American Legion Region 6 baseball playoffs
Uniontown wins again, will play for title today SHALER – Uniontown’s undefeated streak in the American Legion Region 6 playoffs stayed alive in unbelievable fashion with a comeback 6-5 win over Hopewell at Shaler High School’s Matulevic Field on Friday.
The victory advances Uniontown into today’s championship round against the host school, Shaler, in a rematch of Thursday’s game, which Uniontown won 5-4 after rallying from a 4-0 deficit.
The situation looked bleak for Uniontown on Friday as Hopewell took a 5-2 lead in the top of the eighth inning. The chips were not only down but buried a foot deep. Uniontown dug them up and cashed them in with a four-run rally after two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the eighth inning to take the lead and hold on for the win.
“I know we’ve been coming back all year, but I’ll tell you what, this is an unbelievable run,” Uniontown head coach Ron Popovich said. “We don’t care how late in the game, or how much we’re down, there is just no quit in this team.”
Uniontown can claim the Region takes the championship with a win today at 11 a.m. against Shaler at Matulevic Field. Since the tournament is double-elimination and Uniontown is undefeated, if Uniontown loses the early game, a rematch is scheduled for 30 minutes afterwards with the winner taking the tournament.
“I think it’s real hard to sweep a team in a doubleheader, so I like where we’re at going into tomorrow,” Popovich said. “Our plan is to stay undefeated, though, and not even have to play that second game.”
The eighth-inning rally began soon after Hopewell catcher Don Howard couldn’t hold on to pinch-hitter Nate Fike’s foul tip with two strikes and two outs. Had Howard, hung onto the ball, the inning, and probably the game, would have been over.
Fike reached first on the next pitch on a routine hit to the third baseman, Max Vogel, who committed a throwing error to first. It seemed small at the time, but led to a game-winning rally where every batter came to the plate.
“I bring in Nate to pinch hit and he almost strikes out but ends up getting on first base,” Popovich said. “That was huge because that started it all.”
Leadoff hitter Nick Midlik drew a walk and Bryan Lipchinsky singled home Fike to chip another run off Hopewell’s lead and record his second RBI of the game in his 3-for-5 performance at the plate. Lipchinsky singled home Midlik in the third inning for Uniontown’s first run of the game. He also singled in the fifth inning and scored on a Josh Guittap single. Guittap had three hits in the game as well.
“I think we have a lot more focus this year and we’re just playing as hard as we can every game,” Lipchinsky said. “I know I had to keep the rally alive if we wanted to win this game, and we were up against who I thought was the toughest pitcher (Scott Dunn) we faced this series.”
Greg Palladino batted next and fell behind 0-2, but drove the next pitch into center field for a double that drove in Midlik and Lipchinsky to tie the game. It was his second double and third hit of the game.
“I haven’t been hitting as well as I know I can this series, so I knew I had to come up big today if we wanted to win,” Palladino said. “I guessed he would pitch me outside after getting an 0-2 count on me and when he did, I was able to take it to the opposite field for a big hit.”
Pitcher Robert Madison batted cleanup and helped his own cause as he singled home Palladino to give Uniontown what would be the game-winning run. Madison gave up nine hits, struck out four batters, and walked three batters. Uniontown had 12 hits including four in the eighth-inning rally.
“Bob kept us in the game with a strong outing,” Popovich said, “and even though we made some errors, we came up with some big plays too.”
One such play happened in the top of the fifth inning as leadoff hitter Doug Schreiber tried to tag up on a fly ball to left field. Uniontown left-fielder James Blosser threw a strike to catcher Mike George, who tagged Schreiber on the back as he dove for home plate.
“Somebody has been coming up big every game, whether it’s a play in the field, or a big hit when we need it,” Popovich said. “We need to keep coming up big and with the heart everybody has on this team, I think we can continue.”