Geibel downs Uniontown, 9-4
FARMINGTON – Geibel Catholic and Uniontown have done their impression of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde the past two days, according to their coaches. The good Gators and the bad Red Raiders were out on Friday, which led to a 9-4 victory by Geibel Catholic in their non-section clash at Hardy Field at Wharton Township Park.
Ryan Craft pitched five strong innings and smacked a pair of doubles as the Gators improved to 1-2, while Uniontown fell to 1-1.
On Thursday, Geibel Catholic lost a seesaw affair against Jeannette, 9-8, while Uniontown opened its season with a 1-0 win at Belle Vernon.
“That was a totally different team out there today,” said Gators coach Mark Riggin, who wasn’t pleased with his team’s performance against the Jayhawks. “We still have a little bit of work to do before our first section game.”
Both teams dive into section play on Monday. The Red Raiders host Mount Pleasant in Section 2-AAA action, while Geibel Catholic hosts Carmichaels in a Section 1-A contest.
Uniontown coach Rob Kezmarsky had a stern talk with his squad after the loss to the Gators.
“This team can’t afford to make the mistakes it made today,” Kezmarsky said. “We played a real good game yesterday. The kids were emotionally high, they played hard and they didn’t make any errors. Today was a whole different story.”
Kezmarsky attributed some of the negative turnaround to playing an afternoon game after a night game, but not much.
“We still have to be ready to play every game,” Kezmarsky said.
The Red Raiders got off to a good start, scoring twice in the first inning off Gators starter Nolan Zavora.
Brandon Rumbaugh singled, stole second and scored on Nick Apicella’s single. Jason Guthrie reached on a swinging strike three that skipped past the catcher and scored on a double steal with Apicella.
“We still didn’t get as many runs as we should’ve that inning,” Kezmarsky said. “Then we had one really bad inning.”
Geibel Catholic got the runs right back and more with a six-run outburst in the top of the second against Rumbaugh.
Zavora led off with a double, and Mick Betlar and Phil Mariani both walked one out later. Chris Blackstone tied the game with a two-run single, and Mark Gira put the Gators ahead to stay when he reached on an error as Mariani scored.
Tyler Erdely’s squeeze bunt brought in Blackstone, Brendan Costantino socked an RBI triple and Zavora capped the rally with a run-scoring single, his second hit of the inning. Geibel Catholic sent 11 batters to the plate in the frame.
Winning pitcher Mike Ciarochi relieved Zavora to start the bottom of the second and pitched a scoreless frame with one strikeout.
Craft came in to start the third inning and finished up from there, allowing one earned run on three hits with three walks and three strikeouts for a rare five-inning save.
“Craft’s first outing was a little shaky,” Riggin said. “This was a great effort by him.”
“I thought all their pitchers did a good job,” Kezmarsky said.
Cory Sawka relieved Rumbaugh in the third and staved off the Gators until the sixth.
Sawka pitched out of a two-on, one-out jam in the fourth.
In the fifth, Ciarochi lined a lead-off single to left, and two outs later Blackstone singled and Gira walked to load the bases, but a nice play by shortstop Apicella on Erdely’s sharp grounder ended the inning.
The Gators finally added three insurance runs in the sixth on an RBI double by Craft, a run-scoring single by Mariani, and Gira’s infield pop, which was botched by the Red Raiders.
Uniontown scored its final two runs in the seventh. Jared Turner singled, Steve Oberly doubled and both scored one out later when Sawka’s hot smash was booted for an error, but Ryne Turner and Cory Over both grounded out to first baseman Ciarochi to end the game.
Mike Dvorchak relieved Sawka with two outs in the sixth and pitched 1 1-3 scoreless innings.
“We have to work on our pitching depth,” Kezmarsky said. “That’s our big question heading into section play.”
The Gators collected nine hits and consistently went deep in the count.
“We’ve been real patient. We’re not swinging at bad pitches,” Riggin said. “We played some good small ball in taking bases when we could get them.”
“I give Geibel credit,” Kezmarsky said. “They played in the WPIAL final last year. They’re a good team. One thing is they’re very selective at the plate. We have to learn to be better at that, too. We need to make the pitcher throw more strikes.”