Steel Valley baseball uses small ball to defeat Section 1 rival Valley

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, April 25, 2018 | 10:42 PM

It seemed appropriate that Valley and Steel Valley, tied for first place with Burrell in Section 1-3A, would be tied midway through their showdown Wednesday evening at West Field in Munhall. That is when the Ironmen used a couple of bunts as lethal weapons on their way to a 4-2 victory.

The game had the look of an offensive shootout early when both teams scored a pair of runs in the first.

Valley's Nick Heuser hit a bloop double to left off Steel Valley right-hander Nick Harhai. He scored one batter later on a triple by Shawn Demharter, who scored on a sac fly by Dan Antonacci to give the Vikings a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the first, Ray Chuba lead off with a triple to left, and then Valley starter Andrew Serakowski walked Josh Fossick and Brady Miller to load the bases. A one-out sac fly by Joey Kraft and a two-out single by Mike Sullivan tied the game 2-2.

Both Harhai and Serakowski settled in after that rocky start.

“I thought both pitchers were fastball heavy in that first inning,” Steel Valley coach Tim Vickers said. “After that, I thought they did a great job of mixing things up and keeping the batters off-balance.”

The Valley defense was caught off-balance in the fourth.

Harhai led off with his second single of the game. Jacob Bayus laid down a bunt that third baseman John Lucas Bailey fielded but never threw when there was confusion over who was covering first base. To make matters worse, with Bailey holding the ball near the mound and nobody covering third, Harhai advanced to third base. He then scored on Chuba's fly ball to center that was first thought to be a sacrifice fly but turned into an RBI force out when Shawn Demharter dropped the ball but retired Bayus at second.

With a runner at first and one out, John Fossick laid down a bunt that was fielded by Serakowski, who also had to hold it because of confusion at first base. After Chuba was caught trying to steal third, Brady Miller singled home Fossick to make it 4-2 Ironmen.

“We have had trouble delivering the big hit lately,” Vickers said, “so all the bunting was us playing small ball, and them having trouble against it.”

The Vikings did get two runners on base in the sixth, but with two outs, Serakowski hit into a fielder's choice to end their final rally.

Harhai allowed two runs on five hits for the complete-game victory. He walked four and struck out three.

Serakowski suffered the loss, allowing four earned runs on eight hits with three walks, a hit batter and three strikeouts.

Steel Valley (6-1, 7-3) won for the fifth time in a row and can clinch at least a share of the section crown with a win Friday at home against Burrell (5-1, 6-1).

Valley (5-2, 7-5) also has a game left against rival Burrell next Wednesday. All three teams have clinched a WPIAL playoff spot.

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

Tags: Steel Valley, Valley