Kyle Casteel recovers quickly, Butler baseball shuts out Seneca Valley
BUTLER TWP — Seneca Valley’s Mason Fisher drilled Kyle Casteel’s first pitch of the game into the right-center field gap for a double Tuesday night at Pullman Park.
Casteel must have taken it personally.
Butler’s senior right-hander retired the next 21 hitters in tossing a one-hit shutout. The Golden Tornado’s 2-0 WPIAL Section 1-6A baseball victory clinched Butler’s first section title since 2014.
“It was a little bit of a wake-up call,” Casteel said of the double. “I had to focus in. I definitely didn’t want that run to score.”
Casteel made sure that it didn’t. Danny Drennan tried bunting Fisher to third, but Casteel jumped off the mound to field the ball. He threw a quick strike to third baseman Trent Best to nail Fisher.
No other Raider (10-9, 5-6) would reach base. Casteel struck out six and threw 50 of his 73 pitches for strikes.
“That’s an incredible performance, especially against that team,” Butler coach Josh Forbes said. “Seneca Valley has a great program. They always play hard. Our defense answered the call as well.”
Casteel has allowed only one earned run in 32.1 innings this spring. He’s struck out 51 and walked three.
“I thought our approach at the plate tonight was pretty good,” Seneca Valley coach Eric Semega said. “We dug in and hit the ball. Wed hit some at ‘em balls and they made some nice plays against us.
“Our pitcher (Andrew Palano) gave us a chance to win. We just couldn’t get a guy on base to get anything started.”
Casteel went to a 3-2 count on only two batters as the game was completed in just 80 minutes. Second baseman Jake Szebalskie made a lunging stop on a ground ball to rob SV’s Quinn Carney of a hit leading off the sixth. Micah Olayer starched a hard grounder to third that Trent Best cleanly fielded for the second out of the seventh.
“I trust every one of those guys out there with me 100 percent,” Casteel said. “They’re gonna make the plays.”
Casteel got all of the run support he needed courtesy of designated hitter Blake Scott. After Best beat out a bunt single, Scott drilled a 3-0 pitch over the right field fence for a two-out, two run homer.
It marked the second time he ht a 3-0 pitch over the wall at Pullman Park this season.
“The first one was against Baldwin,” Scott said. “Coach (Forbes) told me he didn’t give me the take sign that night. I told him I didn’t even look down at him to see.
“I didn’t look this time, either.”
Scott said he hit a fastball down the middle for the home run.
“You have to tip your hat to the guy,” Semega said. “Not many hitters get the green light 3-0 and he put a good swing on it. If this game stays scoreless, maybe we’d play for a while and they have to change pitchers on pitch count. That’s one way you can win a game like this.”
Butler (14-3, 9-2) stranded five runners in scoring position and had a runner thrown out trying to advance from first to third for the final out of the sixth.
“We also didn’t tag up from third on a ball when we should have,” Forbes said. “We missed chances to add on, but our pitching and defense covered up for that.
“I was in college (at Seton Hill) the last time Butler won a section title. This is a long time coming.”
Casteel agreed.
“We’ve been working toward this,” the pitcher said. “Getting it done is pretty satisfying. But we have more work to do.”
Scott said: “This is a step we wanted to take. Now we want to go after the WPIAL championship.”
Seneca Valley 000 000 0 - 0 1 1
Butler 002 000 x - 2 7 0
WP: Kyle Casteel 7IP (6so, 0bb). LP: Andrew Palano 6IP (2so, 2bb).
Seneca Valley (10-9, 5-6): Mason Fisher 2B.
Butler (14-3, 9-2): Boden Lenyk 1B, Mavrik Clement 2B, Trent Best 1B 2B, Blake Scott HR 2-RBIs, Ryan Rattigan 1B, Jake Szebalskie 1B.
Thursday: Butler at Seneca Valley
