May 19, 2026 By Chris Dugan 4 min read

McMURRAY – The Fort Cherry High School baseball team’s potent lineup was late getting started Monday night in the WPIAL Class 2A quarterfinals.

The reason for that was the Rangers’ game against section rival California began 50 minutes after its scheduled starting time because a Class A contest, matching Western Beaver and Bishop Canevin and played earlier on the same field, ran long.

Once the Rangers did get on the turf at Joe Maize Field in Peterswood Park, they didn’t take long to put together a third win this season over California.

Tyler Wolfe homered, Blake Sweder drove in four runs and Fort Cherry generated a pair of five-run innings as the top-seeded Rangers defeated California, 11-7.

Fort Cherry (17-1) advances to today’s semifinals against fourth-seeded Riverview, a 4-2 winner over Laurel.

Fort Cherry defeated California twice during the regular season – the second game going extra innings following a late comeback by the Rangers – to win the Section 1 title.

“California is a good team, so I feel very good about us beating them three times,” Fort Cherry coach Bob Sawhill said. “California is well-coached and they knew what to do at all times.”

This time, California (13-7) scored first. The Trojans took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Kaden Weston hit a one-out single down the left-field line off Fort Cherry starter Dylan Lueck, and Logan Hartley followed with a bloop single into shallow left centerfield.

Weston scored when Chase Shemansky hit a two-out fly ball that fell in right field for an RBI single.

Lueck, despite giving up two unearned runs in the fourth inning, was good from the start until he left with two outs in the seventh inning. Three times he retired California in order. He exited after 6⅔ innings. He gave up five hits and walked one. Lueck struck out five.

“The biggest thing with Dylan is he throws strikes,” Sawhill said. “And he’s not at all afraid to throw strikes. He can throw his fastball for a strike. He can throw his curveball for a strike. Some guys can throw it 900 mph, but they can’t throw strikes.”

Fort Cherry tied it in the second inning when Wolfe, the Rangers’ third baseman, hit a solo home run to left field off California starter Weston Monticelli.

The Rangers took advantage of two walks and four hits to score five times in the bottom of the third. Ben Demascal had a run-scoring single to left field, Blake Sweder, the only senior in the Fort Cherry lineup, laced a two-run single to right field and Wolfe hit a two-run double that one-hopped the fence in left centerfield.

California, aided by two Fort Cherry errors, closed to within 6-3 in the fourth. Eli Carpenter, who walked, scored on a safety squeeze by Parker Gillen. Chase Shemansky crossed home plate on a two-out Rangers throwing error.

After his team defeated Freedom in the first round of the playoffs, California coach Jason Rechichar talked about how the Trojans must play a “flawless” game in order to beat Fort Cherry. The Trojans, however, weren’t clean.

Fort Cherry scored five unearned insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. A walk, sacrifice bunt, error and stolen base put runners on second and third with one out. With the California infield playing back, Trnavsky grounded out to first base, allowing courtesy runner Kolton Smith to score.

At that point, Logan Hartley replaced Monticelli on the mound because the latter reached the 105-pitch limit. Ben Demascal greeted Hartley with an RBI single through the left side of the infield, scoring Nathan Wolfe and making it 8-4.

Sweder added a two-run single up the middle and Ryan Huey stole home in a first-and-third situation for the Rangers’ final run.

California, looking for a Fort Cherry-like comeback, scored four runs, on a bases-loaded walk and a balk plus a two-run single by Eli Carpenter, in the seventh inning.

“It isn’t how pretty they are, it’s what they can do for you,” Sawhill said about the win. “Getting the five runs early was big.”