May 21, 2018 By Adam Brewer for The 3 min read

NORTH FRANKLIN TWP. — The Carmichaels’ bullpen gave up 11 runs over the final two innings, as Shenango took full advantage of all the pitching miscues in a 15-7 victory Monday night in the WPIAL Class AA quarterfinals at Washington & Jefferson’s Ross Memorial Park.

The Mikes (11-6) failed to win a playoff game for the third straight year, with their last postseason win in the first round against Sewickley Academy in 2015.

“We didn’t pitch well tonight,” Carmichaels coach Dickie Krause said. “Besides allowing the 15 hits, we walked eight guys and had a couple of defensive errors. This loss hurts and I know it hurts the kids. Our bullpen has struggled these last two weeks.”

The Wildcats (14-7) will now play top-seeded Serra Catholic on Tuesday at Ross Memorial Field at 7 p.m.

Ryan Perretti picked up the win for Shenango, going five innings and registering six strikeouts. Jacob Merkel and Marcus Fuller both pitched an inning of relief for the fifth-seeded Wildcats.

Matthew Barrish suffered the loss after only needing 12 pitches to get through the first two innings of play. The junior left-hander pitched 5.2 innings and allowed nine runs on 11 hits with three strikeouts and three walks on 90 pitches.

“Matt gave us a solid outing,” Krause said. “He was lights out in the opening four innings. He gave us a good start, but a couple of errors and walks increased his pitch count. He got tired and we had two outs in the sixth, but then they reached base seven straight times. That opened up the game for Shenango.”

After both teams were held scoreless in the opening two innings, Shenango went up 2-0 after a pair of runs scored on a throwing error in the third.

Carmichaels trimmed the deficit to 2-1 when Gavin Pratt scored on a sacrifice fly by Barrish.

Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth, the Mikes cut the Wildcats’ lead down after a RBI double by Pratt.

After Shenango posted five runs in the top of the sixth, Carmichaels countered with five runs of its own and trailed 9-7.

Nathan Broadwater stroked a two-run single in the inning for the Mikes. Chad Ruse was issued a bases-loaded walk, Logan Mayhle scored on an infield error and Al Cree registered a RBI ground out.

Carmichaels bullpen couldn’t get out of the seventh without allowing further damage, however, as Shenango sent 10 batters to the plate and scored six runs on four hits.

The Mikes went down in order in the seventh inning.

Pratt collected three of Carmichaels’ five hits in the loss.

“Gavin has really come on the last couple of weeks,” Krause said. “He gave us some good at-bats and was very aggressive with his swings. It seems like with Gavin, bigger the stage and better the pitcher makes him better. He was our offense tonight.”

Despite the loss, Carmichaels will return a core of its roster back, losing only three seniors.

“We had a lot of goals this season,” Krause said. “Our first goal was to compete with the likes of California and Chartiters-Houston in our section. The next goal was to win our section. We did that and we had a solid regular season. Our other goal was to win in the playoffs, and unfortunately, that didn’t happen for us this year.”