Four teams eliminated from baseball playoffs

Peters Township, South Fayette, Upper St. Clair and Chartiers Valley were all knocked out of the WPIAL baseball playoffs to end their successful seasons on a sour note.
Peters Township suffered a bitter lose to Penn-Trafford, 4-2, on May 22 at West Mifflin. Trailing 3-1, Jack Lutte tagged what appeared to be a two-run homer but the umpires ruled the ball foul. Lutte would eventually strike out during the at-bat.
“Maybe things would have been a bit different had that gone our way, but as I told my kids, ‘You know what? We can’t do anything to change that,'” Peters Township coach Rocky Plassio said. “We don’t want to leave games in the hands of the officials, and we got to do our best to overcome that so that becomes a moot point.”
Jack Natili did his best to overcome the situation and put the Indians back in the game by tagging a double that scored Steve Laurence, who had reached base on an error.
A Rutgers recruit, Natili smacked two doubles in the game to finish 2-for-3 in the game.
The Warriors, however, tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth. They scored single tallies also in the first, third and fourth. A hit batsman ignited a two-out rally in the initial inning and walks came back to haunt the Indians in the third and fourth.
Dillon Grabowski made the most of his plate appearances, scoring twice after reaching base on the hit batsman and a walk and driving in a run on a sacrifice fly. Peyton Bigler drove home Brady Lane with the winning run in the fifth and Carmen Metcalfe’s sacrifice fly to center scored Grabowski with the insurance run in the fifth.
Peters Township scored it’s other run in the third. Luke Scott singled, advanced to second on a balk and to third on a bunt before scoring on a sacrifice fly to center field by Laurence.
Nolan Marasti struck out seven and scattered seven hits before being lifted after the sixth because he had thrown 102 pitches. Evan Del Signore put the Indians down 1-2-3 in the seventh as Penn-Trafford improved to 15-5 and advanced to the semifinals to face Bethel Park (16-4).
In addition to Natili’s two hits, Joey Bedillion socked two singles. Carter Shanafelt had the other base hit for the Indians, who finished the season at 14-7 overall.
Zach Miner pitched four frames for the Indians, striking out one and walking there before yielding to reliever Vince Sarcone.
In other Class 5A quarterfinal action, South Fayette succumbed to Plum, 5-4, at Gateway High School.
Despite falling behind, 2-0, the Lions roared back to take a 4-2 lead in the fourth. Three runs by the Mustangs in the bottom of the frame changed victory to defeat for the Lions.
Tyler Pitzer had two hits, including a two-run single for the Lions in the fourth. A senior, Pitzer will pitch at South Carolina next fall.
The Lions finished 16-6 overall while the Mustangs improved to 15-7 and faced top-seeded Shaler in the semifinals.
Upper St. Clair (10-12) ended its 2023 campaign after being shut out by Bethel Park, 6-0, at Peterswood Park. It was the third time this spring the Panthers had lost to the Black Hawks.
Kent State recruit single-handedly dispatched the Panthers. He tagged a two-run homer at the plate. On the mound, he scattered five hits and fanned nine batters.
Additionally, Dom Magnotti and Mike Bruckner tagged doubles for the Black Hawks (16-4) while Ray Altmeyer and Jason Nuttridge drove home runs with two-out base hits.
In a Class 4A game also played at Gateway, Chartiers Valley dropped a 4-2 decision to Latrobe (16-6).
Tyler Zallenick doubled for the Colts, who finished 14-7 overall. He also combined with Brandon Cruz on the mound but the Colts were plagued by four fielding errors in the loss and the two-hit performances by Eli Boring and Riley Smith.