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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – It didn’t matter that Slippery Rock’s Ryan Montgomery had struck out in his first three at-bats of the game. With a chance to send his team to the District 10 Class 4A semifinals, he delivered.
Montgomery’s single off Alex Leehan with one out in the bottom of the seventh lifted the Rockets to a dramatic 1-0 victory over General McLane, the only run in an epic pitcher’s duel between The Rock’s Shane Thompson and GM’s Eric Matthews, who was the extremely tough-luck loser.
“He’s a positive attitude kid. Everything’s always positive, no matter what’s on the scorecard,” said Slippery Rock coach Dough Popovec. “When we talked (before the at-bat), he had a smile on his face. Our key is to have fun, hit the ball, see what happens.”
The smile was even wider after Montgomery came through in the most crucial and clutch of situations.
“I just hit it where it was pitched,” he said. “It was just a great feeling. I was like ‘oh my gosh, this is actually going to land (in the outfield).”
What happened beforehand was a whole lot of great pitching by both Thompson and Matthews.
Thompson allowed just one runner to reach second base in the first five innings, at one point retiring 11 batters in a row. In the sixth and seventh innings, he was able to wiggle his way out of trouble.
In the sixth, Matthews and Clayton Boutte hit back-to-back singles with two outs, two of just five hits he allowed. No matter, as he got Brandon Simmons to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the threat.
In the seventh, Josh Salisbury led off the inning with a single was sacrificed to second, and got to third on a wild pitch with two outs. Again, Thompson worked out of it, getting a strikeout to end the inning.
“I just knew I had to go out there and throw strikes and let the defense make plays behind me,” Thompson said.
Matthews equaled Thompson stride for stride and was particularly dominant early in the game. He retired the first eight batters he faced and didn’t give up a hit until Sal Mineo’s single to lead off the fourth. Mineo was erased shortly after on a caught stealing.
Matthews was able to work his way out of a couple of jams in both the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, Alex Duafflo was hit by a Matthews pitch and Nick Kingerski singled to put two runners on with no outs. No matter, as Matthews got a fielder’s choice, pop out and strikeout to end the threat.
In the sixth, he faced a bases-loaded, one-out situation. Again, he got out of it unscathed, getting a strikeout of Duffalo and a pop-out off the bat of Kingerski after Thompson was intentionally walked.
He gave up a single and a walk before getting a strikeout in his final batter faced of the game before reaching his pitch count limit. Montgomery took the second pitch he saw off the reliever Leehan and ended it.
Thompson needed just 87 pitches to get through his seven innings. He struck out seven on five hits and didn’t issue a walk.
Matthews, meanwhile, went 6 ⅓, allowing four hits and four walks, striking out eight.
General McLane’s Eric Matthews delivers during Tuesday’s game against Slippery Rock in the D10 Class 4A quarterfinals.
With the win, No. 2 seed Rockets (12-5) advance to play No. 3 seed Cathedral Prep in the semifinals on Friday.
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