Firepower!
Firestone earns win, save in Connellsville’s run to Region 6 title
ROSTRAVER TWP. — For a baseball pitcher to earn a win and a save on the same day is a rare occurrence, but Connellsville’s Matt Firestone accomplished the feat on Monday in the Senior Legion Region 6 Tournament at John DiVirgilio Sports Complex.
Firestone recorded the final six outs in Connellsville’s 2-1 victory over Belle Vernon (13-5) in the afternoon before throwing seven innings in a 9-1 triumph over Baden (10-9) in the evening championship game to lead Connellsville to the Region 6 Championship.
Connellsville (18-0) moves on to the Pennsylvania American Legion Baseball State Tournament, which begins Saturday at McDowell High School in the Erie suburb of Millcreek Township.
Connellsville will play its first game against the host team on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. The eight-team tournament is double elimination, and will run five consecutive days until the champion is crowned on July 30. The top two teams will advance to the Mid-Atlantic Tournament at Joe Cannon Stadium in Hanover, Md.
“I am so happy we are moving forward,” Connellsville coach Brian Sankovich said. “Baden played hard, and they had all the momentum in the world after beating Belle Vernon like they did. We knew they were going to give us a game, but our kids were up for the challenge.”
Connellsville’s game against Belle Vernon began Sunday evening, and Mason Miller pitched a solid five innings before the skies opened and the game was suspended in the bottom of the sixth inning due to inclement weather that resulted in poor field conditions.
Pitch-count rules prevented Miller from pitching on Monday, and even though Firestone had only toed the rubber once this season, the normal catcher was confident when Sankovich handed him the ball against Belle Vernon.
Firestone started the game against Belle Vernon behind the plate.
“I really didn’t think much about the magnitude of the game this morning when I got up,” Firestone said. “I just went through my normal routine, but our energy was definitely up when we got here. That gave me the confidence that I could shut them down.
“I caught the night before, so I had an idea of where to place the ball with all of Belle Vernon’s hitters. They couldn’t hit outside pitches, and I knew they would just roll over and hit ground balls.”
Firestone forced Belle Vernon batters to hit into four ground balls, a pop up to second base and a flyout to right field. He threw 15 pitches in his two innings of work, which loomed large for the championship game.
Kace Shearer made a diving catch in right field for the first out in the seventh inning and third baseman Noah Zawislan fired across the diamond to Gradin Hodge, who made a pick at first base for the second out of the frame.
“The guys behind me played great defense,” Firestone said.
Baden took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Connellsville scored four in the second and five in the sixth to take care of business in the championship.
Firestone allowed one unearned run on four hits over seven innings. He struck out seven and walked two, while throwing 86 pitches. Firestone had two hits and drove in three runs in the championship game.
Baden came up short, but the Beaver County team made a run following a 13-3 setback to Belle Vernon on Saturday. Baden earned a 7-0 victory over Blackhawk on Sunday before gaining revenge on Belle Vernon with a 7-0 win.
Joey Pugh was 2-0 in the tournament with a 3-1 win over Uniontown on Friday, and he was on the mound against Belle Vernon in Monday’s rematch. He allowed no runs on five hits over 11 innings with 15 strikeouts and two walks.
“I honestly felt like we had the pitching to compete with anybody, and we just came up a little bit short in the end,” Baden coach Richie Iorfido said. “A couple games before this game, we played flawlessly defensively and didn’t walk too many batters. We had a couple big errors in that one inning that led to four runs, and we should have been out of that inning up 1-0. That kind of killed us, but I am very proud of the guys.
“Joey is our ace, and I know when Joey is on the mound, we can beat anyone on any day. This is the last year for a lot of these guys, and it is sad to see them go, but I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Baden needed to defeat Connellsville twice to win the tournament due to the double-elimination format.
Alex VanSickle had three hits and drove in one run against Baden. Shearer doubled and had two RBIs. Grayden Gillott and Hunter Konieczny each had a hit and drove in a run.