Local roundup
Trojans top Mikes in key Section 1-A battle The California boys baseball team knocked off unbeaten Carmichaels Thursday 3-1 in Section 1-A action, highlighted by Travis Van Olst’s brilliant work on the mound.
Van Olst (1-0) only needed 83 pitches to get the job done, including a stretch where he threw 18-of-20 strikes. He totaled four strikeouts and the Trojan defense rallied behind him.
California played small ball as Ben Carson singled twice and scored two runs and teammate Matt Hartman singled twice with an RBI.
Clean-up hitter J.D. Hawk singled and performed a suicide squeeze in the third that scored California’s second run.
Freshman hurler Joby Lapkowicz (1-1) went on record as the losing pitcher. He worked six and two-thirds innings, allowed all nine hits, three earned runs and fanned seven California batters.
Bobby Virgili came on in relief in the seventh inning. He pitched an inning and a third with two hits, no runs, a walk and no strikeouts.
Logan Phillips drilled a double for Carmichaels for the lone extra base hit.
California (3-1, 5-4) are looking to make it two straight after a loss to Mapletown Wednesday at home against Frazier (3 p.m.)
Carmichaels (4-1, 8-1) hosts Jefferson-Morgan Wednesday also at 3 p.m.
Waynesburg Central 11, Beth-Center 9 – Waynesburg Central’s Dan Cross and Mitch Monas each tripled and doubled as the Raiders outlasted Beth-Center in a Section 2-AA slugfest Thursday.
Beth-Center jumped out to an early 7-1 lead through three innings, but Waynesburg took the lead after multiple runs in the fourth and fifth innings.
Deadlocked at eight runs a piece through nine innings, Waynesburg picked up a run in the tenth and two in the 13th for the win.
The Raiders totaled 21 hits in total compared to Beth-Center’s 14.
In addition to outstanding games by Cross and Monas, Brandon Rembaugh tripled, while Troy Cree drilled three singles and Nick Stewart doubled and singled.
Kenny Blackwell worked four innings for Waynesburg. He struck out two and walked four batters for the victory.
Losing pitcher Todd Chisler went nine innings with five walks and five strikeouts.
Steve Hvizda had the hot bat for the Bulldogs with a home run and two singles.
Beth-Center plays Mapletown Tuesday.
Softball
Belle Vernon 18, Uniontown 2 – Kayla Nuccetelli doubled, singled and drove in three runs as Belle Vernon upended Uniontown in Section 4-AAA action.
The Lady Leopards needed just five innings to handle the Lady Red Raiders as they jumped out to an early 7-0 first-inning lead and held Uniontown to just four hits, behind Ashley Merella’s pitching.
Merella (6-1) went the distance striking out seven and walking one.
Merella also doubled, singled and drove in a run.
Teammates Dena Mornak singled twice and drove in three runs, while Heather Sellew doubled and drove in two, Rebecca Smitley singled and drove in a run and Apryl Patterson tripled and drove in a run.
Losing pitcher Davidiene Jobes had a rough day at the office as she allowed all 18 runs on 14 hits. She struck out two and walked nine.
Caitlin Krulock doubled and singled for Uniontown.
The Lady Leopards (8-1) are back in action Apr. 19 at West Mifflin.
In Wednesday’s 10-0 Belle Vernon win over McGuffey, Merella hurled a one-hitter and fanned nine batters.
The Belle Vernon bats were in full swing with 13 hits led by Alana Lacey’s home run, single and four RBI’s.
In addition to her work on the mound, Merella tripled, singled and drove in a run.
Carmichaels 5, Charleroi 2 – Courtney Newland fanned 14 batters and allowed no walks en route to a non-section victory over visiting Charleroi Thursday.
At the plate, Newland doubled as did teammates Morgan Pratt and Stacey Antonini.
Antonini added two singles and Pratt a single. They accounted for five of the Lady Mikes 11 hits.
Heather Collins went home with the loss. She struck out one and walked one in seven innings of action.
Jackie Stottlemyer was the big hitter for Charleroi with a triple.
The Lady Mikes (5-2) look to put another one in the win column Tuesday at home against Chartiers-Houston.
