May 18, 2007 By Mike Ciarochi 4 min read

BELLE VERNON – Brownsville ran into a buzz saw in the first round of the WPIAL Class AA baseball playoffs, yet the Falcons didn’t just walk away from the challenge. The Falcons gave it all they had, but Riverview had just a little more in the Raiders’ 3-0 win over Brownsville (12-6) at DiVirgilio Field Thursday afternoon.

The buzz saw was Riverview pitcher Dave Kaye, a Pitt recruit who led the WPIAL in strikeouts this season. He struck out 12 Thursday in a neat two-hit shutout, to the surprise of absolutely nobody.

“Everybody’s heard about him,” Brownsville coach Skooter Roebuck said. “He threw his curve ball particularly well today. We knew he had a good fastball, but his curve and change-up were real strong, too. He’s for real. He’s a stud.”

Brownsville’s Mike Rhoads matched Kaye almost pitch for pitch, as these pitchers put zeroes on the board through 5½ innings.

“It was tough that someone had to lose this game,” Roebuck said. “Mike pitched a great game for us. In fact, he made a great pitch that their kid hit to drive in the winning run.”

In the bottom of the sixth, Kaye drew a two-out walk, moved to second on Gus Benusa’s infield hit and scored on designated hitter Bill Edgar’s opposite field single that landed just fair in left field.

“He fought off a good pitch and put it down the line. I think it was about six inches fair,” Roebuck said.

The Raiders added a couple of unearned runs to grab a 3-0 lead heading to the seventh inning. The last run scored when Eric Benusa, who reached on an error, intentionally got caught in a rundown. He was tagged out, but not before Edgar had scored from third base.

Defensively, though, the Falcons were solid. It was on offense where they struggled. Kaye limited Brownsville to a pair of singles, a one-out hit to center by Paul Lanzi in the first inning and a two-out single to right by Dan Harvey in the seventh.

In between, it was plenty of Kaye doing what he does best, which is strike out batters. But according to Riverview coach Rich Griser, the Raiders have developed into a team behind their star pitcher.

“It was like another day at the shop for Dave,” Griser said. “He has all the poise you would want in a pitcher. But what often gets lost when he pitches is that we are a pretty good team around him. This was our eighth win in a row and you can’t do that with just one player. We’ve come together pretty good as this season has progressed.

“But you know, we knew Rhoads was a quality pitcher, too. He proved that today. He’s a tough kid, that’s for sure, and Brownsville has some very good players on their team, too. We knew we were in for a battle.”

The Raiders (12-5) loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning, but Rhoads coaxed a come-backer that he converted into a 1-2-3 double play to get out of the jam.

Rhoads retired 12 batters in a row from the second into the seventh inning.

Looking back on a section-winning season, Roebuck was pleased that his team made the progress it made.

“From the beginning, we expected to make the playoffs,” Roebuck said. “But I didn’t think we would go 11-1. We started off slowly, then started to turn it around. About midway through the season, we beat Washington and I think the kids started believing in themselves. We came along nice and hopefully we’ll be back and stronger next season.”