Franklin Regional baseball’s strong season stops short

By: William Whalen
Friday, June 1, 2018 | 4:40 PM

There are 22 teams in WPIAL Class 5A baseball, and every one starts the season with the same goal: to win a championship. But only one will stand victorious at the end.

Coming off a second-place finish in Section 3-5A, it would be hard to judge the 2018 Franklin Regional baseball season as a failure strictly by its postseason performance. After all, not many gave the young team a chance this year.

“There's only going to be one team that's happy at the end of the season,” Franklin Regional coach Bob Saddler said. “We would've liked to go further this year, and we didn't play our best game in the quarterfinals. And if you don't come out big on that stage, in that game, more than likely you're not going come out on top.”

It might have been a combination of both for Franklin Regional (15-5), which landed the No. 6 seed in the WPIAL bracket. The Panthers not only didn't play well in the 7-1 loss to No. 3 North Hills in the quarterfinals but ran up against a hot team. North Hills advanced to Wild Things Park and beat Mars for the WPIAL Class 5A crown last Wednesday.

Saddler said North Hills ace pitcher Joey Pusateri was on top of his game and was hitting all the corners of the plate. Things were made better by the fact the Indians gave Pusateri a 4-1 lead coming out of the first inning.

“(Pusateri) kept them off-balance,” Saddler said. “He was able to pitch with a lead, and there's nothing better than pitching with a lead.”

The regular season was a different story for the Panthers. Franklin Regional managed to string together a seven-game win streak to end section play before falling to rival Penn-Trafford, 2-0, to close out the season.

Saddler recalled the 3-2 home win over section rival Gateway to start the season. It was an uplifting win because it was the Panthers' first game after returning from Florida with momentum, confidence and a 2-1 record.

“The regular season was great, and the 3-2 home win against Gateway was big,” Saddler said.

“The little blip on the radar is Laurel Highlands and away at Gateway. We went to Laurel Highlands and got it handed to us.”

To put the 14-0 loss to Laurel Highlands in perspective, it was the Panthers' second section game of the season, and Franklin Regional returned the favor by handing the Mustangs a 2-0 loss the second time around. Both of the Panthers' section losses came on the road with the other a 3-0 loss to neighboring Gateway.

“They played very well throughout the year,” Saddler said. “They brought an unbelievable work ethic to the field each day, and they were very coachable and had a winning mentality.”

Freshman Louie Kegerreis led the Panthers in homers this season with one. Kegerreis launched a 340-foot shot over the left-field fence in a 15-0 win over Latrobe at home. Kegerreis also finished second on the team in RBIs with 16. Fellow freshman Andrew Muraco led the Panthers in RBIs (17), runs scored (16), hits (22) and doubles (4). He finished second in batting average (.355) behind leader Michael Klingensmith (.372).

Saddler used five pitchers this season. Franklin Regional was led by Palmer Jackson and his 6-0 record and 1.47 ERA. Alex Frey finished the season 3-3 with 64 strikeouts and a 2.01 ERA.

“It was such a positive season, but obviously the end was not what he wanted,” Saddler said. “It's about how much fun the boys had playing the game.”

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

Tags: Franklin Regional