Waynesburg Central 5, Beth-Center 2 – Megan Summersgill blasted a bases-loaded double that cleared the bases as Waynesburg Central downed host Beth-Center in an exhibition contest.
Courtney Orndoff (5-1-1) held up her end of the bargain on the mound with a three-hitter that included five strikeouts and a walk.
Geri Whitman kept Beth-Center in the game with a home run, a double and 14 strikeouts for the Lady Bulldogs.
The Lady Raiders (5-1-1, 2-1) play Charleroi Tuesday at home (4 p.m.) and Beth-Center (3-4, 2-0) look to rebound from the loss at home Monday against Geibel Catholic for a 1 p.m. start.
Turkeyfoot Valley 15, Salisbury 0 – The Turkeyfoot Valley girls softball team picked up its first win of the season in convincing fashion with a West Pac shutout over host Salisbury.
The Lady Rams exploded for an 11-run third inning and never looked back.
Amanda Hanst paced Turkeyfoot with 11 strikeouts and four walks.
Hanst dropped a double for the lone extra base hit in the game.
Teammate Autumn Koscheck singled twice.
Turkeyfoot returns home Tuesday against Rockwood for a 4:15 p.m. start.
West Greene 7, Hundred (W.Va.) 0 – Rebecca Burns extended her record to 5-1 on the mound as West Greene blanked Hundred (W.Va.) Thursday in exhibition play.
Burns struck out 12 and allowed no walks.
Alyson Clark knocked a bases loaded triple in the third to fuel the West Greene attack.
Teammate Stacy Wickham went 2-for-3 with two RBI’s.
Losing pitcher Megan Gorby fanned six batters and walked five.
The Lady Pioneers play Monday at Chartiers-Houston starting at 4 p.m.
College golf
The Waynesburg College men’s golf team was just one behind Notre Dame College of Ohio to finish in second place at the 2005 Thiel Invitational. Waynesburg junior and Waynesburg Central graduate Kellen Haines led a group of four Yellow Jackets with a top-10 finish at the five-team invitational.
Haines
and his second-place finish paced the Yellow Jackets to the second spot on the leader board with a score of 317, 29-over par. Notre Dame (Ohio) shot a total of 28-over par 318 to win the tournament.
Lucas Munson of Thiel posted a total of two-under 70 to claim the individual title by eight shots.
Junior Ben Stuart
finished tied for fourth on the day with a round of seven-over par 79 and sophomore Ryan Heilman
tied teammate and Albert Gallatin graduate Josh Oros
for a seventh-place finish at the invitational with a total of eight-over par 80.
On the women’s side, junior Melannie Falzone
competed as an individual and finished tied for 11th place with a score of 137.
Waynesburg will return to action when they play in the McBride-Behringer-Allen Invitational on Monday, April 17 hosted by Grove City College.
Men’s tennis
Waynesburg 6, Penn State-Altoona 3 – For the second time in as many matches, the Yellow Jackets swept all three doubles matches en route to winning the match. On Friday, the Waynesburg College men’s tennis team swept doubles play against Penn State-Altoona before defeating the Lions.
The Yellow Jackets (6-7) jumped ahead early as junior Matt Otis
and freshman Michael Dosch
defeated Altoona’s Pat Cooper and Kevin Dolansky by a 9-7 margin. Junior Joe Koch
and freshman Kevin Houseknecht
notched an 8-3 victory at the second spot, while freshman Drew Slater
and sophomore Will Porter
clinched the doubles sweep for Waynesburg with an 8-6 win over Chris Nelson and Chris Capps.
Otis opened singles play with an easy 6-0, 6-2 win over the Lions’ Cooper at first singles. Houseknecht moved up to the third position and defeated Altoona’s Dolansky in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0.
Freshman Dustin Cozad
dropped his first set, 1-6, at the No. 6 position before winning the next two sets, 6-4, 10-7.
With the win over Penn State-Altoona, Waynesburg moves 6-7 on the season. The Yellow Jackets now prepare to host Muskingum on Tuesday, April 18 for the final match of the season. First serve is set for 3 p.m.
Men’s baseball
Penn State-Fayette 9, St. Vincent 7 – The Penn State-Fayette baseball team trailed 5-0, but ran off the next nine runs en route to a win over host St. Vincent.
