Mt. Lebanon baseball clinches playoff berth after topping Upper St. Clair

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, May 4, 2018 | 9:06 PM

The third time was indeed a charm for the Mt. Lebanon baseball team. After failing to clinch a postseason berth with one-run losses Monday and Wednesday, the Blue Devils finally qualified for the WPIAL playoffs with a 4-0 whitewash of rival Upper St. Clair on Friday.

“It's a great opportunity,” Mt. Lebanon coach Pat McCloskey said. “The last two losses have been very difficult. Our section is so competitive. We broke our team record for one-run games this season and were on the wrong end of those games on Monday against Bethel Park (1-0) and Wednesday against Peters Township (5-4). It was very hard to not get frustrated.”

But while McCloskey admits there were plenty of nerves coming into the game, some of those nerves were quickly calmed by a quick start for the Blue Devils.

After Upper St. Clair went down in order in the top of the first, Mt. Lebanon struck early when Matt Dalesandro walked, stole second and third base and scored on a single by Mark Palmerine.

It stayed 1-0 until the bottom of the Blue Devils order came up with three straight two-out hits.

Dante Borris singled, went to second on a wild pitch, to third two outs later on Finn Dugan's single and scored on Paul Linkowski's run-scoring single. After a stolen base, Alex Zigarovich drove in a pair with a double to right-center field.

Senior James Stocker was marvelous on the mound for the Blue Devils. He scattered three singles, walked three and struck out two in the complete game.

“James, what a great story. He missed all of last year with a fluke knee injury and was beat up from football this fall,” McCloskey said. “It was a long road back. This was the first time he had the endurance to go that long.”

Mt. Lebanon (8-10, 6-6) joins Bethel Park, Canon-McMillan, Peters Township and Upper St. Clair as one of five teams to qualify for the WPIAL baseball playoffs from Section 3-6A. This marks the seventh year in a row the Blue Devils have made the district postseason.

Despite losing for the third time in the last four games, Upper St. Clair (12-6, 6-6) qualifies for the first time since 2012.

The Class 6A playoff field will have 13 teams, with the top three seeds earning first-round byes. The brackets will be released by the WPIAL on May 11.

Don Rebel is a TribLive High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.