Top-seeded Latrobe survives scare in Westmoreland County summer baseball playoffs

By: Paul Schofield
Monday, July 27, 2020 | 9:47 PM

Top-seed Latrobe took advantage of four Mt. Pleasant errors to score four unearned runs in a 5-3 victory on Monday in the Westmoreland County American Baseball League playoffs.

The Jethawks, the regular-season champions, jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings, scoring a run in the first inning on a throwing error and adding three more in the third inning. Ben Rafferty’s lead-off triple highlighted the inning.

Latrobe left 10 runners on base.

Mt. Pleasant, which defeated West Hempfield on Sunday to qualify for the playoffs, cut the lead to 4-3 by scoring two runs in the fifth inning on Asher O’Connor’s single and added a run in the sixth inning on Jonas King’s double.

After lightning delayed the game in the top of the seventh inning, Rafferty came on to strike out the side to earn a save. Jake Bradish worked into the seventh inning.

Ben Anderson had two hits for Latrobe.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Mt. Pleasant.

Murrysville 7, Derry 4 — Chris Pagano had two doubles and Jake Henderson had two hits to help Murrysville to a Game 1 win. Murrysville scored three runs in the first and three more in the fourth.

Trevor Brncic doubled and Jeff Downs had three hits. Connor Helm was the winning pitcher.

Game 2 is at Sloan Field in Blairsville.

Hempfield East 12, Yough 3 — Hempfield East rallied from an early 3-0 deficit and scored eight runs in the third inning to defeat Yough.

Reid Amundson’s three-run home run in the third tied the score. He also added a single, and Shane Evans had two hits.

Hayden Teska was the winning pitcher and the loss went to Nate Wilkins, who also doubled for Yough.

Game 2 is 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Sutersville.

Bushy Run 2, Young Township 0 (suspended) — Heavy rain forced the suspension of the Bushy Run and Young Township game. The game will resume at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at West Lebanon. Game 2 will follow.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Burrell, Derry Area, Franklin Regional, Greensburg C.C., Greensburg Salem, Hempfield, Kiski Area, Latrobe, Ligonier Valley, Mt. Pleasant, Norwin, Penn-Trafford, Saltsburg, Yough