WPIAL baseball: Seneca Valley wins Class 6A crown behind Ryan Rebholz’ gem
NORTH FRANKLIN TWP, Washington County — On a day when Ryan Rebholz needed to be great, he was even better.
But late in Tuesday’s WPIAL Class 6A Baseball Championship game against Norwin, Seneca Valley’s junior pitcher found himself a bystander.
A line drive off the bat of Tristyn Tavares had smacked off Rebholz’s right foot, forcing him to leave the game after allowing just two hits and no runs in 5.2 innings of work.
“I’m not used to leaving a game,” Rebholz said. “Even when I’m not pitching, I’m playing shortstop. But I had confidence in Luis (Torrenegra, reliever) to close the deal.”
Torrenegra entered the game with Tavares at first and two outs and retired the four batters he faced on 19 pitches, clinching for the Raiders the fifth district title in program history with a 1-0 victory at EQT Park.
“We talked about potential before the season, but honestly, I don’t think we knew what this team’s potential was,”
SV coach Eric Semega said. “But winning a WPIAL title became a reality today and I’m very happy for our guys.”
Rebholz was staked to an early lead when Mason Fisher doubled to left to lead off the bottom of the first inning against Norwin starter Ethen Culbertson, moved to third on Danny Drennan’s groundout and scored when Ryan Piekutoski grounded out.
An early adjustment helped Rebholz dominate Norwin’s lineup.
“Ryan was leaving his fastball up a bit early on and they (Knights) barreled up a few balls,” Semega said. “He started to throw other pitches (including a slider) and worked backwards to get to his fastball again.
“He kept battling, kept battling. He hasn’t lost a game all season.”
Rebholz set down 16 of the first 20 batters he faced — the other four walked and were stranded thanks in large part to strong defensive play behind him.
“There were a lot of nerves at the start of the game, but they were gone after that first at-bat,” he said.
With one out in the sixth, Norwin tallied its first hit of the game, a single from Nate Silberman. Tavares followed with the hit off Rebholz’s foot and the ball ricocheted into shallow right field, where SV’s Owen Voelp fielded it and fired to third base in time to get Silberman, who tried to take an extra base on the play.
Enter Torrenegra, who proved up to the challenge of keeping the Knights (14-9) off the scoreboard. In the seventh, he struck out Brayden Wardzinski and Jake Sincak before getting Matt O’Neil to fly out to left fielder Mason Durst to end the game.
“Luis was throwing smoke,” Raiders catcher Wes Conville said. “I think he threw one curveball, the rest were fastballs and that’s the hardest I’ve ever seen him throw.”
Culbertson was the hard-luck loser. He pitched six innings, allowed the one run on four hits while striking out five and walking one.
“I thought he pitched a great game,” Norwin coach Craig Spisak said. “There were just a couple of balls that were hit in the right spot and at the right speed.”
“He kept us off-balance today,” Semega said of Culbertson. “We were able to make a play early in the game to get a run across and that was the difference. It came down to one swing, and the game could have gone either way. One swing, that’s all it took.”
Seneca Valley previously earned WPIAL titles in 1994, 2011, 2012 and 2014.
SV (17-6) will begin the state playoffs Monday against the winner of a subregional playoff between McDowell and State College.
Norwin 000 000 0 — 0 2 0
Seneca Valley 100 000 x — 1 4 0
WP: Ryan Rebholz 5.2 IP (3K, 4BB). LP: Ethen Culbertson 6 IP (5K, 1BB). S: Luis Torrenegra 1.1 IP (2K, 0BB).
Norwin: Nate Silberman 1B, Tristyn Tavares 1B
Seneca Valley: Mason Fisher 2B R, Ryan Piekutoski RBI, Brandon Godleski 1B, Ryan Rebholz 1B, Owen Voelp 1B
Monday: PIAA Class 6A first round, TBD
