HOMER CITY, Pa. – With a little help from Mother Nature and a lot of first-inning help from the South Allegheny defense, Punxsutawney is heading back to the PIAA Class 3A semifinals for the third consecutive year after a 4-1, five-inning, rain-shortened win over the Gladiators Thursday night at First Commonwealth Field in Homer City.
Rewatch the game
“(It is) an unbelievable job by the whole staff, the players, everybody bought in,” Punxsutawney manager Mike Dickey said. “These guys did the work from day one. They’ve stuck together. They believed in each other. We are on a mission. We are on a mission. It’s one at a time. (We are) halfway home.”
Even though the game is officially listed as a five-inning contest, it actually went 5 ½ innings with the Chucks (16-3) having been retired in order in the top of the sixth before the skies opened and the rains came just as Coy Martino finished his warmup pitches in the sixth.
After the rain subsided the grounds crew, with a major assist from the Punxsutawney coaching staff despite the fact that if the game was called it would benefit the Chucks, worked feverishly to get the field back in shape to continue the contest.
But just as things appeared to be headed towards a restart, the rains came again making the field unplayable and forcing the umpires to stop the game, which had gone official with the final out of the fifth inning, giving Punxsutawney the victory.
“It’s unfortunate it ended this way,” Dickey said. “But, you know what? We both played. We made more plays. We did just enough to win. At this point, it’s survive and advance, and we survived. And, we are still playing.”
Things might have gone differently for the Chucks if not for two major South Allegheny miscues in the first inning.
After Maddox Hetrick walked and Cooper Hallman reached on an infield single, Hetrick went to third on a Nevin Day flyout to right. Martino then walked to load the bases.
That’s when things went off the rails for South Allegheny (20-6), the third-place team out of the WPIAL making its first-ever appearance in the PIAA playoffs.
Parker Stahlman hit a grounder to first that first baseman Trenton Popovich bobbled with all hands safe and Punxsy taking a 1-0 lead. Stahlman got an RBI on the play.
Brody Stouffer then hit a comebacker just on front of the mound to the first-base side. But South Allegheny pitcher Adam Jackowski hurried his throw home and it went to the back stop with both Hallman’s courtesy runner, Lucas Silverstein, and Martino dashing home to make it 3-0.
Silverstein might have forced the issue by getting a tremendous jump off of third forcing Jackowski to perhaps hurry his throw home.
“That’s what you have to do, win the freebie war,” Dickey said. “They gave us some freebies, and we took advantage.”
Luke Miller followed Stouffer with an RBI groundout giving Punxsutawney a 4-0 lead.
That was pretty much all the damage the Chucks’ offense mustered against Jackowski, who preceded to retire 17 of the final 21 he faced (officially 14 of 18 because the sixth inning ended up not counting.
“We know who we are,” senior catcher Cooper Hallman, who was named the Allegheny Grille of Foxburg Player of the Game, said on the Cole Orthodontic Associates postgame interview. “We don’t hit homers or drive gaps. We play small ball when we are supposed to, (get) timely hits. We just always find a way, and we have been very fortunate so far.”
It didn’t matter that Punxsutawney’s offense went silent, though, because Day, with an assist from Martino, was able to keep the Gladiators off the board for the most part.
Day had far from his best stuff but showed a maturity well above being a sophomore battling his way out of a pair of bases-loaded jams to go 4 ⅓ innings of one-run ball to get the win.
He walked three after coming in having walked eight all year, and gave up five hits. But he also struck out five and got big outs when he needed them.
“Nevin is 30 times more mature than his age as a sophomore,” Hallman said. “You don’t even think of him as that. He has been unbelievable. It’s hard to believe how young he is. Stuff like that is going to happen. He can fight.”
Hallman should get some credit for helping Day navigate the rough waters going out and giving him words of encouragement a few times, including in the second inning when a walk, two wild pitches, and a groundout got South Allegheny on the board.
“I told him, Nev deep breath,” Hallman said. “He has the stuff whether he is feeling it or not. I told him, you are better than these guys. You have to have that mentality. Go at them, fight with everything you’ve got. He really dug deep when he needed it.”
Days’ best work might have come in the third inning when three straight singles with one out loaded the bases for South Allegheny with the Gladiators’ No. 4 and No. 5 hitters coming to the plate.
