Penn-Trafford cruises to berth in 6A title game
Warriors will play for the championship for the first time in the school’s history
One year and six days after North Allegheny ended Penn-Trafford’s season in the first round of the 2018 WPIAL baseball playoffs, Warriors coach Dan Miller sent a text message to his senior pitcher Tyler Horvat on the eve of the rematch Wednesday in the 2019 WPIAL Class 6A semifinals. The three-sentence message was short, sweet and to the point.
We’ve waited one year for this rematch. You’re going to get the ball. Go get ‘em. Horvat was the losing pitcher in that 6-0 loss to the Tigers last year, but this time around he tossed a complete game while giving up only two runs to guide PennTrafford (18-3) to a 7-2 win against North Allegheny (166) at Fox Chapel High School. The victory punched the Warriors’ ticket to their first WPIAL championship game in school history.
“I’m not surprised to be here, because we set our goals early to be here, and that goal was real,” Miller
said. “And these kids have done a nice job of buying what we’re selling and persevering to get there. We haven’t had many bumps in the road, but to be behind 1-0 against a good baseball team we certainly respect, we had to persevere to get that run and then take the lead.”
Horvat and fellow senior pitcher MacLean Maund have been the backbone of Penn-Trafford’s success. Without a true slugger in the middle of the lineup, the Warriors pride themselves on being one of the best defensive teams in the WPIAL. Their ability to play mistake-free baseball carried them to Wild Things Park for a chance to play for a WPIAL championship.
“It would have been nice to keep those two runs off the board,” Horvat said after the game with a smile. “Cade Patterson caught a fantastic game behind the plate. All I had to do was throw at his glove.”
Early on, Horvat and Tigers starter Ryan Partridge seemed to be setting the stage for a pitchers’ duel after tossing identical 12-3 first innings. North Allegheny senior Shane Murphy drew first blood with an RBI single in the top of the second, but Horvat settled in after that and began cruising through the order.
Horvat led off the bottom of the fourth with an infield single, stole second and came home on Luke Fabac’s RBI triple. But Partridge struck out two and induced a groundout to end the inning.
Patterson gave the Warriors their first lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth, then senior shortstop Mario Disso broke open the game, slicing a two-run triple down the left-field line and scoring after the throw home got away from the catcher.
Penn-Trafford’s dugout erupted and swarmed Disso in celebration, though there were still two innings to play.
The way Horvat was rolling on the mound, it might as well have been over then and there.
The Warriors tacked on two more insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth, and by the time the Tigers scored their second run in the top of the seventh, it was too little, too late. Horvat got the last batter to fly out to right field to set off another celebration.
The top two teams will now face off in the Class 6A championship game next week in a rematch of PennTrafford’s 13-2 blowout win against Pine-Richland April 2. But the Warriors coach expects it to be in for a much better fight when his team faces the Rams again with everything on the line.