Mikes avenge playoff loss to Western Beaver
Carmichael’s Brennen McMinn (5) slides safe into second base against Western Beaver’s Steve Menich (30) during Wednesday’s game at Ross Memorial Park in Washington. (Photo by Joel Brewton)
Carmichael’s Justin Newman (11) beats the ball home by inches against Western Beaver’s Austin Allison (7) during Wednesday’s game at Ross Memorial Park in Washington. (Photo by Joel Brewton)
WASHINGTON — In the playoffs you expect your opponents to be unfamiliar, but the Carmichaels baseball team knew its opposition all too well.
Western Beaver defeated Carmichaels a year ago in the WPIAL baseball quarterfinals en route to a Class A title in 2013.
In the winter, the Golden Beavers took a first-round contest against the Mikes in boys’ basketball postseason action.
So when the brackets were released and Carmichaels saw it could potentially face Western Beaver again, revenge was on the Mikes’ minds.
And they got that revenge in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class A baseball playoffs on Wednesday with a wild 17-8 victory at W&J’s Ross Memorial Park.
“I knew this was going to be a long day and a long game,” Carmichaels skipper Scott VanSickle said. “We left early to watch our buddies from California play, and then with the weather, I knew there might be some delays. We battled through all of it and I couldn’t be prouder of my guys.”
With the win, the Mikes (13-2) advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 2009 and improve to 7-6 in the quarterfinals since 1998.
Carmichaels, the 10th seed, will face Riverside with a date and location to be determined.
Brandon Lawless went the distance for the Mikes with 10 strikeouts and four walks to the second-seeded Golden Beavers (15-2).
“We didn’t want another season to end with a loss to Western Beaver,” said Lawless, who is also a basketball standout for the Mikes.
“It’s a great feeling to win and I think we won this game as a team. We definitely talked about getting some revenge today.”
The Mikes got the ball rolling early in the top of the first with four runs off of Western Beaver’s ace Steve Robison.
Michael Blasinsky singled in Brennen McMinn for the contest’s first run, followed by an RBI groundout by Joel Spishock and a two-out, two-run single by Lawless.
The Golden Beavers cut the deficit in half with two runs courtesy of back-to-back RBI doubles by Cody Acon and John Petrosky in the second frame.
Carmichaels responded with eight runs in the third. Ty Cole started the offensive onslaught by reaching base on an infield error and scoring on a pass ball.
Lawless aided his cause on the mound with another two-run single to make it 7-2.
Blasinsky garnered a two-run base knock later in the inning, followed by a double from Cole that plated two more runs.
Cole scored the eighth run in the frame after another infield error.
Western Beaver plated three runs in the bottom of the third and a run in the fourth before a lighting delay in the top of the fifth halted the action for a half hour.
After the delay, the Mikes plated two in the fifth via a sacrifice fly by Billy Bowlen and an RBI single by Spishock.
An RBI fielders’ choice by Ryan Zalar gave Carmichaels another run in the sixth, before Western Beaver collected two runs of its own.
The Mikes tallied the final runs of the game in the seventh with Bowlen scoring on a passed ball and Justin Newman driving in Spishock with an RBI squeeze bunt.
“Every one of our seniors has been talking about Western Beaver,” VanSickle said.
“It was a big deal for us to play against them and pick up the win. We have been building towards this moment all season long. We scored a season-high 17 runs today, and we just clicked in every aspect on offense today.”
Lawless compiled a strikeout and two groundouts to close the door on the Golden Beavers in the seventh to catapult the Mikes into the semifinals.
“It’s huge for any pitcher to pitch with the lead,” Lawless said.
“Going to the mound up 4-0 is a great feeling. I was really relaxed on the mound. After the delay I got in a good zone and just focused on throwing strikes. We didn’t want to be one-and-done in the playoffs and we knew we could make a deep run this year.”