Norwin baseball team blows past Mt. Lebanon for 9th straight win

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Tuesday, April 29, 2025 | 8:11 PM

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With gusty winds whipping out to center all afternoon, any baseball hit deep had a chance of leaving the park Tuesday at Norwin.

A harmless-looking fly ball suddenly had jets.

Even Ben Geissler managed to get ahold of one.

“Normally, I like singles,” the Norwin senior first baseman said. “I didn’t think it was going out when I first hit it. That was the first homer of my career.”

Geissler’s three-run blast highlighted a five-run second inning as the hottest team in WPIAL Class 6A ran its winning streak to nine with a 7-4 victory over Mt. Lebanon in the second game of a Section 2 series.

No. 2-ranked Norwin (12-6, 8-3), which will go for the sweep Wednesday at Mt. Lebanon, scored all seven runs in the first two innings before holding off a late charge by the Blue Devils (7-11, 6-5), who used five pitchers and outhit the Knights, 9-6.

Mt. Lebanon had won four of five. Norwin won the opener 5-1. The Knights now have a two-game lead over the Blue Devils for second place in the section.

Geissler, who also doubled, helped confident Norwin jump in front early.

“That was a big hit because it gives you a cushion,” Norwin coach Craig Spisak said. “The kids from the beginning of the year to now have taken an approach to have more productive at-bats. They are going deeper into counts. We’re more balanced.”

Senior shortstop Nate Silberman opened the scoring with a run-scoring single, and junior Ryan Helphenstine gave Norwin a 2-0 lead with a sacrifice fly.

In the second inning, senior Colton Gounder reached on an error, and junior Caden Sivrich, who went 2 for 3 with a walk, doubled.

Junior Trevor Vitsas made it 3-0 with a single to right center, and junior Jake Knight lifted a sacrifice fly to left for a four-run lead.

With two outs, Geissler cleared the fence for a 7-0 lead.

Senior pitcher Brayden Wardzinski picked up his fifth win, working into the sixth before the Blue Devils finally began to hit him. He threw 89 pitches, striking out four and scattering seven hits before giving way to junior Jayden Marcius, who went two innings and allowed two hits while earning his third save of the spring.

“Our pitchers keep us in every game,” Geissler said. “That gives us confidence to get up there and take hacks. Like coach (Tom Hudzema) says, wait to get yours.”

The teams finished just before the sky darkened and heavy rain and wind blew through North Huntingdon.

Just minutes earlier, Mt. Lebanon scored four times in the sixth, with senior Maddox Yost sending a solo shot into a jet stream to lead off the frame. Sophomores Graham Keen and Dane Barber singled, and junior Cole Kappelar was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Junior Ben Kraemer came up and ripped a two-run single to center to cut the deficit to 7-3 and chase Wardzinski.

Junior Luke Tierney added an RBI single for the fourth run, but Norwin had seen enough. It snuffed out the rally with a 4-6-5-2 double play. Silberman, a Seton Hill commit, stepped on second for the second out, then alertly fired to third and Knight ran down Kraemer for the third out.

“That was a big play,” Spisak said. “We needed that. We’re doing some good things, but we need to play a cleaner game. I liked how our guys handled the adversity.”

Marcius allowed a single in the seventh but otherwise recorded a strikeout and induced two groundouts to seal it.

Norwin left 12 on base, failing to score with the bases loaded in the fifth and sixth innings.

Yost, Keen and Owen Humes had two hits apiece for the Blue Devils.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Mt. lebanon, Norwin