Penn-Trafford baseball team rallies from 5-0 deficit, but West Allegheny wins on walk-off walk

By: George Guido
Friday, May 21, 2021 | 8:00 PM

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After trailing by five runs in the first inning, Penn-Trafford worked its way into a lead and needed three more outs to record a Class 5A quarterfinal win.

But West Allegheny rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a 7-6 victory on a bases-loaded walk.

The Warriors were sailing along with senior Riley Bellan on the mound. Bellan had retired 16 of 17 batters after replacing starter Nolan Marasti in the first inning.

Adam Crawford led off the Indians’ seventh with a single and was waved around on Gavin Miller’s deep drive to left. But a perfect relay from Matt Lichota to shortstop Jake Otto to catcher Jakob Haynes caught Crawford on his arm just before reaching home plate.

Miller took third on the throw home, and he scored on Luke Lambert’s triple to deep center. Penn-Trafford coach Dan Miller then brought in Tyler Hoover to pitch. After a pair of intentional walks to load the bases and set up force plays, Hoover walked Nick Longo on four pitches to score Lambert.

“One thing about our team is that we never give up,” Lambert said. “I think that’s our third walk-off this year. We’re a young team, yet an old team at the same time, but we have a lot of experience. Nick Longo is one of the toughest kids I know. I wouldn’t want anyone else up at that point in the game.”

The victory gave West Allegheny (17-3) a berth in the WPIAL semifinals Monday against Bethel Park at West Mifflin at 4:30.

Penn-Trafford exits the tournament with a 13-7 overall record.

The Indians sent 11 batters to the plate in the first inning. A two-run single by Joseph Pustover was sandwiched by two bases-loaded walks to stake starter Devin Zirwas to a 5-0 lead.

Penn-Trafford then answered with three runs on one hit, two walks and two hit batters.

“I think if you asked the Penn-Trafford coach if this was the game we wanted to play, we gave each other a lot of stuff,” said West Allegheny coach Bryan Cornell. “It was great to come back, and we felt confident that if we got to the top of the order one more time, these guys would get the job done, and they did.”

Penn-Trafford added three more runs in the top of the fourth on a hit batsman, two errors and a two-run single by Jason Sabol.

Between retiring the final batter of the first inning and the end of the sixth inning, Bellan yielded only a walk, drawing praise from coach Dan Miller.

“That kid has wanted the ball, and he came into a tough situation,” Miller said. “He played shortstop for us very well for the first half of the year, and he came into some hardships and, unfortunately, lost that position. But he didn’t pout and never hung his head. He asked what he could do to help and said he could pitch. He was brilliant today.”

Gavin Miller, the fourth Indians pitcher of the day, recorded the win, facing seven batters with the help of a caught stealing.

Said Dan Miller: “We fought. We took on the heavyweight champ and went 15 rounds toe-to-toe with them. Other than outscoring us by one run on a walk-off walk, we were as deserving as they were to be here.”

If West Allegheny wins Monday, the Indians would seek their fifth WPIAL title. West Allegheny also secured a berth in the PIAA tournament with Friday’s victory.

Tags: Penn-Trafford, West Allegheny