Hruby comes through in the clutch
Red Raiders edge Mustangs in Section 2 baseball thriller Scott Hruby loves to hit in the clutch.
“I enjoy the pressure,” the Uniontown shortstop said. “I love being up there in those situations.”
Hruby’s two-out single in the bottom of the seventh drove in Nate Klingensmith from second base with the winning run to give the Red Raiders an 8-7 victory over visiting Laurel Highlands in a Section 2-AAA game at Bailey Park on Tuesday.
Mike George went 4 for 4 with a home run and Howie King also homered in driving in three runs as Uniontown improved to 2-8 overall and 2-5 in the section.
The win pulled the Red Raiders pulled even with the Mustangs (3-7, 2-5) in the standings. The two teams will square off again today in a 4 p.m. game at Laurel Highlands.
Like the ever-changing weather, which went from snow and hail to sunshine and back again, the battle between the cross-town rivals was like a roller-coaster ride.
Uniontown held leads of 4-0 and 6-3, Laurel Highlands came back to go up 7-6, and then the Red Raiders scored the final two runs to win it.
“It was up and down throughout the game,” Uniontown coach Chris Baker said. “Uniontown and Laurel Highlands games are always very competitive.”
“We came back twice and had some momentum when we got the lead,” LH coach Tom Landman said. “But to Uniontown’s credit, they fought back and the kid got a nice hit to win it for them.
“As for the weather, well, we’ve played in bad weather before, but this one hit all four seasons in one game.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Baker said with a laugh.
Left-hander Ryan Robowski earned the win in relief of starter Randy Fisher, who pitched into the sixth and gave up all seven runs, although six were unearned.
Losing pitcher Nick Midlik took over in the sixth for Brian Lipchinsky, who allowed six runs (four earned) in five innings.
The Red Raiders got off to a strong start thanks in large part to Fisher, who retired the first 10 batters he faced.
Greg Billy gave Uniontown the early lead with a two-run single in the first. The Red Raiders took advantage of LH’s only two errors of the game in the inning.
Some aggressive base running helped Uniontown score its third run in the third. Ryan Guthrie walked and was running with the pitch when Billy put down a sacrifice bunt and raced all the way to third on the play. Guthrie came home on King’s sacrifice fly, and George followed with a line-drive home run to left to make it 4-0.
The Mustangs broke up Fisher’s perfect game and scored two unearned runs in the fourth when Lipchinsky singled, Greg Palladino doubled and both came home on a three-base throwing error.
Laurel Highlands pulled within one in the fifth when Kenny Riddell singled, stole second, went to third on Tim Dye’s single and came home on pinch-hitter Nick Softcheck’s single.
For the second straight inning, however, Fisher minimized the damage by pitching out of two-on-and-one-out jams.
“I thought that was one of the keys to the game,” Landman said. “We had runners in scoring position with one out in two straight innings and couldn’t get those guys home.”
Uniontown bumped the margin up to 6-3 in the bottom of the inning when Billy singled and King followed with a two-run homer down the left-field line.
Laurel Highlands stormed back in the sixth with a two-out four-run rally to go up by one. Bobby Madison’s RBI single and Midlik’s two-run base hit knotted the score at 6-6 and forced Baker to relieve Fisher with Robowski. Palladino’s two-out infield hit drove in the go-ahead run.
The Red Raiders got even in the sixth when Hruby walked, stole second and scored on George’s two-out single to center.
“I felt our morale stayed up even after they took the lead, which was important to us coming back,” said Baker, who is a Laurel Highlands graduate.
Klingensmith set the stage for Hruby in the seventh by drawing a one-out walk and stealing second. Hruby drilled a two-out single off the left-field fence to end the game.
“I was ahead in the count and knew a fastball would be coming,’ Hruby said. “I just wanted to hit a line drive somewhere.”
Palladino and Riddell each had two hits for the Mustangs.