Beaver puts big bite on New Castle
The hottest offense in the WPIAL remained red hot Thursday.
Beaver used another outstanding offensive performance to beat New Castle, 10-2, in a PIAA Class 4A quarterfinal at Pullman Park in Butler.
The WPIAL champion Bobcats (16-7) collected 15 hits and scored double-digit runs for the third game in a row and fourth time in their past five games while improving to 2-1 against Section 2 rival New Castle (12-11) this season.
“All season long, we’ve been waiting for everybody to be clicking. We couldn’t have picked a better time than during the WPIAL and state playoffs,” Beaver coach Noah Medich said.
Most of the damage Thursday came in the late innings. Beaver snapped a 2-2 tie in the fifth when Chuck Zorich scored on a basesloaded balk. The Bobcats added another run that inning before tacking on two in the sixth and four in the seventh.
Beaver got a big game from the Hansen brothers. Brady had two triples and Zach added three hits and drove in three runs.
Winning pitcher Jack Yanssens allowed two unearned runs in six innings.
Class 5A
Lampeter-Strasburg 7, Franklin Regional 2: Sophomore left-hander and Coastal Carolina recruit Braedon Karpathios struck out 11 in five innings as Lampeter-Strasburg defeated Franklin Regional (19-3) at Greene Township Park in Scotland. Karpathios added two RBI doubles, one coming in the first when the Pioneers jumped to a 3-0 lead. Franklin Regional scored its runs on Bryce Harper’s sacrifice fly in the fourth and an RBI double by Tommy Kegerreis in the seventh.
Class 3A
Mount Union 4, Hopewell 0: District 6 champion Mount Union scored all its runs in the first and coasted to a win against WPIAL runner-up Hopewell (16-7) at First Commonwealth Field in Homer City. Winning pitcher Seth Smith tossed a complete game and gave up four hits to improve to 9-0 this season.
Class 2A
Serra Catholic 9, Neshannock 1: Pat Brennan’s two-run double in the first was all Serra (22-3) needed to defeat Neshannock (19-4) at Shaler. Serra slugger Mark Black, who leads the WPIAL with 13 home runs, was walked intentionally three times for the third game in a row. Black usually bats second, but was the leadoff hitter in this game. He singled in his first at-bat and scored on Brennan’s double. Next, Serra will play Seton LaSalle for the fourth time this season. Seton LaSalle won two of the first three meetings, highlighted by an 11-2 victory in the WPIAL championship.
Seton LaSalle 3, Laurel 2: Freshman Drew Lafferty tossed a complete game with 12 strikeouts and drove in three runs, helping WPIAL champion Seton LaSalle (21-2) edge Laurel (13-8) at Shaler. Lafferty gave up four hits and walked two. It was Seton LaSalle’s fourth one-run win in six postseason games. Lafferty had an RBI single in the first and a tworun single in the fourth after Laurel tied the score on a throwing error in the third. Laurel’s Tanner Stewart had an RBI double in the sixth.
Class 1A
West Middlesex 9, California 3: Kaz Hoffman went 4 for 4 with three RBIs to help District 10 champion West Middlesex down WPIAL champion California (19-2) at Pullman Park. West Middlesex scored the first five runs and held a 7-1 edge after three innings. Hoffman hit a tworun home run in the second. Jordan Kearns, Fred Conard and Nate Zemany drove in runs for California.