Seton-La Salle knocks off Deer Lakes
Seton-La Salle edged Deer Lakes, 3-2, and advanced to the WPIAL Class AA baseball championship game against Steel Valley (18-2). The finals were set for May 27 at Consol Energy Park in Washington.
The Rebels knocked off the Lakers (15-5) in the eighth inning. Kevin Curran tagged the key hit. His single scored Nico Popa from second base with the decisive run.
Though the Rebels trailed by a run they knotted the game in the seventh. Matt Reinmund scored the equalizer on a sacrifice fly by Danzel McKinley-Lewis.
Popa earned the win in relief of David Boehme. Boehme tossed seven innings, surrendering one earned run, before yielding to Popa.
With the win, SLS improved to 15-5 overall.
The script proved successful for the Rebels in their quarterfinal contest as they knocked off top-seeded Neshannock, 3-2, in nine innings. Liam Sweeney drove in the game-winner with a base hit.
The Ironmen reached the WPIAL finals by topping Quaker Valley, 1-0, also at Fox Chapel. The Quakers were seeded No. 2 in the tournament.
Derek Morrison singled in the sixth to drive in the winning run for Steel Valley, which improved to 17-2 overall. The Ironmen are the No. 3 seed in Class AA.
Brandon Donovan and Morrison are the Ironmen’s aces.
Against the Quakers, Donovan carried a no-hitter into the sixth stanza. He retired the first 11 batters in the game. He struck out 10 to bring his playoff total to 23.
Meanwhile, Morrison was 5-0 during the regular season with 43 strikeouts.
Boehme has been SLS’s top hitter. During the regular season, he ranked No. 11 in the WPIAL with a .528 average. Matt Wilke batted .474.
Keystone Oaks as well as Seton-La Salle’s dreams of softball championships were dashed in the WPIAL semifinals.
While undefeated Beaver edged the Golden Eagles, 2-1, in extra innings, defending Class AA champion, Deer Lakes thumped the Rebels, 10-1.
In the loss to the Bobcats, freshman pitcher Lauren McMillan struck out five and scattered six hits, including two by Tayven Rouseau.
Casey Farkasovsky fan-ned 10 batters in recording the win for the Bobcats, who also scored in the fourth frame when Jada Justice singled to drive home Ashley Kondracki. KO scored its lone run in the sixth.
Though the Rebels jumped ahead, 1-0, in the first frame, Deer Lakes exploded for 12 hits and scored multiple runs in the third, fifth and seventh stanzas. The Lakers notched five runs in the seventh.
Tiffany Edwards limited the SLS bats to five hits.
The season, however, was not over for one of the local clubs. KO and SLS battled each other last night (May 27) at North Allegheny for the final berth in the PIAA Class AA softball tournament. The state championships begin June 1.