Greensburg Salem uses dramatic comeback to beat Yough, stay in section title hunt

By: Paul Schofield
Monday, May 8, 2023 | 9:48 PM

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Greensburg Salem baseball coach Anthony Manley said he didn’t say much to his team heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.

That’s because the Golden Lions knew if they wanted a shot at winning the WPIAL Section 3-3A title, they had to find a way to manufacture a comeback.

Taking a patient approach against three Yough pitchers paid off as Greensburg Salem rallied from a four-run deficit to stun first-place Yough, 6-5, Monday at James Stewart Memorial Field.

The teams meet Tuesday at Cougar Mountain in Herminie for the title. Yough (10-1, 13-5) holds a one-game lead on Greensburg Salem (9-2, 13-4).

The Golden Lions hoped to be tied in the standings, but they lost their protest of Brownville violating the pitch count in a 6-2 loss Friday. Greensburg Salem felt the Brownsville pitcher had exceeded the 100-pitch limit, but the WPIAL ruled that the home scorebook is official and Brownsville only had its pitcher at 94.

“I just let the guys go out there and battle like they’ve done all year,” Manley said. “Sometimes less is more and that was the case (Monday). We certainly didn’t play our best for six innings, but that last inning, you have to give credit to our guys. They never gave up.”

Yough was three outs away from celebrating a section title but ended up watching Greensburg Salem celebrate.

Singles by Noah Outly and Dom Rosensteel chased Yough starter Carson Pasinski.

Relief pitcher Ethan Wilson beat out an infield hit to load the bases, and Ty Martin and Owen Tutich drew bases-loaded walks off reliever Gavin Roebuck to make it 5-3.

Yough coach Dan Palm then brought in Jack Sampson, but Peyton Chismar singled to left to score Wilson, and Grant Smith then beat out an infield single that scored Martin to make it 5-5. Noah DeMary then fought off a couple of pitches before singling off the Yough third baseman to score Tutich with the game-winner.

“Hitting is contagious and things happen,” Manley said. “It’s real hard to get that last out of the game, and fortunately, we were able to come through and they weren’t.”

Until the final inning, Yough did the little things right. The Cougars moved runners with bunts and got two sacrifice flies by Matt Sanner. Roebuck had a two-run double in the first inning to give Yough a 2-0 lead.

“We can come back Tuesday and make amends,” Palm said. “That’s the luxury we gave ourselves by playing well at the beginning of the season. We didn’t have any hiccups. It gave us the luxury to lose one late.

“It just got away from us in the last inning. Other than that, we played a really good game. Carson pitched well enough and should have won the game. We just didn’t throw strikes when we needed to.”

Palm said he felt his team left a few runners in scoring position and that came back to haunt them.

“That killed us,” he said. “We could have scored eight or nine runs.”

Sanner’s first sacrifice fly gave Yough a 3-0 lead in the third.

Greensburg Salem got a run back in the bottom of the third inning when Tutich, the starting pitcher, doubled and scored on Chismar’s first hit of the game.

Sanner’s second sacrifice fly made it 4-1 in the fifth inning and Pasinski singled home a run in the seventh.

Yough stranded nine runners, including the bases loaded in the first inning and two more in the seventh.

“Everyone put it together at the right time,” Tutich said. “We got hot at the right time. We got more patient in the final inning, and we made their pitchers throw strikes. We got lucky. We’re fired up about the shot at winning the section title.”

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Greensburg Salem, Yough