Belle Vernon evens series with Carmichaels
Holly Tonini
Carmichaels’ Reed Long (18) is safe sliding into second before Belle Vernon’s Josh Kucmeroski (9) can make the tag during Wednesday’s game at Wana B. Park in Carmichaels.
Carmichaels’ Keith Popernack fields the ball during Wednesday’s game against Belle Vernon at Wana B. Park in Carmichaels. (Photo by Holly Tonini)
Holly Tonini
Belle Vernon’s Matt Benicky (7) makes the catch to get Carmichaels’ Mike Blasinsky out during Wednesday’s game at Wana B. Park in Carmichaels.
Carmichaels’ Jason Dotts (9) bunts the ball successfully during Wednesday’s game against Belle Vernon at Wana B. Park in Carmichaels. (Photo by Holly Tonini)
Belle Vernon remained alive in the Fayette County American Legion Baseball League playoffs with a 9-2 victory at Carmichaels on Wednesday.
The wins evens their best-of-three quarterfinal series at 1-1.
The third and deciding game will be played today in Belle Vernon at 5:45 p.m. The winner will advance to the best-of-three semifinals, starting on Friday at either Uniontown or Connellsville.
Dylan Peitrantoni pitched a nine-inning complete game for Belle Vernon to earn the win. He allowed the two runs on 10 hits with two walks and 11 strikeouts.
Adam Holliday keyed a 14-hit Belle Vernon attack with a home run, double and single, while Josh Kucmeroski also had three hits, including a double.
The visitors also got two singles each from Jim Amorosa and Niko Tasser.
Belle Vernon jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first and added a run in the second before Carmichaels pushed across a pair of runs in the third to make it 3-2.
Belle Vernon pushed the lead up to 6-2 with a three-run fifth, then put the game away with two more in the seventh and one in the eighth.
Losing pitcher Josh Mundell gave up eight runs on 13 hits with three walks and six strikeouts in seven innings.
Carmichaels pounded out 10 hits but left a slew of runners on base.
Tyler Cole, Bill Bowlen and Joe Spishock had two hits apiece for the hosts.
“We just made too many mistakes,” Carmichaels manager Bill Blasinsky said. “We dropped fly ball in the first inning and were lucky to only give up two there.
“We left a ton of guys on base again. That’s the story of our season. We left the bases loaded once today and it seems like we do that once every game.”
Even so, Blasinksy is confident his team can turn its fortunes around to day in Belle Vernon.
“We have a two-game winning streak there,” said Blasinsky, which includes a 6-4 victory in Game 1 on Monday. “So we’ll try our luck there again tomorrow.”