May 14, 2013 By Stephen Flinn for The 4 min read

BRIDGEVILLE — Jefferson-Morgan had the winning run on base in the bottom of the seventh inning, but was not able to score and fell 6-5 to Western Beaver Monday afternoon in the first round of the WPIAL Class A baseball playoffs at Chartiers Valley High School.

“We had a chance to win the ball game in the last inning with the winning run on first base and one out, but we just came up a little bit short,” Rockets head coach John Curtis said. “I’m really proud of our guys. Give Western Beaver credit. They got the lead and kept it.”

Jefferson-Morgan (11-5) fell behind 2-1 in the first inning. The Golden Beavers (15-2) extended their lead to 6-2 in the second inning, chasing starting pitcher Austin Clark in the process. The Rockets did not give up though, scoring three runs in the fifth and one run in the seventh, but it was not enough.

“We got down a lot of runs early, but we never gave up,” Curtis said “We kept chipping away with a run here and there. We gave it all the effort we had.”

Western Beaver struck right away with two runs in the first inning. Lead-off batter Tracy Brozich walked and went to third on a Robert DiMaggio double. John Petrosky singled in both of them to give the Golden Beavers a 2-0 lead before Jefferson-Morgan came to the plate.

The Rockets got one run back in the bottom of the first after Logan Bowman singled, went to second on a walk to Ty Bowman, and Dom Gage singled in Logan Bowman.

The Golden Beavers blew the game open in the top of the second with a four-run outburst as eight batters came to the plate.

Robert Ranone reached on an outfield error. Austin Allison singled, and then Borzich singled in Ranone. Nick Miller singled in Allison. DiMaggio scored on an error on a steal attempt of second base by Miller when no one covered the base, and Steve Menich hit a sacrifice fly to center that drove in Miller.

Logan Bowman relieved Clark and retired the side. He stayed in the game, and gave up only four hits and no runs the rest of the way.

“We brought in Logan Bowman with guys on base and he didn’t give up a run,” Curtis said. “He kept us in the ball game by recording outs.”

The Rockets closed the gap to 6-4 in the fifth inning by scoring three runs off relief pitcher Steve Robison as starting pitcher Nick Miller only pitched the first three innings. Miller gave up one run, but pitched a scoreless second and third, striking out a batter in each inning.

Dylan Davis singled and Travis Taylor walked. Jordan Dicks singled home Davis, and Logan Bowman drove home Taylor with a sacrifice fly to center field. Cage capped the rally when he singled home Dicks.

Jefferson-Morgan threatened in the bottom of the seventh after Dicks hit a lead-off single and Logan Bowman singled. Dicks scored on an error after the third baseman bobbled a Ty Bowman hit. The Rockets stalled with the tying and winning run on base, though as Cage struck out and Josh Bissett grounded to second to end the game. Menich recorded the save.

“Dom (Cage) had a good day at the plate. Only if he would have just had one more hit,” Curtis said. “They wouldn’t throw him any fastballs in the last inning and he couldn’t hit that curve ball.”

Cage is joined by Tyler Bowman, Dicks, and Taylor as the four seniors on the team. Curtis credited them after the game for their contribution to the team.

“We’ll miss those guys,” Curtis said. “They’ve been with the program for four years.”

Overall, Curtis felt the Rockets had a good season and he is looking forward to returning next year.

“We played well against the good teams. We beat California once, we took Carmichaels to extra innings, and we won the games we were supposed to win,” Curtis said. “A lot of our young guys progressed. I told them to remember this taste in their mouth right now, and to work hard this summer and come back next year with a good attitude and ready to go.”

Western Beaver will advance to play the winner of the Carmichaels-Frazier game.