American Legion baseball
Uniontown holds on, hands Colonial first loss ROWES RUN – If you want any more proof that winning a baseball game can be a matter of inches on both offense and defense, talk to the Uniontown and Colonial American Legion teams.
The teams generated 26 hits all over the field Friday, one of them just inches away from hitting the jackpot, while a closing double play was a skin of the teeth affair, as Uniontown held off a last-inning threat to edge Colonial, 9-8.
Uniontown led 9-5 into the home seventh, but Colonial rebounded with three runs and had the bases loaded before the comeback was squelched. Mike Allison, who had pitched a strong four-hitter Wednesday against Waynesburg, came on in relief of Santino Sloboda in the seventh and shut the door.
Down by three, Colonial got a leadoff single from Brandon Mallick, then Jason Rechichar and Chad Rice walked to load the bases. That was all for Sloboda, and Allison got the call.
Matt Rechichar greeted him with a single that scored two runs, and when the throw back was wild, Rice continued in to score and Rechichar wound up at third.
With one out and Jared Slusser at bat, manager Ralph Rice flashed the squeeze. Rechichar had home plate made, but as the pitch came in close and Slusser tried to get out of the way, he was hit by the pitch. The ball was declared dead, Slusser was waved to first, and Rechichar back to third.
Dane Meadows walked to load them up with one out, but Dave Landman grabbed Bob Patterson’s grounder near second, stepped on the bag, and threw over to first for the game-ending double play.
Ralph Rice said, “That double play was a big key factor for them. Matt had a good jump toward home and if he makes it we tie the game. It was a very big play for both sides, but the ball hit the batter and was declared dead. But that’s baseball.
“I thought our players showed a lot of heart coming back like they did. This is our first loss (7-1) but we came close to avoiding it. We had a big rally going in the seventh, but they stopped us.”
Uniontown manager Ron Popovich agreed that “The double play was a big factor. I told our team coming in that they would have a tough game. We got a four-run lead, but you never have enough runs against a team that can hit like Colonial does.
“Santino was working a good game until the seventh and then he got tired. This was the first game he has pitched this year, and he worked well for us. Then Mike came on and preserved the lead for us.”
Uniontown’s 16 hits included Dave Landman’s home run and two singles, Sloboda’s three singles and Ryan Gondek’s two doubles. Brad Yohman added a double, and Justin Luckey, Eric Darr and Brennan Dayton chipped in two singles apiece
For Colonial, Rechichar had two singles and four RBIs, with Nathan Lewis and Slusser each smacking a home run and single. Mallick had two singles as well.
Uniontown took a 2-0 lead in the second. Paul Briczinski singled to lead off, and with two out, Dayton and Landman singled around an error. Colonial responded with back-to-back homers by Lewis over the centerfield fence, and Slusser over the fence in right.
Uniontown went up 3-2 with Sloboda’s single, Gondek’s ground-rule double to left and Darr’s single. Landman homered in the fourth to make it 4-2, and the edge was 6-2 in the fifth on Sloboda’s single, and Gondek and Yohman doubles.
Colonial cut that to 6-5 in the fifth. Patterson singled to lead off, and with two out, Jason Rechichar was safe on an error. Rice walked to fill the bases, and Matt Rechichar hit a liner to right-center that looked a game-tyer, but the ball hit about a foot from the top of the fence, and hit with such force that the ball bounced back toward the infield and Rechichar was held to a single.
Two runs scored, though, and it was 6-4.
Lewis singled to make it 6-5, with Rechichar holding second. Slusser singled to right, but a throw from Gondek to Aaron Lowden at the plate nailed Rechichar with what would have been the tying run.
Uniontown got three in the sixth to take a 9-5 lead on Landman, Luckey, Sloboda and Darr singles, around a walk to Gondek.
Both teams are in action again Monday, Uniontown hosting Perryopolis and Colonial hosting Connellsville.