MSA Sports Baseball Playoff Recaps for Monday, May 12th

By: Bruce Markey
Monday, May 12, 2014 | 11:58 PM

Rain was the big winner on opening day of the 2014 WPIAL Baseball Playoffs. With 15 games scheduled, only five games made to it the books while two others were suspended and eight were postponed until Tuesday. Here are recaps from those five games that opened up the district diamond postseason.

Thanks to Don Rebel, Dennis Fischer, Bob Orkwis and Jason Tennant for their help on these recaps.

WPIAL CLASS AAA FIRST ROUND:

Elizabeth Forward Warriors 4 – Montour Spartans 3
The first upset of the postseason took place at West Mifflin High School Monday afternoon when 12th-seed Elizabeth Forward edged 5th-seed Montour. After a scoreless first inning and a 30-minute lightning delay, the Spartans cracked the scoreboard when Adam Check doubled runners to second and third. A sacrifice fly to right by Trent Vietmeier and a two-out single by Frankie Guerra chased home Adam Pintar and Check. EF cut the lead in half in the 4th inning on an RBI ground out by Wes Scott scored Garrett Martell who had walked and went to third on a double by Mark Simon. The Warriors took the lead for good in the 5th when Ryan Wardropper tripled to the fence in right center field to score Derek Bakewell. Wardropper scored on a sac fly by Steve Welsh to make it 3-2. Elizabeth Forward touched up reliever Chris Hanlon for a run in the sixth on a double by Jake Terrick, scoring Simon. Montour bounced back in the bottom of the 6th when Check doubled again, scoring Todd Police who had singled. Luke Padezan pitched out of trouble, leaving the tying run at second. Then in the 7th, a one-out double by David Lyons again put the tying run in scoring position, but Padezan got Billy Krull to line to left and Kyle Kutchman grounded to second to seal the deal. Padezan allowed 3 runs on 7 hits with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts in going the distance for the win. Simon had three hits and Padezan added two hits for Elizabeth Forward, which improves to 12-7 and will face either West Mifflin or South Fayette in the Quarterfinals on Wednesday. Montour saw their turnaround season end as the Section 1 co-champs finish 12-7.

Chartiers Valley Colts 11 – South Park Eagles 1 in 5 Innings
There will be a new champion in Class AAA after the 2013 title winners were ousted on opening day of the 2014 playoffs. South Park fell to #2-seed Chartiers Valley 11-1 Monday afternoon at West Mifflin High School. The Colts jumped out to a 3-0 1st inning lead when Jake Ritson hit a two-run single with the bases loaded. Dom Castello hit into a fielder choice to score another as CV was off and running. a Two-out error led to a run scoring single by Josh Lapiana followed by another run scoring single by Ritson to make it 5-0 Char Valley in the 3rd. Back-to-back doubles by Shane Fetsko and Anthony Winkler provided South Park with their only run. Chartiers Valley then scored 3 runs in the 4th and three more in the fifth to trigger the mercy rule and an opening round victory. Josh Lapiana went the distance for the Colts, allowing 1 run on 2 hits with 1 walk and 6 strike outs. Lapiana and Ritson led the Colts 9-hit attack with two hits each as Chartiers Valley improves to 16-3 and will face either Laurel Highlands or West Allegheny in the AAA Quarterfinals on Wednesday. Sophomore Anthony Winkler suffered the loss as South Park finished their season with a 9-10 record. 

