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Class 2A Baseball: Karns City Picks up First PIAA Win Since 1996; Sharpsville Advances Powered by N. Washington Rodeo

Mallick Metcalfe helped Karns City upset WPIAL champion Seton LaSalle

WEXFORD, Pa. – Mallick Metcalfe did a little bit of everything to lead Karns City to its second PIAA playoff win in program history, 2-1 over WPIAL champion Seton LaSalle, in the Class 2A first round at North Allegheny High School.

“They threw their ace, we threw our ace and we were just able to keep battling,” said Karns City coach Josh Smith. “Mallick was the best player on the field today.”

Karns City got on the board in the second inning on the way to capturing its first PIAA win since 1996, as Jacob Callihan and Troy Nagel led off with back-to-back singles. A walk loaded the bases and Mason Sherwin brought in Callihan on a sacrifice fly before Seton LaSalle pitcher Brian Reed escaped further damage with a strikeout and a pop-out.

Aric White’s 2-out RBI single in the fourth tied the game, but that was the only damage that Metcalfe allowed.

Metcalfe got the lead right back for the Gremlins in the top of the fifth when he triple and scored on a passed ball.

               

“We believed in ourselves, stayed true to ourselves and it’s just an outstanding win,” Smith said.

The Gremlins didn’t allow a hit over the final three innings. Metcalfe went six innings, allowing just three hits and one unearned run, striking out six and walking four.

Sherwin came on and pitched a 1-2-3 seventh for the save, including a pair of strikeouts.

“It means a great day,” Smith said. “The last several years, we’ve been trying to get our own field in the Karns City area. This is just more ammunition to say our baseball program is for real. We won a game against one of the best teams in the state.”

Metcalfe finished with two of Karns City’s four hits (Callihan and Nagel had the other two).

                          

Reed took the loss, allowing two runs (one earned) in five innings on four hits, striking out 10 and walking three, throwing 98 pitches.

With the win, Karns City advances to play District 6 champion Bald Eagle Area, a 10-4 winner over McConnellsburg, in the quarterfinals on Thursday at a site and time to be determined.

“This program is here to stay,” Smith said. “I’ve seen this group the whole way through, including the COVID year. I’d like to think this is the baseball gods’ way of getting extra baseball.”

SHARPSVILLE 7, SERRA CATHOLIC 4

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Sharpsville scored three runs in the first inning and three more in the fourth to take the lead for good in a 7-4 first-round win over Serra Catholic.

               

The game was tied 3-3 going to the bottom of the fourth when Jake Tonty reached on an error and scored on an error and Caullin Summers, who was hit by a pitch, scored on an error during the same at-bat to Jack Leipheimer, who ultimately walked and scored on Luke Distler’s RBI triple to make it 6-3.

Serra Catholic struck back for a run in the sixth, but Sharpsville answered in the bottom of the inning when Stephen Tarnoci’s RBI single brought in Carter Dejulia, who singled to start the inning.

Braden Scarvel, Eric Lindstedt, and Tonty all had RBI singles in the first inning.

Leipheimer got the win, allowing two runs in four innings on six hits, striking out three and walking two. Tarnoci got the save, going 2 ⅔ scoreless innings, allowing two hits, striking out two, and walking three.

Collin Holmes, Michael Schanck, Tyler Skaggs, and Zach Karp had one RBI each for Serra Catholic.

Karp took the loss, allowing six runs (three earned) in four innings on six hits, striking out five and walking one.

With the win, Sharpsville advances to play Burgettstown, a 6-1 winner over Redbank Valley, in the quarterfinals on Thursday at a site and time to be determined.

BURGETTSTOWN 6, REDBANK VALLEY 1

DUBOIS, Pa. – Andrew Bredel scattered seven hits to lead WPIAL third-place finisher Burgettstown to a 6-1 win over D9 champion Redbank Valley, 6-1.

            

Bredel gave up one earned run. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out 11.

“He had a good two-seamer that ran,” Redbank Valley manager Craig Hibell said. “He mixed in a change-up as well, and we don’t see that many change-ups in our league. I don’t know if that was necessarily his effective pitch today, but his breaking ball had enough tight movement today that he created some swings and misses on us. It was a combination with a two-seam that ran with a slider that was a little bit too much for us today.”

While Bredel was keeping Redbank Valley off balance, the Blue Devils took advantage of some shaky Redbank Valley defense to score five unearned runs.

“We knew that we were going to have to win with a low-scoring ball game,” Hibell said. “We had ourselves a chance until the end when they got some late ones. But Ty gave us a chance and we just had to play better offensively and defensively.”

Ty is Ty Carrier.

Carrier went six innings allowing four runs, one earned, on six hits and two walks while striking out four.

But a pair of errors on Breckin Minich in the second inning helped allow Burgettstown to jump up 3-0.

The Bulldogs got a run back in the third before loading the bases in the fourth with two outs before Bredel struck out Owen Clouse to end the inning, starting a string of 10 consecutive outs by the Blue Devil righty to end the game.

“We just didn’t get the timely hit today,” Hibell said. “(We had) some untimely strikeouts and a couple of errors that just cost us. We just didn’t put together a complete team effort to give ourselves a chance at the end.”

Tristin Roach was 3-for-4 with two runs scored for Burgettstown while Maddox Gratchen went 2-for-3 with a walk, a run scored, and two RBIs.

Ty Carrier and Braylon Wagner each went 2-for-3 for Redbank Valley.

Burgettstown faces Sharpsville in the quarterfinals Thursday at a site and time to be announced.

                       

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