Three section losses in three days?

New Castle baseball coach Don Runyon couldn't afford that.

"That's why I used all four of my senior starting pitchers today," the first-year coach said. "If we had gone down today, we probably would have been done in terms of the playoffs."

New Castle suffered section losses to Seneca Valley and North Hills the previous two days before playing Butler Wednesday at Pullman Park.

Chris Berkley, the Red Hurricanes' fourth pitcher of the day, tossed a scoreless seventh inning Wednesday, enabling New Castle (2-2, 1-2) to post a 10-9 come-from-behind win over Butler.

The Golden Tornado (0-2, 0-2) rallied from deficits in the fifth and sixth innings to take the lead, but couldn't do it again in the final frame.

"We'd get the lead, but we couldn't hold it," Butler coach Ron Zawrotuk said. "This was a good baseball game. It just wasn't a pretty baseball game."

Josh Edwards' solo home run in the first inning gave Butler a 1-0 lead that pitcher Tony Rossmiller protected until the fourth.

Rossmiller threw just 39 pitches in the first three innings, striking out five New Castle batters with an effective curveball.

He started hanging that curve in the fourth, however, and the Hurricanes' Mike Lepore drilled a run-scoring triple to right field. John Villani added a two-run triple to right and scored on Anthony Cameron's suicide squeeze bunt for a 4-1 New Castle lead.

"Tony hung a few curves and they jumped on them," Zawrotuk said. "He's pitching in pain, on two bad ankles. He gave us a solid effort. We just couldn't hold it for him."

Through two scrimmages, its first game and the first four innings Wednesday, Butler had collected only nine hits.

That changed quickly in the fifth. Clayton Smith and Aaron Ordy singled to start the frame, chasing starting pitcher Villani. Butler's Adam Miller was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Edwards produced a sacrifice fly.

With two outs, Villani booted a ground ball to enable Butler's third run to score. Todd Walker then hit a three-run homer to left - just to the left of the 370-foot sign - to give the Tornado a 6-4 lead.

Greg Sansone delivered a pinch-hit three-run double in the sixth to give New Castle a 7-6 advantage. Butler tied the game in the bottom of the inning when Matt McCune reached on a Villani throwing error, was bunted to second, went to third on a fly ball and scored on a wild pitch.

"Villani is a three-year starter at shortstop," Runyon said. "Errors are uncharacteristic for him. But they cost us five runs today."

After Adam Miller and Edwards singled to extend the sixth inning, Mike Dorondo hit a two-run double to left, giving Butler a 9-7 lead.

"He came up with the big hit after failing to put the ball in play earlier," Zawrotuk said of Dorondo. "I liked seeing that."

He didn't like seeing what happened in the seventh, however. With one out, Mike Malley and Villani hit back-to-back doubles. Tony Andrews blooped a single to center to tie the game, and Nick Maiorano tripled to right to plate the go-ahead run.

Walker blooped a single to left to begin Butler's seventh, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

"I don't fault the kid for that," Zawrotuk said. "It was aggressive base running and he never hesitated. They made a good play to get him."

Runyon was a pitcher on New Castle's last WPIAL baseball playoff team - in 1975.

"I'm trying to bring it back," he said of the program. "This was a nice step."

New Castle 000 403 3 - 10 11 2

Butler 100 053 0 - 9 8 1

WP:

Mike Lepore (1 IP) 0 strikeouts, 0 walks.

LP:

Tom Levere (1

IP) 1 strikeout, 0 walks

New Castle (2-2):

Chris Berkley 1B, Greg Sansone 2B 3 RBI, Joe Onufrak 1B, Mike Lepore 3B RBI, Mike Malley 2B 1B 2 R, John Villani 3B 2B 3 RBI 2 R, Tony Andrews 2-1B 2 R RBI, Anthony Cameron RBI, Nick Maiorano 3B RBI

Butler (0-2):

Aaron Ordy 1B, Adam Miller 1B 2 R, Josh Edwards HR 1B 2 RBI 2 R, Mike Dorondo 2B 2 RBI, Todd Walker HR 1B 3 RBI, Clayton Smith 1B

Thursday:

Butler @ Mt. Lebanon