Hampton Talbots 4 – Keystone Oaks Golden Eagles 1
The #3 seed Hampton Talbots advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Triple A baseball playoffs with a 4-1 win over the #14 seed Keystone Oaks Golden Eagles on Monday at North Allegheny High School.  The Talbots scored three runs in the second inning when Zach Staszak reached first base on a bunt single and scored on a Ty Merigliano double one out later.  Merigliano advanced to third on a wild pitch and then came home when Charlie Winek was safe on an error.  Winek then stole second and third before coming home on a passed ball.  Hampton added a fourth run in the third inning when Luke Nugent drew a lead-off walk, moved to third on a Ben Vey single, and then scored on a Staszak sacrifice fly.  Keystone Oaks’ lone run came when Kevin Tunney opened the fourth inning with a single, raced to third on a Ryan Roell double, and then scored on a throwing error by Vey on a pick-off attempt.  Vey was the winning pitcher for the Talbots tossing a complete game, giving up one unearned run on six hits, walking three and striking out 12.  Taylor Lehman was the losing pitcher, surrendering four runs on just four hits, walking three and fanning five.  Hampton (12-6) will meet the winner of the Thomas Jefferson/Knoch game that was played on Monday evening, at a time and site yet to be determined.  Keystone Oaks ended its season at 9-8.

Knoch Knights 5 – Thomas Jefferson Jaguars 3
The Knights scored 3 runs in the bottom of the first and added 2 more in the second and sophomore pitcher Alex Stobert made sure the lead held up by throwing a complete game six-hitter against the Jaguars at North Allegheny High School. Designated hitter Jordan Kowalski singled in a run in the first inning and catcher Asa Adams drove in a pair to put Knoch out in front 3-0. That was after freshman leftfielder threw out Thomas Jefferson’s Jake Benack at third base after a fly out in the top of the first. Junior second baseman Chris Law, who was 2-for-3 with a run scored, drove home a pair of runs with a double of TJ starter and loser Jeremy Wasik in the second inning. Knoch would not score the rest of the way because of outstanding relief work by the Jaguars Braden Flinn. The junior lefthander allowed only one hot and one walk while striking out 7 in 4 & 1/3 innings of relief. TJ would score single runs in the third, fifth and seventh innings, but could not overcome the early deficit. The senior Benack paced the TJ attack with two doubles, two walks and two runs scored. First baseman David Stover had two hits and drove in a pair of runs for 6th seeded Thomas Jefferson, whose season ends at (11-6). Senior Jordan Hickey, who came into the game with an on base percentage of .600 walked twice and scored a pair of runs to help Knoch improve to (8-8).  The Knights, seeded 11th in the WPIAL Class AAA Tournament, will get a shot at Section 5 rival Hampton. The 3rd seeded Talbots defeated Keystone Oaks 4-1 to reach the quarterfinals. Hampton captured the section title during the regular season and defeated Knoch twice during the regular season by scores of 8-1 & 5-3. The Talbots and the Knights will square off at a site & time to be determined later this week.

WPIAL CLASS A FIRST ROUND:

Carmichaels Mighty Mikes 10 – Springdale Dynamos 2
The Carmichaels Mighty Mikes advanced to the quarterfinals with a lopsided 10-2 win over Springdale at Mount Pleasant High School.  It wasn’t a necessarily pretty win as the theme of the day was errors committed by the Dynamos’ defense.  The Mikes started strong as pitcher Brandon Lawless was one pitch away from striking out the side in the top of the first on nine pitches.  The third batter, would eventually ground out for the third out.  Then the Mikes got the bats going with 3 runs in the bottom of the first.  The big hit of the inning came when Lawless drove in a pair with a single.  The Mikes would continue to add on without registering a hit.  A walk and an error in the third led to a run, and the Mikes scored a couple more in the fourth on two Springdale errors.  Later that inning, back-to-back singles by Billy Bowlen and Joel Spishock added two more runs and the Mikes pulled away with an 8-2 lead.  They would add two more in the sixth with Spishock contributing an RBI double.  For Springdale, the majority of their offense  came from a 3-hit second inning where they plated a run.   The other run came in the fourth on an Alex Demonte double.  The combination of Mikes pitchers, Lawless, Cory Fuller, and Billy Bowlen struck out a total of 11 batters scattering a total of 7 hits.  The seven Dynamo hits equaled their total amount of defensive errors committed in the game.