Good bounces carry Charleroi Legion past Masontown-Point Marion
MASONTOWN – They don’t call it a rubber game for nothing. All the bounces went in favor of Charleroi as it won the deciding game of the American Legion baseball first-round playoff series, 11-0, Wednesday over Masontown-Point Marion. Charleroi broke open a one-run game in the fourth inning with six runs on three Masontown errors and five hits, two of which were bunt singles.
“It’s nice to see the shoe on the other foot,” said Charleroi manager Tommy Hartman, after his team gave up a decisive four-run third inning in Tuesday’s 11-6 loss. “Yesterday was the complete opposite; I guess it can happen to any team.”
With the win, Charleroi (13-14) advances to play at Connellsville Friday in the second round for a 5:30 p.m. first pitch, while Masontown (15-12) is eliminated.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Masontown manager Shawn O’Neil. “We just couldn’t field the ball today.”
Both teams played solid defense in the first three innings as Frank McLaughlin’s sacrifice fly scored Joe Capelli, one of only two runners for both teams to reach scoring position during the stretch, giving Charleroi a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
Then the Charleroi sticks rattled Masontown in the fourth, led off by Jody Wilkerson’s double to left-center.
“It looked like it was going to be a close game the first and second innings,” said O’Neil. “But after that, we couldn’t catch a cold.”
Three Masontown errors hurt, as Charleroi poured even more salt on the wound with bunt singles by Mike McCurry and Charlie Fritch, the latter a suicide squeeze giving Charleroi a 4-0 lead. Eugene Lancas capped off the inning with a two-run single, scoring Fritch and Jordan White.
Alan Smodic suffered the loss for Masontown, despite none of the six runs in the fourth inning were to his credit. Smodic pitched 6 2/3 innings with one walk and one strikeout, before Ryan Caringola came in to face one batter in the seventh.
Dave Wachinski, who is back from an injury suffered in an all-star football game, earned the win for Charleroi, pitching a complete-game five-hitter with three strikeouts and three walks.
“We have confidence in Dave,” Hartman said. “I knew if he could give us five innings he’d be good.”
White, a Geibel Catholic grad, belted a leadoff homer in the fifth inning for Charleroi as an insurance run, while McLaughlin helped enforce the 10-run rule in the seventh with a two-run double, scoring Lancas and Fritch.
Masontown could only manage two hits in the sixth inning after the fourth-inning debacle, but that ill-fated comeback attempt was silenced when Sean McCahill hit into a 6-4-3 double play.
“Once you get down so much it’s hard to get things going,” O’Neil said. “It just snowballed.”
Matt Nelson led all batters for Charleroi with three hits, while five of his teammates notched two-hit games, including White and Fritch with two and one RBI, respectively.
Craig Hriblan led Masontown with two hits.