May 22, 2007 By Rob Burchianti 4 min read

MONROEVILLE – There’s a fine line between being well rested and rusty. Laurel Highlands looked more of the latter on Tuesday night in its tough-to-swallow 6-3 loss to Blackhawk in their WPIAL Class AAA quarterfinal baseball playoff game at Gateway High School.

Derek DiRuscia and Craig Denmann were both 3 for 4 with a double, two runs and two RBIs, and Ben Burkovich and DiRuscia combined to hold down the Mustangs’ usually potent hitting attack to help the 11th-seeded Cougars (11-9) advance to the semifinals against Section 1-AAA rival New Castle.

Section 2-AAA champion Laurel Highlands (17-3) fell behind 4-0 in the first inning and could never climb completely out of that early hole.

The third-seeded Mustangs’ timing at the plate was noticeably off after a long layoff due to a first-round bye. Combine that with a Cougars offense that didn’t hit the ball particularly hard but found the open spaces more often than not and you have one frustrated LH squad that was out-hit 11-7.

Mustangs coach Tom Landman balked at offering excuses, though.

“Obviously you hate to have that long of a layoff, but you have to give Blackhawk and their pitchers credit,” said Landman, whose team last played on May 10. “They threw the ball pretty well. Their hitters didn’t hit the ball really solid, didn’t really sting it, but they put the ball in play.”

Blackhawk handed Laurel Highlands right-hander Ethan Mildren his first loss of the season after seven regular-season wins, but the freshman didn’t pitch badly despite giving up five earned runs on 10 hits in six innings. He walked none and struck out five.

Mildren allowed only one well hit ball in the first inning, but still wound up giving up four runs in the frame.

Tim Lipp started the game with a ground-ball single up the middle and Austin Wulf then bounced a single through the infield into center field. Denmann followed with a two-run bloop double down the right-field line. DiRuscia then connected on an RBI double to deep left and came around to score on Ryan Verlihay’s bloop single to right.

“Before you knew it they had four runs,” Landman said.

When the Mustangs came in to bat, Zach Dascenzo tagged a long fly ball to left with a runner on that for a moment looked like it would cut the lead in half, but left fielder Wulf hauled in the ball just short of the fence.

“In the top of the first, the ball definitely bounced their way,” Landman allowed.

The left-handed Burkovich mixed a sharp-breaking curve ball with a fastball well to keep Laurel Highlands off balance and scoreless until the fourth, when it broke through for three runs to pull within one.

J.C. Myers started the rally with a one-out walk and Carmen Congelio ripped a run-scoring double to deep left-center field. Jake Barnhart reached on an error with Congelio holding at second. Mike Newhouse and Mike Pegg followed with back-to-back RBI singles, leaving runners on the corners with one out.

Burkovich prevented LH from tying the game by retiring Nick Erminio and Dascenzo to end the inning with the latter taking a called third strike on a pitch that appeared to be low.

“We had two good hitters up and if you can tie it there it makes it a brand new ball game,” Landman said. “But their pitcher got out of it and then they got two runs the next inning, and that really hurt us.”

In the top of the fifth, DiRuscia delivered an RBI single, took second on the throw home, advanced to third on an outfield error, and scored on a two-out, two-strike wild pitch to make it 6-3.

Burkovich was relieved by DiRuscia after walking Barnhart leading off the sixth. The right-hander immediately picked off an LH pinch runner, then got a pair of strikeouts to end the frame.

Laurel Highlands brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh after Erminio singled and Dascenzo walked to start the inning. DiRuscia got two strikeouts around a force out to end the game and earn the save.

Winning pitcher Burkovich gave up two earned runs on six hits in five-plus innings with four walks and seven strikeouts.

“We left nine guys on base and that’s too many,” Landman said. “But I told the kids after the game there’s no reason to hang their heads. They never quit and we still hand a chance in the last inning to tie it. The kids had a wonderful season. They won a section championship and no one can ever take that away from them.”