Carmichaels advances to PIAA baseball playoffs
CALIFORNIA – Carmichaels baseball coach Dave Bates knew what had to be done, but instead he told his players to go out on the field and do what Bing Crosby so lyrically advised. Accent-u-ate the positive. Elim-i-nate the negative.
They did; and that was one of the keys as Carmichaels came from behind to nip Bentworth, 4-3, Wednesday and advance to the PIAA Class A playoffs as the No. 3 team out of the WPIAL.
The Mikes will move into post-season play next week, probably having to travel to Erie to meet the District 10-A champion.
Carmichaels led 2-0 after five, but Bentworth got single runs in the sixth and seventh to tie and force the game into extra innings. The Bearcats scored a run in the top of the ninth on successive singles by Gary Poskarich, Mike Shumar and Casey Thompson to lead 3-2.
The Mikes (16-3) rebounded with two runs in the home ninth to pull out the win. Colby Giles, who also picked up the pitching win in relief of starter Jared Lapkowicz, led off with a double to left, Shayne Busti was safe on an error with Giles holding second. Jared Lapkowicz flied to short right, the runners held. With Jeff Lapkowicz at bat, a passed ball moved both runners ahead, after which Lapkowicz was purposely walked to load the bases.
Bryan Wilson grounded to first, and Nick Watson started to make the play at first, then threw home, but too late, and Giles was in with the tying run. Busti moved to third and scored the winning run on Aaron Bowlen’s single.
Bates called it “a great ending, but it’s a shame that somebody had to lose. Things looked a little rough for a while, but as I have told our players many times, if you think positive, then positive things will happen. We don’t think negatively, whatever the situation might be.”
But at the same time, Bates reminded “we made a couple of defensive lapses and they could have hurt us.”
He was referring to the seventh inning when Bentworth tied, after a defensive letdown by the Mikes. Poskarich led off with a single, went to second on a passed ball and to third as Shumar grounded out. Poskarich was caught leaning too far off third and appeared to be in a rundown, but the ball was thrown wide and he got back in safe. On the very next pitch, Poskarich was too far off base and was caught again, but the throw back to third was wide. He eventually scored on Thompson’s fly ball.
Bates allowed, “We didn’t throw straight on those plays, and it could have hurt us. The first time we didn’t rush him closer to home and then get him in the rundown and the second time it was a bad throw. It was bad defense on our part, and defense is the key to wins. You have to make the defensive plays.”
Bentworth coach Dion Jansante called the loss “a tough one for us, but at the same time this is the first year in my 18 with the team that we have advanced this far into the playoffs. We have never reached the finals, and while I’m happy to get this far, I still wish they could have pulled it out.
“All season we hung in the tight games and made something happen. Today we came back to tie and then went ahead, but then they in turn came back and went ahead for good. It was a tough loss for Jason (pitcher Molesky), who won seven games for us this year. I told him to relax and let the defense take care of things behind him.”
Carmichaels had 10 hits, led by Jono Menhart with a homer, double, single and two RBI, Giles a double and single, Niko Buday two singles and Jeff Lapkowicz a double.
P.J. Myers had a double for Bentworth (12-4), Shumar and Thompson had three singles each and Poskarich two.
Carmichaels led 1-0 as Menhart opened the home first with a long homer over the fence in right, and it was 2-0 in the fourth after Buday singled and scored on Menhart’s double.
Bentworth got a run in the sixth to trail 2-1. Allen Patton was safe on a wide throw to first, and went to second when the recovery was booted. A wild pitch moved him to third and he scored on Nick Watson’s squeeze bunt. The Bearcats tied in the seventh, setting he stage for the wild ninth.
To wrap up the win, when Bates was asked about his underclass players, he replied “this is a young team, not too many state playoff teams have three freshmen in their lineup. But this is not a time to dwell on youth, it’s time to play ball.”
And they will do that, starting some time next week.