CRANBERRY TWP — A year ago, Brian Warheit heard the two words no pitcher wants to hear.

Tommy John.

The Butler High graduate was pitching for the Butler BlueSox in the Prospect League last summer when he felt pain in his right elbow.

Warheit had a partially torn ligament in his elbow — the one that usually needs Tommy John ligament replacement surgery to fix. But doctors tried an experimental procedure that kept Warheit from going under the knife.

“I had to go through a lot of treatment,” Warheit said. “It was this plasma thing. They took blood out, spun it and injected the concentrated white blood cells right in there. It worked.”

That proceedure may someday be called the Brian Warheit.

A year later, Warheit has been one of the most dominant pitchers in the Eagle County League, tossing a four-hit shutout against Zelienople for Cranberry Township in a 7-0 win in Game 1 of a best-of-three opening round baseball series Friday night at North Boundary Park.

Warheit struck out 11 and didn't walk a batter. All four hits he surrendered were singles.

“It feels great being back in control and not having any pain throwing,” Warheit said.

Warheit, a 6-foot-3 right-hander who plays in college at Seton Hill University, spotted his fastball well against Zelienople. Five of his 11 punchouts were on called third strikes.

“My fastball was sharp and my breaking ball was good,” Warheit said. “Tonight I felt real good. When I hit the outside corner like I was today, I know I'm on.”

Cranberry manager Bill Clinefelter is certainly glad to have Warheit leading his staff.

Cranberry lost two pitchers to injury this season and another, Butler High baseball coach and former major league hurler Todd Erdos, is ineligible for the playoffs.

“He's been this solid all year,” Clinefelter said. “He's always around the plate. He hardly walks any guys. He gets ahead in the count. He's as good as anyone out there.”

Cranberry scored the only run it would need in the bottom of the first inning. Johnny Hastings led off with a triple and scored on a groundout by Greg Miller.

It stayed 1-0 until the fourth inning when control problems plagued Zelienople pitcher John Boy.

Boy walked three in the inning, including Ben Follett with the bases loaded to force in a run.

Cranberry scored two more runs in the fifth and tacked on two more in the sixth.

Game 2 is schedule for 6 p.m. Saturday in Zelienople.

“We got rained out (Thursday night) and the first thing I asked Brian was, ‘Are you OK for tomorrow?' He said yeah, he's ready any day.”

He sure was.

“It's real fun,” Warheit said. “Guys are great and it's fun being on a winning team.”

Zelienople 000 000 0 — 0 4 1Cranberry Twp 100 222 x — 7 5 0W: Brian Warheit 7IP (11K, 0BB).

L: John Boy 6IP (1K, 3BB).

Zelienople: Tad Forsythe 2-1B

Cranberry: Johnny Hastings 3B 2-1B, Chris Larry 1B 2-RBI,

Saturday: Game 2: Cranberry at Zelienople, 6 p.m.