Bound for California
CRANBERRY TWP — Ron Bondo didn't want to coach Pony League baseball this season.
Now he's going to be doing it a while longer.
Bondo's Cranberry Township team defeated Butler Township twice — 9-0 and 22-12 in five innings — Tuesday at Graham Park to capture the Pony-13 East Zone Tournament and a spot in the Pony World Series.
The team flies to Fullerton, Calif., Thursday and is scheduled to play Mexico Friday. It will be Cranberry's first Pony World Series appearance.
"This is incredible. ... It's a dream come true for me," Bondo said. "I took this job in February. I didn't want it at first because I wanted to watch my oldest son play Palomino ball.
"We had one of the two toughest draws coming in," he added. "No matter what we did, we had to win at least four games to get through."
Because Cranberry dropped a 9-2 decision to New Bedford (Mass.) in its second game, it had to win five games — including its final three in a row — and play six games in three days.
"They've got the deeper pitching, and that's the team that deserves to move on," Butler Township coach Daryl Patten said. "Good pitching will stop good hitting nine days out of 10."
That certainly was the case in Game 1 Tuesday. Butler Township had scored 31 runs in its first two East Zone tourney games, but Cranberry pitchers Joel Shaffer, Troy Martin and Brad Hensler combined for a one-hit shutout.
Shaffer threw the first five innings and surrendered the hit — a second-inning double to left by Jesse Savisky.
Cranberry's bats erupted for 11 hits in the opening contest. Ross Bondo had two singles and two RBI, Hensler hit a two-run homer and No. 9 hitter Patrick O'Connor had two RBI.
Matt Ptak and John Davis added two hits and one RBI each.
"We've got four solid starting pitchers," Coach Bondo said. "Two of them (Ryan Donnelly and Ryan Senka) were out of innings. Joel only had two innings left and Martin has six."
Martin started the second game, but he failed to get out of the first inning. Butler Township greeted him with eight consecutive hits and five runs before Cranberry came to the plate.
Shaffer used up his final two innings before Bondo turned to seldom-used Tyler Tuite.
"We spotted them five runs with their big guy (Mark Gross) starting against us on the mound," Bondo said. "We had to get to him and get into this game before we put Tyler in.
"Tyler knew he was going to get hit. We all knew that. But he battles out there. He hits the corners and he doesn't get rattled," he added.
When Tuite took the hill to begin the third inning, he had an 11-5 lead, thanks to a nine-run Cranberry second.
Gross didn't survive the second frame. He threw 73 pitches in less than two innings, including 43 in the second before being pulled with two outs."Mark's our ace. I had to see if he had anything left. He just didn't," Patten said. "This became a battle of attrition once we had to pull him."Gross threw 118 pitches in a complete game Saturday night and pitched an inning of relief Monday.Tuite allowed seven runs in his three innings, but he got plenty of run support. Cranberry banged out 19 hits and scored at least twice in all five innings.Hensler had three hits and four RBI, and Ptak had three hits, three RBI and three runs scored. Ptak's single off the left field fence with the bases loaded in the fifth brought the 10-run mercy rule into play.Garrett Goslaw went 4 for 4 with a homer, two doubles, a single and five RBI for Butler Township."Tyler pitched for us against lesser competition during the regular season, but rarely saw action in big games, let alone pitch in a situation like this," Bondo said. "He really came through for us."Cranberry won the North Pittsburgh Federation League with a 20-2 regular season record. Both losses came against Butler Township.
<B>Butler Twp. 000 000 0 — 0 1 3Cranberry 033 003 x — 9 11 1W:</B> Joel Shaffer 5 IP (5K, 3BB). <B>L:</B> Nick Reamer 2X\c IP (4K, 1BB).<B>Butler Twp. (2-1):</B> Jesse Savisky 2B<B>Cranberry (4-1):</B> Ross Bondo 2-1B 2-RBI, Brad Hensler HR 2-RBI, Joel Shaffer 2B, Ryan Senka 2B 2-R, Ryan Maurer 1B 2-R, Matt Ptak 2-1B 2-R RBI, John Davis 2B 1B RBI, Patrrick O'Connor 1B 2-RBI<B>Butler Twp. 504 12x x — 12 15 7Cranberry 292 72x x — 22 19 3W:</B> Tyler Tuite 3 IP (0K, 3BB). <B>L:</B> Mark Gross 1X\c IP (1K, 5BB).<B>Butler Twp. (2-2):</B> Reid Werth 2B RBI 2-R, Nick Patten 2-2B RBI 2-R, Mark Gross 2-1B RBI 3-R, Garrett Goslaw HR 2-2B 1B 5-RBI 2-R, D.J. Perez 2B RBI, Jesse Savisky 2B 1B RBI, Nick Reamer 1B, Conner Thomas 1B, Jordan Kowalski 1B<B>Cranberry (5-1):</B> Ross Bondo 2B 1B RBI 3-R, Brad Hensler 2-2B 1B 4-RBI 2-R, Joel Shaffer 3-1B 2-RBI 3-R, Troy Martin 2B 2-1B RBI 3-R, Ryan Senka 2B 1B 2-RBI 2-R, Ryan Donnelly 1B RBI, Ryan Maurer 3-R, Matt Ptak 3-1B 3-RBI 3-R, John Davis 1B 2-RBI, Patrick O'Connor 1B 2-R<B>Friday:</B> Cranberry at Pony World Series at Fullerton, Calif.
