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Mt. Lebanon beats Spring Ford in PIAA quarterfinals

By Eleanor Bailey almanac Sports Editor ebailey@thealmanac.Net 7 min read
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Photos: Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

Mt. Lebanon players rush to congratulate Jake Tinnemeyer (17) after his two-run homer propelled them into the PIAA semifinals with a 5-2 victory over Spring-Ford.

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Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

Brock Stacy creates a cloud of dust as he slips into home plate on Tanner Donati’s sacrifice fly to center field during Mt. Lebanon’s 5-2 victory over Spring-Ford in the PIAA Class 6A baseball playoffs.

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Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

Nolan Smith slips back safely into first base during PIAA Class 6A playoff action.

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Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

Jake Tinnemeyer makes contact for an RBI single in the second inning of Mt. Lebanon’s 5-2 win against Spring Ford in the PIAA baseball playoffs.

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Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

Nate Girod prepares to apply the tag on Jake Witmer in the fourth frame of Mt. Lebanon’s 5-2 win against Spring Ford.

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Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

David Shields brings the heat to the plate during PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal playoff action. Shields struck out 12 batters before exiting in the eighth inning because of pitch limits. In the background, third baseman Jake Tinnemeyer smacked a two-run home to spearhead Mt. Lebanon’s win against Spring Ford, 5-2.

Shields sets strikeout standard With his 12 strikeouts in Mt. Lebanon’s 5-2 win against Spring-Ford in the PIAA quarterfinals, David Shields broke the school’s single-season strikeout record set by Josh Wilson in 1998. Shields has 98 Ks this spring. “David was awesome,” said Lebo manager Patt McCloskey. “That is one of the best line-ups we have seen all year and he got stronger as the game went on. We made a couple of miscues and gave them a couple of chances but he refused to be mentally defeated when adversity came. You are playing to go to the state final four and you have a kid that guts out 105 pitches. How can you say that is anything but a leader right there.” Jake Tinnemeyer, who smacked a two-run homer to highlight Lebo’s extra-inning win, agreed on the junior southpaw’s value to the team. “All season, he has pitched phenomenally. He’s led our team to where it’s been,” he said. “We could not have done this without him.”

Jake Tinnemeyer picked the perfect time to drive a fastball over the fence.

In the top of the ninth inning, Tinnemeyer tagged a two-run homer to lift Mt. Lebanon to victory, 5-2, over Spring-Ford (22-4) in a PIAA quarterfinal baseball playoff game at Big Spring High School in Newville.

The four-bagger was the first home run of the season for Lebo’s No. 8 hitter and third baseman.

“I’ve hit a few off the fence and come short a few other times but this was the first,” Tinnemeyer said. “It felt great. It’s moments like this and winning the WPIAL title that makes all the off-season work worth it. These moments are special.”

The roundtripper was even more significant because Tinnemeyer was tasking with moving Nate Girod closer to home plate for the game-winning run by bunting. Girod led off the top of the nine with a walk and advanced to second on a pass ball.

“The entire plan was to get a runner on third base so Brett Hamel could drive him in with contact,” explained Lebo manager Patt McCloskey.

“Baseball is a funny game and Jake has had some huge hits and he has driven the ball but recently bunts have worked really well for us. We were looking for our best chance to score so we wanted to bunt,” explained McCloskey. “We didn’t need that though as Jake just pounded that baseball.

When Tinnemeyer pushed the count to 3-1, McCloskey abandoned the strategy. He allowed Tinnemeyer to swing away.

“The home run was awesome,” McCloskey said. “That is just being mentally tough. Jake got a fastball and absolutely crushed it. My hat is off to him not just for what he did physically but for how he stayed mentally in the moment and competed.”

Paying attention during pre-game practice enabled Tinnemeyer to pulverize Brennan McVey’s fastball over the left field fence.

“The one pitch that I wasn’t squared around for and I saw the way he was throwing his curveball in warmups so I knew the fastball was coming there. I was looking for any fastball over the plate to drive it.”

