Playoff prep: Falcons edge Red Raiders 1-0 in tense 8-inning battle
Connellsville and Uniontown couldn鈥檛 have asked for a better game to prep themselves for the upcoming WPIAL baseball playoffs.
In a pitchers鈥� duel that needed extra innings to decide, Kace Shearer鈥檚 perfectly placed bunt on a suicide squeeze play brought in Grayden Gillott with the lone run of the game in the top of the eighth as the Falcons earned a tense 1-0 non-section win at Bailey Park on Tuesday night.
Connellsville鈥檚 winning run was a perfect display of fundamental baseball.
Gillott opened the inning with an infield single, stole second, advanced to third on Matthew Firestone鈥檚 ground out and scored when Shearer鈥檚 bunt died just inside the first base line for an infield single.
Connellsville left-handers Ethan Porreca and Logan Lowery both threw four scoreless innings with the latter earning the win thanks to a pair of late defensive gems by the Falcons.
Shortstop Gillott made a sprawling play on Tate Musko鈥檚 ground ball with a runner on to end the seventh inning and right fielder Shearer recorded the final out of the game with a diving catch of Austin Grego鈥檚 line drive in right center field.
鈥淭hat was a playoff atmosphere with quality pitching and defense,鈥� Connellsville coach Rob Orndorff said. 鈥淲e talk to the kids all the time, offense wins games, pitching and defense wins championships.
鈥淥ur two guys combined for a one-hitter. They did a fabulous job. Grayden Gillott in the seventh inning when Musko hits a hard ground ball, he dives, gloves it, spins around and throws him out at first. Kace Shearer makes a great catch to end the game and that was huge. If that gets through they have a runner in scoring position.
鈥淭hose are the types of things you have to do to win in the playoffs and our kids showed they are playoff ready tonight.鈥�
Uniontown coach Ken Musko also felt the game was beneficial to his players with the postseason looming.
鈥淭he umpire asked us if we both wanted to keep playing after the seventh inning and we both said yeah,鈥� Musko said. 鈥淭his is great playoff-like intensity.鈥�
Both starting pitchers fired four no-hit innings and combined for 17 strikeouts.
Porreca walked three and hit two batters while striking out nine.
Tate Musko, the coach鈥檚 son who is also a left-hander, started on the mound for the Red Raiders and gave up four walks with eight strikeouts.
Neither team could muster a hit until Connellsville鈥檚 Chase Sankovich stroked a line drive single into left field off Uniontown reliever Grego with one out in the top of the fifth.
The Red Raiders鈥� lone hit was also a line drive single to left by No. 9 hitter Hunter Smiley in the bottom of the fifth. Even so, Uniontown managed to put 10 runners on base thanks to seven walks and the two hit batters.
Lowery coughed up just the one hit with four walks and three strikeouts.
Grego, who took the loss, surrendered just three hits and the one run with two walks and seven strikeouts in four innings.
鈥淏oth of those guys have been bulldogs for us all season,鈥� Ken Musko said of his son and Grego.
Uniontown put a runner in scoring position in four of the first five innings.
Mason Kuhn, who reached base three times, was hit by a pitch in the first inning and stole second but Porreca struck out the next three batters.
Grego was hit by a pitch leading off the second inning and took second on Luke Gresh鈥檚 sacrifice bunt but Porreca struck out two of the next three batters around a walk.
Cameron Jackson drew a two-out walk and took second on an errant pick-off throw in the third inning but Wyatt Nehls flew out.
Smiley singled and Kuhn walked to start a potential rally in the fifth but Connellsville second baseman Jonathan Kelly turned Musko鈥檚 sharp grounder into a 4-6-3 double play as Smiley took third and Jackson grounded out to end the threat.
鈥淲e made a couple mistakes when we had guys on,鈥� Musko said. 鈥淕ive them credit. They executed great on the bunt.鈥�
Connellsville also had plenty of opportunities with runners in scoring position in the first seven frames.
Kelly walked to lead off the game, stole second and went to third on a passed ball but Musko struck out the next three batters.
Gillott walked to start the fourth, took second on an error and went to third on a wild pitch but Uniontown right fielder Tyler Gasper snagged a pair of fly balls to end the threat.
The Falcons loaded the bases in the fifth on Sankovich鈥檚 single, a dropped third strike and a walk but Grego got an inning-ending strikeout.
Anthony Piasecki walked and stole second with two outs in the sixth but Grego again ended the frame with a strikeout.
In the seventh inning it was Orndorff鈥檚 brother, third base coach Ray Orndorff, who opted on the suicide squeeze with No. 4 hitter Shearer at the plate.
鈥淩ay runs the offense himself from down there,鈥� Rob Orndorff said. 鈥淗e has the opportunity to put things on when he sees fit and he put that on at just the right time. One bunt can win you a game or lose you a game depending on if you execute it or not and Shearer put that one right where he needed to.
鈥淲e work on those things all the time. You tell them bunt the runner up, hit the ball on the right side to move the runner over, put the ball in play to get the guy in from third. I told them it鈥檚 going to pay dividends. It did today. They were able to put that all into play.鈥�
Both teams had one game remaining in the regular season. Connellsville, which tied for third place in Section 2-AAAAA, was scheduled to host Baldwin on Wednesday. The Red Raiders, who tied for third place in Section 2-AAAA, are slated to play at Brownsville on Friday after the WPIAL pairings are revealed.