Penn-Trafford baseball uses extra-base hits to sink Hempfield in nonsection matchup

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Thursday, April 17, 2025 | 8:49 PM

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Oftentimes, Penn-Trafford’s approach is to move baserunners over, create opportunities and scrape runs together, one at a time.

The small-ball formula can look clinical when this baseball team does it. It worked out well last spring when the Warriors won a WPIAL championship.

The Warriors, though, were in the mood for something different Thursday in a nonsection game against Hempfield: gap shots. Hard-hit, bending gap shots off the barrel that either hit the fence or rolled to it.

Seven of their nine aluminum-pinging hits went for extra bases — six doubles and a triple — and three pitchers combined for an effective outing in a 5-2 nonsection victory over visiting Hempfield.

“We’ve been struggling to put the ball in the gap,” said the Warriors’ Logan Matrisch, who had two doubles and two RBIs. “It was nice to see us do that. We got the bats going today.”

Brayden Stone doubled and tripled, Dom Delio ripped a three-run double and Jonny Lovre and Aiden Drotos also doubled for the Class 5A Warriors (7-5), who had dropped two of their last three games coming in, including a 5-4 setback against Trinity on Monday.

The Warriors loaded the bases in the second inning with no outs but failed to score. When they packed the bags again in the third, they produced four runs to take a 4-0 lead.

“After that (second) inning, we talked about getting the ball in play,” Penn-Trafford coach Lou Cortazzo said. “We talked about swinging the bat and finding holes. We couldn’t execute small ball today. This was a good team effort, and we got some big hits.”

Class 6A Hempfield (5-8), which has dropped four of five, was limited to four hits. The Spartans lost to Butler, 4-2, in another nonsection game Wednesday.

“We didn’t have great offense today,” Hempfield coach Tim Buzzard said. “They have good pitchers, so it’s not an easy task. We’ve seen a lot of good pitchers this year. You want to play as many tough games as you can. We elevated a couple pitches, and they hit them to the gaps.”

Rob Andrews started on the mound for the Warriors and did not allow a hit in 3 2/3 innings. But when he walked the bases full and gave the Spartans a free run in the fourth, Cortazzo made a change.

Zach Feldman came in and limited Hempfield to three hits and one run until the sixth, when closer Hunter Brown emerged from the bullpen, faced five batters and finished the job for his fifth save of the season.

Andrews earned the win.

“We had each of them on a pitch count,” Cortazzo said. “Robby was at 60 (pitches), Zach around 45 and Hunter 25. It worked out. I felt we needed to make a change (in the fourth).”

Matrisch drove in the first run with a double to right-center after Stone’s leadoff double. With two outs, Delio’s three-run double five hitters later made it 4-0.

“Logan has been a team leader all year,” Cortazzo said. “Offensively and defensively, he gives us a spark.”

Hempfield loaded the bases in the fourth without a hit and scored its first run when Andrew Jones was walked and Owen Shuglie trotted in uncontested.

The Warriors made it 5-1 in the fourth. Nico Casciato walked, stole second and scored on Matrisch’s second double, this one to the fence in left.

Colin Polechko walked in the Spartans’ fifth, and he came home on Quinn Wilkins’ two-out RBI double to cut it to 5-2.

Chase Sikorski saw his first action of the season for the Spartans since recovering from elbow surgery. He pitched one inning.

Wilkins pitched in relief of Sikorski and went two innings.

Hempfield put a pair of runners on with back-to-back singles in the sixth, prompting Cortazzo to bring in Brown. The hard-throwing Pitt-Johnstown commit induced a groundout and struck out Maxwell Bowin to end the threat.

“We need to be better offensively,” Buzzard said. “That’s what it comes down to.”

Stone led off the seventh with a triple, but the Warriors didn’t score again.

Wilkins, who went 2 for 4, singled in the Spartans’ seventh, but the visitors went quietly.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Hempfield, Penn-Trafford