WPIAL baseball: Mars loses in walk-off fashion to Peters Township in Class 5A quarterfinals
MONROEVILLE — In Mars’ eyes, seeding doesn’t matter.
Attitude? Absolutely.
The 15th-seeded Planets knocked off No. 2 seed Plum in the first round of the WPIAL Class 5A baseball tournament. Mars (11-11) nearly bounced No. 7 seed Peters Township as well, but dropped a 7-6 decision in 10 innings Monday at Gateway High School.
“I know people consider these things upsets, but our guys never worry about seeding,” Mars coach Jason Thompson said. “We have a lot of believers in that dugout.”
Mars trailed 6-2 after five innings before scoring twice in the sixth and twice more in the seventh — without getting a hit in either inning — to force extra frames. Peters Township (16-7) hit two batters and walked another in the sixth. Vinnie Gottschalk hit a ground ball to shortstop with one out and the bases loaded in that inning.
Shortstop Michael Alspaugh elected to go to second base for a force, but the ball popped out of the second baseman’s glove as two runs scored.
The Indians walked the bases loaded in the seventh. With two outs and Mars down to its final strike, No. 9 hitter Austin Kuremsky hit a slow grounder into the hole on the second-base side of the infield. The ball dribbled off the second baseman’s glove as Bo Costanza and Luke Goodworth crossed the plate to tie the game.
“All due respect to Mars, we’ve been doing a lot of things to beat ourselves lately,” Indians coach Rocky Plassio said. “Still, we found a way to win in the end.”
Peters Township starting pitcher Jack Stewart worked five innings, allowing four hits and two runs while throwing 73 pitches. He was pulled after those five frames with the 6-2 lead.
“We like to go to Brody (Pirosko) as our set-up guy and Mike (Alspaugh) as our closer in situations like that,” Plassio said. “With a four-run lead, I thought that was a safe move. But things didn’t go as scripted.”
Mars received 13 base runners by way of walks or hit batsmen, but managed only four hits all day. The Planets stranded 12 runners.
“That was tough,” Thompson said of the failure to produce a clutch hit. “It’s hard to find the words right now.”
Planet starter Roman Brunsell was pulled following a Peters Township double to lead off the fourth. Mars relievers Braden Schmitt, Zach Hugus and Kyle Krause combined to limit the Indians to one run and two hits over six innings, prior to the 10th.
“Our bullpen did a fantastic job,” Thompson said.
But the 10th inning went Peters Township’s way.
With one out in the Mars’ 10th, Kuremsky and Grady Speigle drew walks. A courtesy runner was picked off second, however, as the shortstop sneaked behind the bag, then suddenly raced back to his position. The second baseman then sneaked over to second to execute the pickoff.
“We practice that play all the time,” Plassio said. “We couldn’t have executed it at a better time.”
The Indians went to work in the bottom of the 10th. Colin Stofik beat out a Baltimore chopper to third to begin the frame. Nathan Skroupa laid down a sacrifice bunt that hugged the grass toward first. Krause was unable to scoop the ball up. With one out and the bases loaded, No. 3 hitter Jackson Stocker doubled into the gap in left-center to end the game.
Stocker had four hits in the contest, including a solo homer in the first inning.
“They got an infield hit and a bunt that hugged the grass to set up the win,” Thompson said. “It isn’t always a barreled-up ball that beats you.”
While Peters Township advances to the WPIAL semifinals for the first time in three years, Mars bids goodbye to nine seniors, including seven in the starting lineup. Gottschalk, Zack Rozman, Costanza, Brunsell, Goodworth, Finn Seideneck, Hayden Resisinger, Austin Kuremsky and Aiden Kuremsky all saw their final action on the diamond for the Planets.
“We’re losing a pretty solid core there,” Thompson said.
Mars 200 002 200 0 — 6 4 3
Peters Twp. 130 200 000 1 — 7 11 3
1 out when winning run scored
Mars (11-11): Vinnie Gottschalk RBI, Zack Rozman 2-1B, Danny Murray 1B, Luke Goodworth 1B 2-R.
Peters Township (16-7): Zach Miner 1B RBI, Jackson Stocker HR 2B 2-1B 2-RBI, James Tygard RBI, Brody Takacs 2B, Reese Clark 1B, Michael Alspaugh 2B 1B 2-R, Colin Stofik 1B 2-R, Nathan Skroupa 3B 2-RBI.
