Jul 12, 2009 4 min read

Uniontown edges Connellsville, 12-11 HOPWOOD – The Connellsville and Uniontown American Legion baseball teams may be mirror images of each other, and if Friday’s opening game of the best-of-three series for the Fayette County Legion championship is any indication, the two teams may not have enough pitchers to last the series. Uniontown won a 12-11 marathon that had a combined 30 hits, four home runs, five pitchers, and a dramatic ninth inning that had fans of both teams on the edge of their seats.

The game lasted three hours and 15 minutes.

There was an early indication of what was to come when Connellsville’s Cody Ward drove the first pitch of the night over the left field fence against Uniontown starting pitcher Dylan Clifford, but Clifford stranded two Connellsville runners later in the inning to escape further damage.

Uniontown responded with six runs in the bottom half of the inning. Mason Tupta doubled off the top of the outfield fence, Joe Eperjesi walked and Zach Dascenzo singled to drive in Tupta before John Boskovich doubled to drive in Eperjesi and Dascenzo. Ethan Mildren and Evan Arison followed with back-to-back home runs for a 6-1 lead.

Eperjesi’s first-pitch home run to lead off the second inning gave Uniontown a 7-1 lead.

Neither Uniontown coach Ron Popovich or Connellsville coach John Przybylinski felt the game was over at that point.

“We don’t ever quit,” Przybylinski said. Popovich echoed those thoughts, saying, “I’m sure that J.P. didn’t think the game was over when Connellsville was down. I’ve been around long enough to know that as well.”

The visitors scored three runs in the third when Ward walked, Tyler Domer singled and took second on a late throw to third base. Ryan Craft singled both runners in and scored three batters later on Bill Dye’s infield out to cut the lead to 7-4.

It stayed that way until the bottom of the fifth when Uniontown scored twice without a hit. Connellsville pitcher Jeremy Molinaro walked Arison, Gio Schiano, Max Beatty, and Travis Lancaster in succession as Arison scored. Przybylinski then brought Alex Keslar in to pitch for the first time this season. Keslar gave up a sacrifice fly out to Tupta that made the score 9-4.

Connellsville scratched out a run in the sixth when Domer’s deep fly ball was dropped and Keslar’s single scored Domer to cut the lead to 9-5.

Uniontown seemed to put the game out of reach in the seventh when Lancaster walked and later scored on Tupta’s double, followed by Eperjesi’s run-scoring single for an 11-5 lead.

But Connellsville surged in a four-run eighth as Domer singled, Craft and Keslar walked, Sam Beucher singled two runs in, and Dye singled to drive in two more runs to cut the deficit to 11-9.

In the top half of the ninth, Steve O’Donnell singled and was balked to second base by relief pitcher Mason Fordyce. Domer doubled in O’Donnell, and Popovich brought in ace pitcher Ethan Mildren to face Keslar one out later. Keslar came through with a double to right center field to tie the game.

In the Uniontown ninth, Nick Forsythe was hit by a pitch and stole second base. Lancaster singled, but Forsythe was cut down trying to score on perfect relay throws from Craft to Greg Welsh, to catcher Ty Williams as Lancaster took second base.

Tupta was intentionally walked and both runners advanced to scoring position on a wild pitch. After Eperjesi walked, Dascenzo drove in Lancaster with a deep single to left center field to end the game.

Afterward, Przybylinski looked like a man who was anxious to get to the second game of the series at 4 p.m. today at Connellsville.

“These kids don’t know the meaning of the word quit,” he said. “They could have laid down after the first inning.” Of Keslar’s big hit in the ninth inning, he said, “Keslar hits Mildren every time he faces him. I think he’s three-for-four.”

He said Keslar’s first pitching performance had the Uniontown batters off balance. “He did a fantastic job and gave us a chance to win.”

Popovich said, “We expected Connellsville to try to come in here and whip us. They could have been down when we scored six runs in the first inning off their MVP pitcher (Molinaro).”

He praised Clifford’s pitching performance in giving up five runs to Connellsville’s potent offense. “He gave us seven great innings. But we knew the game wouldn’t be over until the last out.”