Colonial rallies past Masontown
MASONTOWN – Mark up another “trademark win” for the Colonial 3 American Legion Baseball team. Colonial trailed Masontown until the sixth inning, then used six hits for a like number of runs and went on to defeat the host tem, 9-3, Monday for their 15th win in 16 games.
That lone loss came against Uniontown, and the two teams are slated for a rematch Wednesday at the Rowes Run field.
Masontown led 3-1 into the sixth, then Colonial made its winning move, one that manager Ralph Rice called “our trademark. That has been our trademark all season. We don’t really hit much in the early innings, then we open up in the middle and late innings. The big thing was we got the hits when we needed them.”
Through the first five innings, Craig Hriblan had held Colonial to just one run and three hits, second inning singles by Bill Gabonay and Ross Martin, and a fourth inning hit by Jared Slusser.
Meanwhile, Masontown was tagging Jason Rechichar for seven hits and three runs to go ahead. The host team got one in the first. Chris Buncic singled to lead off, Bob Epley was aboard on an error and Hriblan singled to load the bases. Mike Kisko’s grounder was thrown home to get Buncic, leaving the bases loaded, and Ryan Jenkins sent Epley home with a flyball to center.
Masontown made a big move in the fourth, as Kisko hit the first pitch over the centerfield fence, Jenkins doubled and scored on Jerome Manchas’ single and Scott Piper singled. That was all for Rechichar and he swapped places with second baseman Brandon Matlick. From that point on, Matlick threw four-hit shutout ball, with only three flyballs to the outfield, and two double plays by the defense.
Rice added, “We got a fine relief effort from Brandon. This was only his second time pitching this year. We started off with our second baseman pitching, and wound up with our third baseman pitching.”
But in the loss, manager Sean O’Neil saw a couple of bright points for his team.
He noted, “We are getting some of our hitting back, and this was the first game in which we didn’t make a mess of errors. We didn’t give them the game with bad defense, they earned the win. They are a good hitting team and you can keep them down just so long. They showed us why they are 15-1.
“We had our chances. We had a good thing going in the first inning, and we left the bases loaded and two runners on twice. On the other hand, they hit the ball and had that one big inning.”
Colonial had 13 hits, led by Bill Gabonay with a double and two singles. Chad Rice had a double and single, Matlick and Williams a triple and Slusser two singles. For Masontown, Kisko homered, Ryan Jenkins doubled, Mike Budinsky doubled and singled and Manchas hit two singles.
Trailing 3-0 into the fifth, Colonial got on the board when Bob Patterson was safe on an error and moved around on a passed ball and Slusser’s single.
In the big sixth. Rice hit a leadoff double, Matt Rechichar singled, Williams tripled and Gabonay doubled. Josh Null relieved starter-loser Hriblan and got an out, then Patterson singled, Slusser walked, Matlick was hit by a pitch, and with two out, Rice singled in the final two.
Scoring ended in the eighth with Matlick’s triple, a walk to Rice who stole second, and an error.
Colonial is home with Uniontown Wednesday. Colonial is home Wednesday with Carmichaels, then plays a double-dip Friday at Uniontown, starting at 5 p.m.