Penn-Trafford baseball outlasts Plum in battle of playoff-bound teams
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Monday, April 30, 2018 | 9:51 PM
With both teams already qualifyed for the WPIAL baseball playoffs, Plum and Penn-Trafford are playing for postseason positioning.
Monday, it was Penn-Trafford prevailing 6-5 in eight innings to tie the Mustangs in the Section 2-6A standings with identical 6-3 records. Hempfield (7-2) remained alone in first with a victory over Penn Hills.
Jack Mancz's single to left with two outs in the top of the eighth brought home Ben Mongelluzzo with the deciding run.
Plum's first two batters in the bottom of the eighth singled, but winning pitcher Maclean Maund stopped the Mustangs with runners on second and third.
The nearly three-hour struggle featured both teams scoring three unearned runs in the sixth inning and Penn-Trafford leaving 12 runners on base. Plum, meanwhile, stranded 14, 10 in scoring position.
“It's a nice victory over a section rival,” said Penn-Trafford coach Dan Miller. “There's nothing easy in this section. It's been shown time and time again that you have to play a full seven innings, and we have to clean up the mistakes we make. I feel if we can do that, then we can compete.”
Said Plum coach Carl Vollmer: “This was two pretty good baseball teams going after it. There were some mistakes made that cost us, without a doubt. In a game with two good teams, it came down to them making less mistakes.”
The Warriors advanced their overall record to 8-5, and Plum fell to 10-4. The Mustangs are still in the chase for the school's 19th section title.
Plum starter Gino Marra pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the first and quelled another Warriors threat in the third inning with runners at second and third.
The Mustangs picked up a run in the second off Penn-Trafford starter Tyler Horvat when Jackson Rogers' bunt single resulted in an overthrow that brought home Peter Zullo, who led off with a double. An outstanding catch by Warriors center fielder Jordan Sabol on a drive by Markus Cresta prevented further Plum scoring.
Almost lost in all the twists and turns the game took was a towering home run to center field by senior Tanner Froelich to give the Mustangs a 2-0 lead.
“I knew I had put a good charge into it, but I was still sprinting till I saw the umpire give the sign,” said Froelich, who will attend Seton Hill in the fall.
The Warriors broke through against Marra with back-to-back doubles by Mario Disso and Anthony Sherwin to open the fourth and tied it on a sacrifice fly by Mancz that scored Sabol.
Mangelluzzo's double in the sixth proved to be the big hit for Penn-Trafford. Plum answered with three in the bottom of the sixth on a bases-loaded single by Dom Carlisano.
“We showed some good things there, and I think we can compete with anybody,” Vollmer said. “That's an important takeaway because I think that's a very good team over there. It hurts. It's no question that it stings.”
Pinch-runner Bobby Kusinski was thrown out at the plate in the seventh by Carlisano before the Warriors finally decided the issue in the eighth.
“We left a lot of guys on base early in the game, but the timely hitting came when we went deeper into the counts as the game went on,” Miller said. “Early on, I think we were a little anxious.”
George Guido is a freelance writer.
Tags: Penn-Trafford, Plum
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