close

Fike, Uniontown force Game 5 in Legion finals

By Alan Smodic For The 3 min read

With his team’s back against the wall in a must-win situation, Uniontown starter Nate Fike decided it was time to place the team on his shoulders and take them one step closer towards a consecutive playoff championship. In Uniontown’s 9-4 victory over Connellsville Thursday, Fike did just that, in more ways than one.

On the mound, Fike surrendered three runs in the first inning, but shook it off to allow just three hits and only one more run over the final eight innings, all while striking out 10 Connellsville batters in the complete-game effort.

As if seeing Fike out on the mound every inning wasn’t enough for Connellsville, he continued to do a lot of damage out of the bottom of the lineup for his offense.

He walked and scored in both the third and fourth innings, as well as hitting a single and scoring what proved to be the game-winning fifth run in the sixth inning as Uniontown forced a deciding Game 5 of the championship series, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. today in Connellsville.

“It was the Nathan Fike Night is what it was,” Uniontown coach Ron Popovich said. “He really dominated and after that first inning, I knew our kids weren’t down behind him and they still carried a lot of confidence.”

In that first inning, however, Connellsville’s offense came out swinging and took advantage of a Uniontown error to gain an early 3-0 lead.

Richie Schleihauf and Chris Pepe hit back-to-back two-out singles, while Andy Schleihauf loaded the bases by reaching on an error. David Sumner then cleared the bases with a three-run double.

After being shutout in its half of the first inning, Uniontown scored at least one run in every inning, including a three-run eighth to cap off a consistent offensive night at the plate.

Center fielder Josh Guittap ignited the Uniontown offense with a solo home run over the left-center field fence in the second inning.

Fike then scored on a RBI-single by Brian Lipchinsky in the third and on a RBI-double by Nick Midlik in the fourth to tie the game at 3-3. Mike George brought in Greg Palladino in the fifth, giving Uniontown at one-run lead.

“It’s tough to battle back every inning like we did,” Popovich said. “I don’t know if there was one big hit, or one big play by us, but it was just a nice team effort and a great effort from Nate.”

Connellsville tied the game in the sixth when Travis Henry singled home Richie Schleihauf, but Uniontown quickly regained the lead when Fike scored in the bottom of the sixth on an error.

Uniontown added four more insurance runs between the seventh and eighth innings.

“That’s what it’s all about,” Connellsville coach Sherwood Hughes said.

“Nate Fike pitched a nice game and did real well after that first inning. That’s why he’s a state all-star right there.”

Fike struck out five of the final nine outs, including two in the ninth inning, to pick up the win. Henry took the loss for Connellsville, allowing six runs in six innings of work with five strikeouts of his own.

“Our team scored those three runs early and they thought they had it won, it’s as simple as that,” Hughes said. “They were flat the rest of the game and we just couldn’t get them out of it, but we’ll back tomorrow.”

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today