Waynesburg’s Tyler Groves settles in after rocky start, shuts down Freeport in Class 3A

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, May 15, 2025 | 10:00 PM

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Waynesburg pitcher Tyler Groves gave up a triple, a double and a single to consecutive batters in the first inning Thursday night, but that wasn’t a sign of things to come.

Rather, Freeport got one hit the rest of the way as Groves dug in.

The senior right-hander pitched a four-hitter with 11 strikeouts as fourth-seeded Waynesburg defeated No. 13 Freeport, 6-2, in the first round of the WPIAL Class 3A baseball playoffs at Gateway.

Groves struck out five straight batters in one stretch, two looking and three swinging. He finished the complete game in 102 pitches.

“After giving up a few hits in the first inning, I just knew I had to do this for my team,” said Groves, who improved to 9-0. “I put my team on my back and shut them down.”

The playoff win was the first for Waynesburg (16-3) since 2019.

The team had lost in the first round four years in a row. The Raiders this time advanced to face No. 5 South Park or No. 12 Mt. Pleasant in a quarterfinal Tuesday at a site and time to be announced.

“Winning a playoff game and getting the proverbial monkey off our back, that was a big step for us,” said first-year Waynesburg coach Perry Cunningham, a former head coach of the town’s college team.

Freeport had taken a 2-0 lead thanks to the consecutive first-inning hits by Michael Hanz, Kason Barker and Chase Walker. But Groves battled back, at times behind a curveball that he said was “biting pretty good.”

His fastball command was sharp, too. Freeport’s only other hit was a leadoff double by Barker in the fourth.

“His mix (of pitches) was really good,” Freeport coach Ed Carr said. “When you’re moving balls and have command of three pitches, it’s tough for any hitter. We had more strikeouts today than we usually do.”

Grove entered the playoffs with a 1.51 ERA. He upped his strikeout total to 66 in 48 2/3 innings. The complete game was his first of the season.

“There’s a lot of pressure,” Cunningham said. “It would’ve been really easy for him to simply fold, but he came back.”

Waynesburg scored one run each in the second and fifth innings. But it was a four-run rally in the fourth that ultimately gave the Raiders the win. Their big inning included three singles, a double and a hit batter.

The fourth inning started with a one-out single by Groves followed by Ethan Kiger getting hit by a pitch. Jacob Stephenson had an RBI double, Grant Pack drove in two runs with a single and C.J. Corwin drove in another to lead 5-2.

Pack and Corwin bat eighth and ninth in the order. Their hits both came with two outs.

“We talk to our guys about two-out hits winning baseball games,” Cunningham said.

Corwin’s RBI single chased Freeport starter Owen Westendorf. The freshman allowed five runs on six hits in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out three and walked none. Reliever Dustin Kohan allowed one run in 2 1/3 innings.

“There were a couple of bleeders that dropped in of no fault of his own,” Carr said of Westendorf. “I thought he kept us in the game. … Any time a freshman can cut his teeth in a playoff game is huge. He’ll be back.”

Groves showed his senior savvy at times. He calmly handled three comebackers to the mound and escaped a couple of jams with strikeouts.

He stranded two Freeport runners in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, he escaped the jam with an inning-ending strikeout. In the fifth, he walked two batters but also struck out three.

Then Groves got in a groove. In the sixth, he struck out the side.

“We had our chances with runners in scoring position,” Carr said. “I thought that was the key.”

The game was a matchup of section champions. Waynesburg won the Section 4 title. Freeport finished in a five-way tie atop Section 3.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Freeport, Waynesburg