Turconi pitches Blackhawk into regional final
Michael Turconi pitched nine innings of stellar baseball and his Blackhawk teammates provided enough offense for a 5-0 victory over Uniontown Wednesday afternoon in the loser’s bracket final of the Pennsylvania American Legion Baseball Region 6 championship tournament at Hutchinson Field in Hopwood.
Blackhawk played Ambridge-Baden in the title game Wednesday evening with the winner advancing to the state tournament.
Turconi gave Uniontown hitters fits throughout the lineup, allowing just three hits and two walks. He struck out 13.
“Turconi was awesome,” said Blackhawk manager Bob Amalia. “Our catcher (John Malagese) was outstanding.”
“You can’t take anything away from the effort from Turconi. We ran into a good Division I pitcher,” Uniontown manager Brad Yohman of the Wake Forest recruit.
Blackhawk scored single runs in the bottom of the first, fifth and seventh innings, and two in the sixth.
Blackhawk’s first run came about when Zach Zachelli walked with one out, advanced to second with two outs after an infield ground ball was mishandled and scored on the first of two John Nixon RBI singles.
Uhazie kept Blackhawk off the scoreboard over the next three innings, stranding a runner in both the third and fourth innings. He struck out three over the three innings.
Uniontown had the leadoff hitter on in both the first and second innings.
Troy Kifer led off the game with a single, but was left there after a failed sacrifice bunt and two strikeouts. Ian Edenfield walked to open the second, but two strikeouts and a pop fly to shortstop closed the threat.
Uniontown threatened again in the third inning when Kifer singled with one out and Sankovich followed with a single to right field.
But, Kifer broke too early and was caught in a 1-4-5-6 rundown for the second out. Hudson Novak went down swinging to strand Sankovich at second base.
Nixon’s second run-scoring single in the fifth gave Blackhawk a 2-0 lead.
Blackhawk gave Turconi more than enough cushion with two runs in the sixth. Malagese singled to open the inning, advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on Carson Gray’s sacrifice bunt.
Trent Michael’s squeeze bunt was mishandled, allowing Malagese to score. Tyler Robinson then ripped a pitch to the left field corner for a run-scoring triple.
Zuchelli’s attempt at another squeeze bunt was successfully fielded by Uhazie, whose throw to catcher Chad Petrush was in time to get Robinson.
Blackhawk closed the scoring in the seventh when Jared Woodward launched a ball off the scoreboard in left field for a solo home run.
“We got the clutch hits. That’s what you have to do,” said Amalia, who coaches the Blackhawk High School baseball team.
Amalia also acknowledged the play of Uniontown, adding, “Uniontown does an awesome job. The do the fundamental things.”
Uniontown’s Derek Gaisbauer was safe on an error to start the fourth inning, but Turconi then retired the 18 of the final 19 batters to preserve the shutout. Edenfield was the only Uniontown hitter to reach in that stretch when he worked Turconi for a walk to lead off the seventh inning.
Uniontown had a couple of poor fundamental plays, something Yohman said can’t happen in a regional tournament.
“These kind of games, at this level, when you’re as sound as Blackhawk, one mental mistake can cost you a game,” explained Yohman. “There were too many plays that went Blackhawk’s way. The little small ball plays, Blackhawk executed and we didn’t.”
“We couldn’t execute and it cost us.”
Yohman said Uhazie’s experience on the mound kept things close. Blackhawk stranded nine runners.
“It’s a testament to Zach. He’s good at working out of jams. He never gets rattled,” praised Yohman.
Uniontown (30-5) will have one more game later this week against Colonial 3 to determine the league champion, but the state playoff run ended for six players.
“Zach (Uhazie), Troy (Kifer), Luke (Paull), Luke (Boyle), Hudson (Novak), and Derek (Gaisbauer) graduate from our program. It was a pretty emotional final game on their home field,” said Yohman. “I’m thankful to have all six guys. I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids.
“They set the bar high.”