Brent Wilson (2-0) set the pace for the defense as he worked eight and two-thirds innings with one strikeout and four walks.
A.J. Ardabell drilled two doubles, a single and drove in two runs for the offense.
Chad Shroyer knocked a two-run single in the fifth to get the Roaring Lions back in the game.
In the eighth, Bobby Fulton singled and drove in two runs. He totaled three singles.
Teammates Bob Madison and Rick Wilson each singled twice.
Christian Necheff (5-8) recorded the loss. He worked six innings, allowed seven earned runs and struck out two.
Penn State-McKeesport is next up on the Fayette schedule Saturday at noon.
Waynesburg 5, Grove City 4; Waynesburg 11, Grove City 2 – With the Wolverines rallying in the sixth and having runners on second and third with two down in the seventh, senior pitcher Junior Schrader forced a ground-out to help Waynesburg hold on for a win over Grove City at Madison Field on Thursday in game one of a doubleheader.
In game two, the Wolverines capitalized on four Yellow Jackets to scored six unearned runs en route to an 11-2 victory.
The Yellow Jackets’ (12-12-1, 4-5 PAC) one-run victory in game one snapped a four-game losing streak. Grove City (16-6, 8-4 PAC) responded in game two with its fifth win in its last six games and secured the series victory over Waynesburg after the Wolverines won the opener (5-4) in extra innings yesterday.
A solo home run off the bat of shortstop Mike Ritter with two outs in top of the first inning established an early 1-0 lead for the Wolverines. After WC’s offense had been denied in its first at bats despite loading the bases, the Yellow Jackets tied the contest a 1-1 with an RBI single by leftfielder and Mapletown graduate Drew Denham
. Waynesburg expanded its lead to 3-1 in the third on a run-scoring triple by third baseman Landon Sinclair
before he scored on a sacrifice bunt by the next batter, centerfielder Brendon Steele.
Following a scoreless fourth for both side, the Yellow Jackets loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth with one out on an error, a double by Steele and a walk.
Waynesburg scored added an insurance run when a fielder’s choice scored a run before catcher Ryan Cummings
scored Steele with a single through the left side.
Now trailing by four, 5-1, GCC continued to fight back by placing two runners on with two outs in the sixth. A Yellow Jacket error made it a 5-2 ballgame before pinch hitter Pat Messner delivered with a two-run double to make it a one-run contest, 5-4.
Schrader
got the next batter to fly out to center to end the inning.
In the ninth, Schrader issued a two-out walk before Ritter connected with a double down the leftfield line to give the Wolverines runners on second and third. However, the senior hurler forced pinch hitter Seth Thompson to fly out to end the game.
Schrader allowed four runs (one earned) on six hits with five strikeouts in seven innings to earn his fourth of the season.
Paving the way for the Yellow Jackets’ 10-hit offense in game one were Cummings, Ryan Group
and Chad Litten
, all of whom had two hits in the contest.
In game two, eight different Wolverines collected a hit as Grove City outhit Waynesburg, 12-5. GCC jumped out to a 3-0 lead in its first two at-bats before Steele singled home Sinclair from second base with one out in the second.
After a scoreless third inning, the Wolverines answered back with three more runs in the fourth and the fifth to take a 6-1 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, catcher Phil Anderson
belted his first homer of the season over the right-center-field wall.
Again, Grove City had an answer for a Waynesburg run, as the Wolverines put the game out of reach with a five-run sixth on just three hits.
Wolverine starter Erik Arnesen, who fanned six over 7.0 innings, picked up the victory, while Sinclair suffered the loss after a five-inning effort in which he allowed eight runs (five earned).
No Waynesburg hitter posted a multi-hit game, as Anderson (home run) and Sinclair (double) were the lone Yellow Jackets with extra-base hits. Meanwhile, Grove City had its 12-hit attack paced by Chris Schwamberger and Jerry Ott, both of whom went 3-for-5 and two runs scored. Schwamberger also registered a game-high five RBI.
Up next, the Yellow Jackets will play St. Vincent at Falconi Field in Washington, Pa., for a 1 p.m. non-conference game on Monday, April 17. The Bearcats claimed a 9-7 victory over Waynesburg earlier this season despite six solid innings of relief from Schrader, a native of Washington.