko limited the Eagles' bats. He pitched six complete innings for the Trojans and scattered four hits while walking one with six strikeouts.

Only one of the two Serra runs was earned.

“I knew they had a ton of good bats,” Feczko said. “I just wanted to keep them off balance. Fourteen seniors, I wanted to do it for them.”

Feczko retired nine straight Eagles batters in a stretch between the third and sixth innings.

“I've seen it all year from Ryan, and I was excited to put it on this stage and let everybody else see it,” Haggerty said. “He's a special player. He's got that ‘it' factor. He's faced the top bats and done well. I was just very proud of his performance.”

Joe Alampi spelled Feczko in the seventh and gave up a leadoff single to Alex Glumac.

With Glumac on second and one out, Don DeMoss hit a grounder to Trojans shortstop Adam Cruttenden who raced DeMoss to the third base bag.

Cruttenden was able to tag out DeMoss for the second out.

Alampi then struck out Dom Puzzenchera to end the game and wrap up North Catholic's title.

“(Feczko) did a great job for them,” Dzurenda said. “He threw curveballs for strikes. He led them like they hoped he would.”

Jack Cassidy tallied a pair of RBIs to lead the Trojans. He singled home North Catholic's first run of the game in the third off of Serra starter Nate Pionka and plated a run with a bases-loaded fielder's choice in the sixth against reliever Zach Bowen.

Luc Madonna added a pair of singles in North Catholic's seven-hit attack. He followed Cassidy's run-scoring hit in the third with one of his own to give the Trojans a 2-1 advantage.

Feczko helped his own cause by drawing a bases-loaded walk in the sixth, and Alampi singled home North Catholic's fifth-inning run.

Pionka was tagged with the loss, his first of the season after compiling an 8-0 record.

He surrendered seven hits and three walks while striking out six over the 4 ²⁄₃ innings of work. His six strikeouts give him 62 on the season.

Serra Catholic broke through first in the bottom of the second. Junior Patrick Brennan reached on an error with one out and came around to score on a two-out single to right off the bat of Andrew Cornetto.

Ben Bowen singled with one out in the sixth and scored the Eagles' second run on a Pionka sacrifice fly to center.

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Mlove_Trib.

Tags: Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, North Catholic