Top 15 baseball finals in 15 years at Wild Things Park: Steel Valley edges Seton LaSalle in 2014

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, May 23, 2018 | 10:45 AM

The TribLive High School Sports Network is counting down the Top 15 WPIAL baseball championship games held over the past 15 years at Wild Things Park.

Catch all the postseason action on the exclusive broadcast home of the WPIAL baseball playoffs, the TribLive High School Sports Network.

Here's a look at No. 6:

2014 Class AA championship: Steel Valley 6, Seton LaSalle 5

Seton LaSalle spent the 2014 WPIAL Class AA playoffs shocking opponents. First it was Brownsville (13-5) in Round 1. Then it was top-seeded Neshannock, which was 18-1 entering the quarterfinals. Finally, the Rebels produced one more eye-brow raiser in a walk-off victory over Deer Lakes (16-4) to reach the finals.

But at the end of that title game, it was the Rebels who were left stunned after a three-run seventh lifted Steel Valley to a dramatic 6-5 come-from-behind victory.

The Ironmen were 17-2 coming into the championship game, riding the right arm of one of the top pitchers in the district, junior Brandon Donovan.

Steel Valley scored single runs in the second and third innings.

Derek Morrison singled, went to third on Jesse Cantley's double and scored on a wild pitch by Seton starter Carson Rebel.

Sean McShane tallied an unearned run for Steel Valley, when he scored on Andrew Chuba's RBI single.

A 2-0 lead is usually all Donovan would need. He pitched a pair of playoff shutouts and struck out five of the first nine Rebels batters he faced in the first three innings.

But things changed in the fourth inning when Seton LaSalle took the lead. Danzel McKinley-Lewis tripled, Dave Boehme walked and Liam Sweeney produced an RBI single. Boehme tied the game at 2-2 when he scored on a Nico Popa fielder's choice. Rebel then delivered a two-run single.

In the sixth, Steel Valley closed the gap on a double by Sam Ligeros, an error and a sacrifice fly by Mike Hoersch.

Seton LaSalle answered in the top of the seventh when Matt Reinmund singled and eventually scored on a single by McKinley-Lewis to make it 5-3.

Hoersch led off the seventh by reaching on an error on the first baseman. After a groundout moved him to second, Donovan hit a comebacker to Rebel. Rebel got Hoersch in a rundown between second and third base. His throw to second was dropped when second baseman Boehme and shortstop Matt Wilke collided and Hoersch was safe at second.

Rebel struck out Morrsion for the second out and walked Ligeros to load the bases. Bryce Varhola smacked a 3-2 pitch to right field that scored Hoersch and Donovan to tie the game.

After a meeting at the mound, Seton-LaSalle coach Shawn Trainor decided to stay with Rebel who was nearing 120 pitches.

“I asked him if he wanted me to make a change,” Trainor said, “but he said I want to finish.”

Cantley then singled to score Ligeros with the championship winning run.

Helping to produce the Ironmen's first baseball crown was an unlikely scenario for Cantley. The junior had two hits in his first start since tearing an elbow ligament in March.

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