Chartiers Valley wins first WPIAL baseball title
Chartiers Valley players celebrate after being awarded with their medals and trophy for winning the WPIAL Class AAA title in baseball.
Brady Gulakowski is all smiles after slugging a two-run homer that lifted the Colts into the lead against Blackhawk.
Cole Horew rears back and delivers a pitch to the plate. The senior struck out seven and scattered seven hits in recording his seventh win of the season.
Cole Horew receives congratulations from manager Jim Jaskowski after pitching Chartiers Valley to victory over Blackhawk, 4-3, in the WPIAL Class AAA final.
Chartiers Valley captains accept the WPIAL trophy after the Colts’ 4-3 victory against Blackhawk.
Brady Gulakowski (left) congratulates Konnor Corchado (center) as Dante Panucci celebrates. Corchado tagged a triple and later scored the game-winning run in CV’s 4-3 victory against Blackhawk.
Eddie Flohr connects for a hit during WPIAL Class AAA baseball action.
Before Chartiers Valley captured its first WPIAL baseball championship on May 31 at Consol Energy Park in Washington, head coach Jim Jakowski instructed his players to disregard the past and “live in the moment.”
During the Colts’ 4-3 triumph against highly-favored Blackhawk (18-5) in the Class AAA final, nobody did that better than Steve Alauzen. The sophomore, who struck out for the final out in last year’s semifinal playoff loss to West Allegheny, smacked the game-winning single against the Cougars.
“You have to not let things like that bother you,” Alauzen said about the 2015 strikeout. “You have to have a ‘so what, now what’ mentality. Just that experience helped a lot. Experience gives you a lot of confidence at the plate.
“You can’t let adversity get you down and as a team, we didn’t let it hurt us,” he said. “We rallied and we stuck together.”
Although the Colts stumbled into the playoffs, losing four of their last five regular season games, they regrouped by posting wins against Belle Vernon, 6-4; Laurel Highlands, 2-1; and Mars, 6-1.
Then came Blackhawk, which was making its eighth championship appearance.
“This is a hard tournament to win,” said Jaskowski, who pitched Bethel Park to success in the early 1990s but never to a WPIAL title before excelling at Penn State. “I am so happy for my guys, especially those sophomores at the bottom of the lineup. They have come through all year and they were huge for us. I cannot give them enough credit.”
Alauzen and Jaskowski credit Konnor Corchado. In the bottom of the sixth, the sophomore tagged a triple before Alauzen strolled to the plate for his RBI single. Corchado’s three-bagger scored Cole Horew with the tying tally. Horew had reached base on a single, moved to second on Joe Sibeto’s sacrifice and advanced to third on a fly out by Tristen Zimmer.
“I was going for an inside-the-parker,” Corchado said. “I saw it get in the gap, and I was just running. I wasn’t stopping until they told me to stop.”
Neither was Horew stopping. CV’s ace went the distance, scattering seven hits and striking out seven, including one for the final out of the game. Horew walked none.
“Cole’s pitch count was moderate and he wasn’t huffing and puffing,” Jaskowski explained. “He’s prepared for this all his life. He got strikes on a lot of his first pitches all game and did well. We relied on him all year and he on us.”
Horew, who improved to 7-1 overall, and the Colts relied on their seniors early. While Horew hummed along with a no-hitter through four frames, Brady Gulakowski snapped the scoreless contest with a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth. With two outs and sophomore Zack Pilossoph on base with a single, Gulakowski drilled a Mark Engel pitch out of the park.
“I knew it was gone,” Gulakowski said. “It’s the greatest feeling. I’ve dreamed of this ever since I was a freshman. To get this title,” said the senior, “is unbelievable.”
Horew agreed. He noted that each of the players have worked throughout the winter for this championship, the school’s first in baseball. “We made our minds up back then,” said the Point Park recruit. “We just kept getting better and better. We battled with a sense of urgency. We all did our part. It wasn’t just me. I couldn’t have done this without my teammates. It was a great team effort. There’s no better feeling than that, especially when all the hard work pays off.”
For much of the game, it appeared as if defense would pay off for Blackhawk, as the Cougars squashed two CV uprisings with inning-ending double plays. Dante Pannucci doubled; Horew reached base on an error; and Joe Sibeto walked to load the bases in the first frame. In the third, Eddie Flohr and Pannucci both singled, but the rally also ended in a double play.
The Cougars scored all three of their runs in the top of the sixth to take a brief lead, 3-2. The Robinson brothers, Tyler and Adam, singled. Michael Turconi knocked in a run with a base hit, and Engel drove in two runs with a single up the middle.
“It gets to you a little,” said Gulakowski of Blackhawk’s rally that resulted in the lead shift, “but we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game. We expected this. We realized if we played our game, we could do anything we wanted. We had confidence we could come back and win.”
With the memory of the WPIAL title behind them, the Colts prepare for the PIAA tournament. CV plays its first-round game June 6 at a site and time to be determined.
“This is something they have prepared for and they will remember it for all their lives,” Jaskowski said. “But now we get ready for states.”