Jesse Alfreno pitched efficiently in hot weather and Grove City's varsity baseball team wrapped up its third District 10 Class AAA championship in four years, defeating Warren 16-4 Monday evening at Critchfield Park.

Alfreno threw 80 pitches — 57 for strikes — in six innings of work Monday after grabbing the win in the semifinals Saturday night with three innings of relief pitching.

"Jesse didn't have his best stuff,"Grove City coach Pat Forese said. "But he did what he had to do. He threw strikes and our defense played pretty well behind him."

The Eagles had 10 hits in the game, but also received 11 walks and three batters were hit by pitches.

Derek Forese hit a two-run triple in the top of the first inning and later scored on a wild pitch.

"Derek's triple got us going,"Forese said. "We had a lot of traffic out there all night."

Alfreno did not walk a batter and gave up only one run over his final five innings on the mound. He never threw more than 18 pitches in an inning.

The Eagles will play the third-seed out of the WPIALin the first round of the state tournament Monday.

Grove City 303 120 7—16 10 1Warren 200 001 1—4 10 2WP: Jesse Alfreno (6 IP) 5 strikeouts, 0 walks. LP: Addison Dunn (3Z\c IP) 3 strikeouts, 2 walks

Grove City (15-4): Beau Fisher 3-1BRBI, Jesse Alfreno 1BRBI 3-R, Dan Keil 3-1B RBI3-R, Derek Forese 3B 2-RBI2-R, Garrett Molloy RBI, Ryan Devine 1B2-RBI, Dan Sonntag RBI, Bob Revesz 1B2-RBI, Brandon Jones RBI

Warren (15-6): Eric Weidert 3-1B 2-R, Jeff Eaton 2B 1B, Dave Breindel 1BRBI, Addison Dunn 1BRBI, Eric Duckett 1B, Mike Greenlund 1BRBI, Clay Hesch 1B

Monday: PIAAClass AAAplayoffs:Grove City vs. WPIALthird—place qualifierDistrict 10 Class AAA semifinal

Grove City 3, Meadville 2 (10 innings)—Brad Ballatine scored on a throwing error in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Eagles the victory on Saturday.Ballatine led off with a walk and Dan Sonntag sacrificed him to second and Beau Fisher was intentionally walked. Alfreno hit a grounder, but an errant throw on a double-play attempt allowed Ballatine to score the winning run."The kids never quit. It was a very well pitched game on both sides," Coach Forese said. "The score should still have been 0-0. There were four great pitchers in this game."Fortunately, we got the last break of the game," Forese added.Alfreno picked up the win in relief, going the final three innings. Bob Revesz went the first seven-plus innings and struck out 10 batters and walked none.Revesz had allowed three singles to open the eighth inning before Alfreno came in to relieve. Alfreno induced a 1-2-3 double play, then a grounder back to the mound, which he threw to first base to escape the jam.Grove City trailed 2-0 before tying the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.Sonntag reached on an error to start the frame and Fisher grounded into a fielder's choice. Alfreno walked before Dan Keil had run-scoring single.With runners at first and second, Alfreno tried to steal third, but the throw went into left field to bring home Alfreno.

Meadville 011 000 000 0—2 84Grove City 000 002 000 1—3 6 3WP:Jesse Alfreno (3 IP) 1 strikeout, 1 walk.

LP: Dan Roncoloto (3 IP) 2 strikeouts, 2 walks

Meadville: John Roncoloto 2-1B; Kelly Williams 2-1B; Dan Roncoloto 1B, 2B; Ryan Makepeace 3B.

Grove City (14-4): Beau Fisher 2-1B; Dan Keil 2-1B; Garrett Molloy 3B