Uniontown bats finally come alive in American Legion win
Uniontown found something that had been missing from the offense for a while – its bats – and they paid big dividends. The home team unloaded a 15-hit offense on the way to a 13-2 win over Waynesburg in Fayette American Legion Baseball League play yesterday at the Hutchinson Field, evening their record at 2-2.
Manager Ron Popovich said, “We came out with the bats today. We had been missing those bats the last couple of games, but they found them today. We also had a good pitching effort from Ryan Gondek, but we came in with Aaron Lowden in relief after six innings. When you have a lead as big as we did (11-1), you want to give some of the other pitchers some work.
“But finding our bats again was the big key today.”
Three players accounted for nine of the Uniontown hits – Brennan Dayton had a double, two singles, and four RBI; Dave Landman had a double, two singles, and two RBI; and Josh Guittap had three singles and two RBI.
Gondek and Lowden combined to work a seven-hitter, including Aaron Carpenter’s double, and two singles each by Andrew McLaughlin and Greg Klinefelter.
Waynesburg manager Herb Carpenter said, “This was not a good game for us defensively. You have to make the plays and we didn’t. However, we do have a young team by Legion standards, with 14 of our 18 players 15 and 16 year olds. They are young, but they will come along, we just have to be patient.”
Uniontown led 1-0 in the second when Brad Yohman was aboard on an error and scored on Guittap’s single.
The lead went to 5-0 in the fourth on Yohman’s single, a walk to Guittap, singles by Steve Strange and Dayton, and Paul Briczinski’s two-out single.
Waynesburg got on the board in the fifth, and had the chance for a big inning, but could net only one run. Carpenter hit a lead-off double, Nick Ross walked, and McLaughlin singled in Carpenter. Rich Stansberry walked to load the bases with nobody out, but two bouncers to third were thrown home for force outs, and another thrown to second for an inning-ending force.
Uniontown got that run back in its fifth, Yohman being safe on an error and moving around on Guittap’s single and Dayton’s ground out.
Four more scored in the sixth. With two out, Lowden singled, Yohman was safe on an error, Guittap singled, Strange was nicked by a pitch, Dayton doubled in two, and Landman doubled in two more.
Waynesburg’s final run came in the eighth when Zack Patton walked and moved around on a passed ball and an error. Uniontown closed scoring in its eighth with Dayton’s single, an error, a hit batter and two walks.
Uniontown will be playing a make-up game today at Connellsville, then visits Charleroi on Wednesday, hosts California Friday, and travels on Saturday for a double-bill with Keyser, W. Va., starting at noon at the Potomac State College Field.