Burrell baseball leans on 2-out lightning to defeat rival Valley
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Wednesday, April 18, 2018 | 10:49 PM
The Burrell baseball team scored four runs in the top of the second inning of Wednesday's Section 1-3A game at rival Valley.
As it turns out, those four runs were enough as the Bucs' defense and the pitching of Luke Virag made the lead stand in a 4-2 victory.
“That was a big win for us,” Burrell coach Mark Spohn said. “We didn't play well the last time out against Steel Valley (5-1 loss April 13). We gave up a few unearned runs, got behind and nothing went our way. Today, we played better.”
Valley beat Shady Side Academy, Steel Valley and South Allegheny last week to start 3-0 in section but fell into a tie for second with Burrell with Wednesday's setback.
Steel Valley moved into first place by one half game after its 3-0 victory Wednesday over Shady Side.
“Valley is a really good team,” Spohn said. “The whole section has gotten better. There are a lot of quality teams. The quality of pitching is what you are going to see in the playoffs.”
Burrell (4-1, 3-1) used some two-out lightning in the top of the second. The inning started out well for Valley, as starter Shawn Demharter struck out the first two batters he faced.
Gavin Bowser then got the Bucs started with a single. Marshall McKallip was hit with a pitch, and Tyler Mock drew a walk to load the bases.
No. 9 hitter Nick Hwostow then sent a 1-0 Demharter offering down the line in left field. His triple cleared the bases and gave the Bucs a 3-0 lead.
“I was looking for a first-pitch fastball, and he threw me an off-speed pitch,” Hwostow said. “I sat back on the second-pitch fastball and got a good swing off it. It was just a great feeling to come through for my team, especially with two outs and the bases loaded and it being a rivalry game.”
“That was a huge hit from Nick,” Spohn said. “(Demharter) was on the ropes a little bit with his command in that inning. Nick found a good pitch to hit.”
Zac Miller followed with a run-scoring single for a 4-0 advantage.
Valley, No. 4 this week in the Tribune-Review Class 3A rankings, got on the board in the bottom of the third as Cayden Quinn and Nick Heuser drew back-to-back walks with one out. Shane Demharter then produced a single which scored Quinn.
Andrew Serakowski doubled with one out in the fourth and scored on a fielding error to make it 4-2.
The Vikings left a runner stranded at third in the bottom of the first and left the bases loaded in the third. Singles from Jake McNabb and Eli Ferres in the bottom of the sixth also went for naught.
“We had other runners on and just didn't get that extra hit,” Valley coach Jim Basilone said. “We just didn't hit as well as we had been hitting. For some reason, we just went flat at the plate.”
Virag went the distance for the Bucs and finished with 99 pitches. He surrendered four hits and three walks while striking out five.
“Luke mixed up his pitches well and kept them off balance,” Spohn said. “Not many of their hitters got great swings.”
Shawn Demharter gave up three hits over six innings. He was lifted after the sixth as he reached the 100-pitch limit. He ended up walking four and hitting four batters.
The Valley defense did its part to keep the game close with a pair of double plays. McNabb, at catcher, gunned down two Bucs runners trying to steal second, and he started a rundown between second and third that eliminated another runner from the basepaths.
“Shawn just didn't have his best stuff today,” Basilone said. “Burrell took advantage of our mistakes, and that's what a good team does.”
Serakowski came in to pitch the top of the seventh and gave up two-out singles to Miller and Tanner Spohn. But he struck out Virag to end the Burrell threat and keep the deficit at two runs.
Valley then went down in order in the bottom of the seventh to set the final.
“We just have to put this one behind us and come out ready to play East Allegheny on Friday,” Basilone said.
Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Mlove_Trib.
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