Waynesburg tops Washington, 12-7
WAYNESBURG — In their Section 2-AA opener, the Waynesburg Central baseball team broke away from a 7-7 deadlock with five runs in the fifth for a 12-7 victory over Washington Wednesday at Meadowlark Park.
“This was a big game,” Waynesburg Central coach Scott VanSickle said. “Every section game is important and you have to hold your own at home. This is a tough section and I told the boys this game wasn’t going to make or break the section for us. We have a long road to go, but this was a good start for us.”
Hunter Robinson picked up the win on the rubber, dishing out 11 strikeouts and working around six free passes. Robinson only allowed two hits.
“I have my routine and I try not to get away from that,” Robinson said. “They have some good hitters. I was able to mix my pitches and got ahead of some counts with my off-speed stuff. You can’t over-power everybody, you have to mix your pitches.”
Brandon Turcheck threw the final two innings to preserve the win and ended the contest with back-to-back strikeouts in the top of the seventh.
“Hunter had a good game for us,” VanSickle said. “He could have finished the game if we didn’t make those early errors in the first. Hunter is our guy and when it’s a big game he is usually going to get the ball. I also liked the way Brandon was able to finish today. We have a lot of confidence in both of those guys.”
The Raiders (2-2, 1-0) will continue their section schedule on the road the next two days with trips to Brownsville today and to Frazier on Friday.
After Waynesburg chased starting pitcher Connor Bedillion in the first inning, Steven Shallcross kept the Prexies (1-2, 1-1) in the game until giving up five runs in the fifth. Kevin Patterson pitched a clean sixth inning for the visitors.
The Prexies took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, via three walks and three errors by the home team.
Trailing by three, the Raiders tied it at 3-3 on a sacrifice fly by Robinson, a RBI fielder’s choice by Nick Fox and a RBI base knock by Dalton Riggenbach.
After an infield error gave the Raiders another run, Waynesburg drew three straight bases loaded walks by Ryan Braun, Turcheck and Kyle Shriver for the four-run lead.
“We made some mental mistakes, but we were able to respond,” VanSickle said. “We’ve been talking a lot about internalizing things and keeping a short memory about things. Every inning we need to bring the same approach. I love the way we battled and worked some counts. We always want that balance on offense, one through nine.”
In the third inning, Washington’s Jarrell Dates tripled and later scored on a passed ball.
The Prexies knotted the contest at 7-7 in the fifth when Kurt Adkins laced a bases-clearing double with two outs.
The Raiders were quick to respond with five runs on five hits. Riggenbach and Turcheck garnered RBI singles, while Braun crossed home plate on a wild pitch. Robinson delivered the big hit in the fifth for Waynesburg with a two-run double to left-centerfield. The two-bagger was the Raiders only extra-base hit in the game.
“We have a really good offense,” Robinson said. “With the double, I was trying to just be patient and drive the ball. I worked the count and got my pitch. I drove it right to the outfield on a line and that was a big at-bat for us in that inning.”
Washington is off today and hosts Brownsville on Friday.