Tinnemeyer’s teammates were rooting for him to crank it.

“Everybody in the dugout was hoping he messed up these bunts so that he could actually swing and sure enough he hits it,” said David Shields. “I still can’t believe it. It was amazing to watch.

“Jake is such a strong kid,” Shields added. “When it’s in the air, you know that it’s going to be gone. Everybody went crazy when it happened.”

The Blue Devils nearly lost their sanity in the bottom of the seventh stanza. They were an out away from winning the game when they committed a costly error. After Nick Flores doubled to center, he swiped third. On the errant throw, Flores scored the equalizer, 2-2.

Shields, who had struck out the side and finished with 12 strikeouts, was at 98 pitches. He got the first two outs in the eighth before being forced to yield to Owen Mitchell.

“I was in shock to be honest,” Shields said of the miscue. “Everybody makes mistakes but we usually don’t do that. It was unbelievable that we were able to come out with the win.

“We all believed in ourselves though,” he added. “We felt we could win this thing.”

With Tinnemeyer in the line-up and Shields humming on the mound, the Blue Devils took the early lead. In the top of the second, Shields and Nate Girod walked before Tinnemeyer tagged a run-scoring single.

“I was seeing the ball well. I’d seen a fastball but it was at a weird angle so I was ready for another to come in and I looked to put something up the middle and that is what I did,” Tinnemeyer said.

“Jake has done some really good things driving in runs for us,” McCloskey said.

Spring-Ford tied the game, 1-1, in the bottom of the third. Gage Swanger reached base on an error, moved to second on a bunt and scored on David Ruckman’s double to center.

Lebo edged ahead in the seventh. Brock Stacy singled and Girod reached base on a successful bunt. After Hamel singled to load the bases, Tanner Donati tagged a sacrifice fly to center.

After Tinnemeyer’s heroics, Lebo tacked on an insurance run. With two out, Tyler Smith singled and scored on Matt Delvaux’s double.

With the win, Lebo improved to 15-10 overall. The Blue Devils have won 15 of their last 17 games since starting the season 0-8.

“We knew our talent all along,” Tinnemeyer said. “It took us a minute to figure out how to play together. Throughout the season we got tight with each other, and we learned how to have fun with it, too, Tinnemeyer.”

“Once we figured out how to have fun with it and go out and play loosely. We have been a tough team to beat.”

The Blue Devils look to battle Cedar Cliff in the PIAA semifinals set for June 15 at 4:30 p.m. at Mt. Aloysius College in Cresson. The Colts defeated North Allegheny, 3-1, in their quarterfinal contest. NA finished runner-up to Lebo in the WPIAL.

“It’s been a cool, great run where we have been having a lot of fun,” Tinnemeyer said. “We are ready to play anybody. We really, really want to continue and win a state championship.”

The Blue Devils have one PIAA baseball title in school history, having won in 1998. A win against Cedar Cliff would put them in the finals set for 4:30 p.m. June 17 at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park on the Penn State University campus.

With his 12 strikeouts in Mt. Lebanon’s 5-2 win against Spring-Ford in the PIAA quarterfinals, David Shields broke the school’s single-season strikeout record set by Josh Wilson in 1998. Shields has 98 Ks this spring.

“David was awesome,” said Lebo manager Patt McCloskey. “That is one of the best line-ups we have seen all year and he got stronger as the game went on. We made a couple of miscues and gave them a couple of chances but he refused to be mentally defeated when adversity came. You are playing to go to the state final four and you have a kid that guts out 105 pitches. How can you say that is anything but a leader right there.”

Jake Tinnemeyer, who smacked a two-run homer to highlight Lebo’s extra-inning win, agreed on the junior southpaw’s value to the team.

“All season, he has pitched phenomenally. He’s led our team to where it’s been,” he said. “We could not have done this without him.”

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