Connellsville Legion edges Colonial as Welsh outduels Holp
CONNELLSVILLE — Connellsville’s Greg Welsh and Colonial’s Ron Holp locked up in a great pitching duel before Connellsville was able to push across the eventual winning run in the bottom of the eighth to edge Colonial 3-2 in Fayette County American Legion action Friday night. Defense was the name of the game with Connellsville turning a key double play in the eighth, and strong play by the Colonial outfield cutting off the gaps to take away some extra bases for Connellsville.
“Defensive battles are great. Those are fun games to play in,” Connellsville’s John Przybylinski said. “Greg pitched a fantastic game for us today. It’s the third outing in a row he’s pitched like that.”
Colonial (11-6) took a 1-0 lead in the first. Adam Dorogi singled with one out. Phil Gnus found the right-center gap for a triple, scoring Dorogi.
Holp kept the Connellsville bats in check, stranding a runner at second in the first, third, and fifth innings. Connellsville advanced a runner to third in the sixth with one-out, but Holp retired the next two batters on pop flies to get out of the jam.
“We made a couple of mistakes in the seventh that hurt us and allowed them to get back into the game,” Colonial’s Matt Hibbs said. “Ron pitched a great game today. He was a little hurt, but really hung in there for us because we were short a couple of arms today.”
Colonial increased their lead to 2-0 in the top of the seventh. Cody Cross opened the inning with a single to left. An error on the play allowed Cross to move to second. Holp laid down a sacrifice bunt to push Cross to third. Jason Guthrie followed with a sacrifice fly to center to bring the run home.
Connellsville (10-7) came back with two runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game. Matt Jaynes singled to start the inning. Alex Keslar was safe on an error at third, putting two on. Holp struck out Cody Ward for the first out. Steve O’Donnell singled to left driving in Jaynes, and Guthrie hustled in from left to force Keslar at second 7-4 for the second out.
“My outfielders played great today. I’d put them up against anybody in the league,” Hibbs said. “It’s a tough loss but we’ve played well against Connellsville this season. Today was a well played game by both teams.”
O’Donnell moved to second on an errant pick-off throw and then took third on a passed ball. Seth Campbell hit a grounder to short. The ball was dropped for an error with O’Donnell scoring the tying run.
Colonial put two runners on with one out in the top of the eighth. Welsh got John Bush to hit into a 4-6-3 double play to get out of trouble.
Connellsville scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth when Ryan Craft singled to lead off the inning. Bill Dye sacrificed him to second, and Tyler Domer flied to left for the second out. Jaynes and Keslar drew walks to load the bases, and Ward drew another walk to force in Craft.
“It’s good to win a close game like this with the playoffs starting next week,” Przybylinski said. “We can’t win the regular season championship, so we’re going to play good fundamental baseball and see what happens.”