Yough baseball team rallies from 6-0 deficit to edge Mt. Pleasant in 8 innings

By: Jason Black
Tuesday, May 17, 2022 | 7:03 PM

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Yough baseball coach Craig Spisak isn’t a fan of seeing his team try to play from behind. But this season, it has happened so often, he knows the Cougars aren’t fazed when facing an early deficit.

That was the case on Tuesday as Yough spotted Mt. Pleasant a big lead in the first round of the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs at Hempfield Area High School. But like they have done several times this season, the Cougars battled back and eventually pulled out a hard-fought victory.

The Cougars bounced back from a 6-0 deficit and rallied to score a walk-off 7-6 win over the Vikings in eight innings.

Allen Novacek delivered the winning RBI single with one out in the eighth to push the fifth-seeded Cougars into the quarterfinals, where they will play Thursday against Keystone Oaks, an 8-7 winner over Valley on Tuesday.

“We’ve had games this year where we’ve had to come back,” Spisak said. “I don’t like digging holes, but we stayed focused and our kids didn’t quit.”

It would have been understandable if the Cougars (11-7) gave in. After all, they were down by six runs in the first three innings and were held without a hit until the fourth inning.

Early in the game, it was all Mt. Pleasant. The 12th-seeded Vikings (9-8) scored in each of the first three innings.

In the first, Cole Chatfield singled and scored on an RBI single by Jeremy Kitz. In the second, Brady Poole walked, and Lane Golkosky singled before Chatfield drove in both runners with a two-run double. In the third, Aaron Alakson singled, and Kitz reached on an error before Rege Sofranko connected on an RBI double and Connor Drzal followed with a two-run single to give the Vikings a 6-0 lead against Yough starter Novacek.

Meanwhile, Mt. Pleasant starter Sofranko kept the Cougars hitless through three, but Yough still managed to score twice in the third as Korvyn Johnson and Kaden Bizzozero walked before Novacek was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run. Jack Sampson then made it 6-2 with a sacrifice fly.

“When we got those two runs without a hit, I think that’s when it started to turn for us,” Spisak said.

The Cougars had no trouble piling up the hits in the fourth as Gavin Roebuck, James Shoman, Johnson, Bizzozero and Taylor Odelli connected for five straight singles, with Bizzozero and Odelli picking up an RBI each. An error mixed in allowed the Cougars to pull to within 6-5.

Mt. Pleasant coach Chris Firmstone turned to reliever Kitz, and he got out of the inning, but not before giving up an RBI single to Sampson, which tied the score at 6-6.

“It turned in the third and fourth innings,” Firmstone said. “We had some routine plays that we didn’t make, and hats off to Yough. They are a good, scrappy team, and today was their day.”

After Yough tied it, the game turned into a battle of relievers as Shoman and Kitz each kept the opposition in check.

Kitz kept Yough off the board in innings five through seven, but winning pitcher Shoman was stellar. He tossed five scoreless innings, which allowed his team a chance to come back.

“He did a great job for us,” Spisak said of Showman.

The Cougars were able to push the winning run across in the eighth when Novacek lifted a deep fly ball to left-center with one out. The ball fell between two Mt. Pleasant defenders, allowing Johnson to easily trot home from third with the winning run.

For Mt. Pleasant, it was a tough loss, but one Firmstone expects his team will benefit from in the long run.

“This is definitely a young team, and it will definitely help us going forward,” Firmstone said. “We have to understand that you can’t take a pitch off. We’ll learn from this, and we’ll rebound next year.”

Tags: Mt. Pleasant, Yough