But Day got Ryan Cortes and Josh Jackowski to both fly out to left fielder Stouffer to end the threat without any runs coming home.
“He didn’t have his best stuff,” Dickey said. “He kept us in, a couple of innings there they had a couple guys on, (two) with the bases loaded. He pounded the zone.”
Dickey credited Stouffer with making a heads-up play on the fly ball by Cortest charing it and throwing a strike to the plate that kept Popovich the runner at third right where he was at after he thought about trying to tag and score.
“Stouffer made a very aware play out there in left field to charge that ball hard and made a great throw,” Dickey said. “Stuff like that, our guys are smart baseball players now. They get it. They are buying in. They are doing everything they can.”
Day found himself in another jam with two outs in the fourth when an infield single and a walk loaded the bases again for South Allegheny with Jsoh Nesky, the two-hole hitter at the plate.
But Day got Nesky to hit a slow roller to Martino at shortstop who made another strong play to nail Nesky at first to end the inning.
“Coy has made so many good plays for us,” Dickey said. “He’s a different level shortstop.”
A hard-hit ball for an out to start the fifth inning brought an end to Day’s night, and Martino got the final two outs in the fifth sandwiched between a walk, to make the game official.
That became huge when the skies opened up and the rain forced the calling of the game.
Punxsutawney, which has lost to the eventual state champion in each of the last two semifinals – Central-Martinsburg in 2022 and Riverside in 2023 – will face WPIAL champion Avonworth, a 5-4, nine-inning winner of Fairview, in the semifinals on Monday, June 10, at a site and time to be announced.
“This is the same exact feeling as the last two years,” Hall said. “It feels even better this year. We lost a bunch of guys and came in with a whole new group. To do this again, no matter how we did it, it’s unbelievable.”
Watch Hallman’s full postgame interview
NOTE: The rain delay officially lasted one hour and 21 minutes before the game was called. It continued to rain well after both teams left the facility.
AVONWORTH 5, FAIRVIEW 4, 9 INNINGS
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Jack Dolan’s RBI single in the top of the ninth inning broke a 4-4 tie and ultimately sent Avonworth to a 5-4 win over Fairview in the District 9 Class 3A quarterfinals.
Dolan drove in Brandon Sapolsky, who walked to start the inning and went to third on a passed ball.
Robbie Benford walked and Aari Fox singled with one out in the bottom of the ninth for Fairview, but Carson Frank was able to get a fly out and a pop out to end the game.
The run in the ninth inning was the first run for either team since the fifth when Mason Metz tied the game for Avonworth with an RBI single.
Fairview scored three runs in the third to take a 4-3 lead on a 2-run single from Luke Rzodkiewicz 2-run single and an error on a grounder off the bat of Austin Hawley.
Tyler Benford worked 5 ⅓ innings in relief for Fairview, allowing one run on three hits, striking out one and walking two. Andrew Stevens took the loss, allowing one unearned run in one inning of work on one hit, striking out one and walking two.
Fox had two of Fairview’s six hits.
Franc went 6 ⅔ scoreless innings of relief to get the win, allowing just two hits, striking out eight and walking two.
Metz had two of Avonworth’s seven hits.
With the win, Avonworth advances to play Punxsutawney, a 4-1 winner in five innings over South Allegheny, in the PIAA semifinals on Monday at a site and time to be determined.
CLASS 6A
HEMPFIELD (LANDISVILLE) 3, MCDOWELL 0
DUBOIS, Pa. – Brody Gebhard fired a 1-hit shutout to lead Hempfield (Landisville) out of District 3 to a 3-0 win over McDowell in the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals.
Nick Hamilton’s one-out infield single in the fifth was the only hit for McDowell. It was one of only two baserunners on the day for McDowell, as Evan Stranko reached on an error in the seventh.
Josh Toole and Brayden Hostetter had RBI singles in the third inning for Hempfield and Dylan Jackson an RBI single in the sixth.
Anthony Iacobucci took the loss for McDowell, allowing three runs (two earned) on eight hits in 5 ⅔ innings on eight hits, striking out three and walking two.
With the win, Hempfield advances to play Downingtown West, a 7-0 winner over Wilson, in the semifinals on Monday at a site and time to be determined.
