May 30, 2004 By Rob Burchianti 4 min read

WASHINGTON – Carmichaels coach Dave Bates was thinking about, of all things, Section 1-A rival Chartiers-Houston after watching his Mikes suffer a 15-0 defeat to Neshannock in the WPIAL Class A baseball championship game on Saturday. That because Bates was already thinking ahead to the PIAA baseball playoffs and putting the four-inning loss to the Lancers behind him.

“I’m making no prediction by any means,” Bates said. “But you saw what Chartiers-Houston did in the state playoffs last year.”

The Bucs, who fell to Bishop Canevin in the WPIAL semifinals in 2003, regrouped in time to win a pair of games in the PIAA tournament to reach the state final four.

“Just because you lost in the WPIALs doesn’t mean you can’t do well in the states,” Bates said. “It’s a new season for us.”

Carmichaels lost in the first round of the state playoffs last year after winning the WPIAL title, but shortstop Shayne Busti thinks Carmichaels’ third straight appearance in the PIAA playoffs could be successful.

“We’ve been there a couple years now so we know what it’s like,” said Busti, a Penn State recruit who was the only batter Lancers pitcher Mark Tanner failed to retire on Saturday. “Now we have to put that experience to good use.”

Neshannock coach Mike Kirkwood is pulling for a rematch between his Lancers and the Mikes.

“I hope we do meet them again,” Kirkwood said. “I pull for all the WPIAL teams in the states. We want to represent the WPIAL well. Carmichaels is a great team. It’d be great for the WPIAL if we both got that far.”

“This game is over now,” Busti said of the loss to the Lancers. “Now we’ve got nothing else to do but prepare for states. That’s where all our focus should be.”

Motivating factor

Neshannock was hoping to play Carmichaels a year ago, but Bishop Canevin upset the Lancers in the quarterfinals.

The shocking end to that season wasn’t something Kirkwood just pushed aside and forgot.

“That’s something we definitely had in the back of our minds,” Kirkwood said. “Every time things started going well for us this year, we’d make sure we told the kids to remember what happened last year. We told them we had a great year, won the section and were the No. 1 seed as the defending champions, and what did that get us? Nothing. We lost and the season was over.

“That most definitely was a motivating factor for us this year.”

Twelve spot

Coaches and players on both teams were still marveling about Neshannock’s game-ending, 12-run rally in the fourth inning.

Neshannock had three triples and two doubles in a five-at bat span at one point. Donnie Kirkwood, Scott Bender Mike Busin had two hits apiece in the inning, while Kirkwood, Bender and Matt Geramita each crossed the plate twice.

“That’s as good as it gets right there,” coach Kirkwood said. “We would’ve been happy to score four runs in the game.”

“You feel kind of helpless out there,” Busti said. “I thought Jared (Lapkowicz) and even the other guys were throwing the ball pretty good. They were just getting their bats on everything.”

Momentum swinger

While the final was 15-0, the Mikes had a chance to build some early momentum when they loaded the bases in the first inning, but Tanner was able to retire Andy Mazur on a sharp grounder to second base.

“That was big,” Kirkwood said. “If Carmichaels gets the lead there and gets up a little bit, that makes it tough. It’s not easy to come from behind. Once Mark got that out, I think the kids all said, ‘Well, Mark’s going to be OK and be his normal self.’ And he did settle down after that.”

Bates felt an early lead would’ve been nice, but wasn’t sure it would’ve changed the outcome of the game.

“Getting the lead right off the bat like that can get you going, can keep you up,” Bates said. “But that’s just ifs, ands or buts.

“The bottom line is, they were the better team today.”