Friday, July 29, 2016
By Greg Gulas
STRUTHERS
Knightline Embroidery, one of two area teams in this year’s PONY Palomino East Zone Tournament field, entered play Thursday as runners-up of the Butler Regional.
After posting two wins on the opening day of action, they might just have become the decided favorite.
Manager Tom Otto’s squad stopped the Ohio Longhorns, 7-6 in their opener on a walk-off single by Tim Herberger in their final at-bat, then rode a fourth inning single by Bryce Richey for a 1-0 victory over Pittsburgh North Hills to remain in the winners bracket today at Bob Cene Park.
They will play Worthington-Kittanning tonight at 8 p.m. after they posted an 8-5 decision over the Youngstown All-Stars to also remain in the winner’s bracket.
Against North Hills, starting pitcher J.T. Wolke went 51/3 innings, allowing one hit and striking out four to pick up the win while Andy Sodergren got the final five outs for the save.
With the game scoreless through the first three frames, Jake Kaschak led off the fourth inning with a double, was sacrificed to second by Zach Campbell and then scored on Richey’s opposite field single.
“I was looking for a fast ball and he [Michael Serpa] threw me a knuckleball,” Richey said. “I wasn’t expecting a pitch like that in that particular situation, so I just reacted to it and the end result just happened to be the only run of the game.”
In the tourney lidlifter, Knightline completed a come-from-behind, 7-6 victory with a walk-off single by Herberger in their final at bat.
Knightline trailed 3-1 after the opening inning and fell behind 6-3 in the sixth frame.
A two-run double by Campbell highlighted a three-run uprising in their half of the sixth as Knightline tied the score at 6 with an inning to play. Wolke led off the final inning with a triple and with a pulled in Longhorns infield, Herberger slapped home the game-winner.
Starter Mike Massucci went five innings, scattering eight hits and allowing five runs, only one of which was earned.
Hank Clegg went the final two frames to pick up the win in relief.
WORTHINGTON-KITTANNING 8, YOUNGSTOWN ALL-STARS 5
Worthington-Kittanning defeated N.Y. Bonnie Jays 17-3 in five innings in their opener, sending 22 batters to the plate in the third inning and scoring 16 runs.
Down 4-0 to the Youngstown All-Stars after five frames, they sent 14 players to the plate, scored eight times and then held on for an 8-5 victory over the Youngstown aggregation.
“Our kids played hard and put forth a solid effort,” Youngstown manager Don Pletcher said. “I’ll go on record as saying that I’ll never blame the outcome of a game on an umpire, and that’s all I’m going to say on that subject.”