Bethel Park sweeps Trinity with WPIAL quarterfinal win
For the third time this spring, Bethel Park defeated Trinity in baseball, but an 11-1 triumph on May 21 at Boyce Mayview Park was the biggest as it advanced the Hawks to the WPIAL Class 5A semifinals for the fourth year in a row.
The Hawks battled No. 1-seeded West Allegheny for the right to participate in the WPIAL championships set for May 28-29 at Wild Things Park in Washington. Results of the game played at 6 p.m. on May 22 were unavailable for publication in this edition of The Almanac.
In winning the Section 2 banner, Bethel Park dispatched the Hillers twice, winning 11-1 at home and 6-4 on the road. The Hawks entered the postseason as the No. 4 seed while the Hillers needed an extra-inning upset over Plum to advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Trinity finished 9-9 overall while Bethel Park improved to 14-6-1. The Hawks took a four-game winning streak into the semifinals. They had won 7 of their last 8 contests, including the three against the Hillers.
In the quarterfinal triumph, Santino Diulus shone on the mound. He scattered two hits, singles by Mekhi Bouman in the fifth and Jonah Williamson in the sixth while striking out seven. He walked one and hit three batters.
“Their pitcher threw a heck of a game,” said Trinity manager Jon Stack. “He did a great job keeping us off balance.”
Diulus had plenty of support offensively as the Hawks tagged 15 hits against three Trinity pitchers, including Jacob Rieg, Jackson Burt and Zachary Schrader. All three are underclassmen.
Every BP player in the starting lineup had at least one hit. The top of the lineup went 6-for-9, with six runs and three RBI. The heart of the lineup, batters No. 4, 5, and 6, went 5-for-10 with three runs and six RBI.
“They are a good team but I don’t know if there are too many teams that we would not put up a performance like this against,” said Bethel Park head coach Patrick Zehnder.
Ryan Petras and Dylan Paul led the offensive attack. They each tagged three singles. A junior shortstop, Petras drove in a run. The designated hitter, Paul drove in three runs, two in the first frame and one in the fourth.
Catcher Ethan Stanhoff went 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBI while first baseman Noah LeJeune clubbed two doubles and drove in two runs.
Jack Bruckner tagged a double and a single while Mike Bruckner smacked a two-run single in the fourth. Ben Lentz and Diulus also had hits in the win.
Ryan Tierney, who doubled and walked in his plate appearances, excelled in the outfield. The senior center fielder had four putouts, including two circus grabs at the end of the third and start of the fourth frames.
The WPIAL Class 5A championship game has been set for 7 p.m. May 28 at Wild Things Park in Washington. The consolation game between the two teams that lost in the semifinals will battle at 6:30 p.m. May 29 at Ross Memorial Park in Washington for the final PIAA playoff berth.