SR’s Gordon throws just 58 pitches in win
SLIPPERY ROCK — The most impressive thing about Dylan Gordon’s outing on the mound Tuesday was his striking efficiency.
Slippery Rock’s senior pitcher held General McLane to one run on three hits over six innings and needed just 58 pitches to do it. The effort led the Rockets to a 2-1 win in a District 10 Class 4A quarterfinal playoff at Jack Critchfield Park.
Gordon threw less than 10 pitches in the third and fourth innings.
“I didn’t even realize how many pitches I was throwing. I had tunnel vision.” said Gordon. “I’m not a big strikeout guy and my defense knows it will have to make a lot of plays and it does.”
He struck out five and walked none while earning the win that sends the Rockets to Friday’s semifinal against Cathedral Prep, which defeated Corry on Tuesday.
Gordon made one mistake in the game and General McLane’s Tyler Chorney deposited it over the left-center field fence, tying the game at one in the top of the fifth. The home run broke a string of 13 straight batters set down by Gordon
“It was a fastball right down the middle,” he said. “It was a missed pitch, for sure, but you can’t let one bad pitch affect the rest of the game.”
Gordon allowed no further damage and came to the plate with the score still knotted in the bottom of the sixth. He followed up Brett Galcik’s leadoff triple with an RBI-single that proved to be the deciding run.
“We have confidence in Dylan to get up there and make something happen at the plate,” said Slippery Rock coach Derrick Wood. “It helped that Brett led off with that triple. He’s probably batting .700 the second half of the season.”
Sal Mineo came on to earn the save, setting the Lancers (10-9) down in order in the seventh.
“We talked about Dylan going back out for the seventh, but they (Lancers) had a few guys who had hit the ball hard and it was his third time through the order,” said Wood.
General McLane’s Ross Morrow pitched very well, holding the Rockets (13-6) to the two runs on six hits.
“With the way we’d been hitting the ball, I am surprised this turned into a pitcher’s dual,” Wood said.
General McLane fell behind in the bottom of the second when Gordon singled, Lucas Allison walked and Dom Zandi singled off the glove of shortstop Tyler Banks to score courtesy runner Isaac McCandless.
Morrow, a senior, answered by allowing just a pair of baserunners over the next three innings. He struck out three and walked four in the loss.
“He’s an amazing pitcher with great control and is able to keep good hitters off-balance,” said Lancers coach Tom Peyton. “We’re going to miss him.
“At the plate, we hit a lot of fly balls today, just couldn’t find the holes.”
General McLane 000 010 0 — 1 3 0
Slippery Rock 010 001 x — 2 6 0
WP: Dylan Gordon 6 IP (5K, 0BB). LP: Ross Morrow 6 IP (3K, 4BB). S: Sal Mineo 1 IP (0K, 0BB).
General McLane: Tyler Banks 1B, Charlie Swanson 1B, Tyler Chorney HR
Slippery Rock: Nick Kingerski 1B, Sal Mineo 1B, Brett Galcik 3B R, Dylan Gordon 2-1B RBI, Dom Zandi 1B RBI
Friday: Slippery Rock vs. Cathedral Prep, District 10 Class 4A semifinal, TBD
