BUTLER, Pa. (D9Sports) — Karns City scored in six of the seven innings and watched Moniteau commit five errors, as the Gremlins rolled past the Warriors 9-2 Wednesday night in the District 5-9 semifinals at Kelly Automotive Park in Butler.
(Photo: Eric Dodd, Karns City. Photo by Mike Schnelle. Check out more of Schnelle’s work here)
“They got into a situation where they were struggling with their location and in the field, and we just took advantage of those opportunities which really helped us,” said Karns City head coach Dave McElroy.
The Gremlins got it rolling right away as Nolan Riley drew a one-out walk followed by the first of two triples hit by Tyler Yough. Moniteau’s Brice Williams made a tremendous play from right field throwing Riley out at the plate, but second baseman Nick Sosigian couldn’t make the groundball play of a Cullen Williams hit that gave the Gremlins a 1-0 lead after a half inning.
A bad pattern was beginning for the Warriors
After Moniteau went 1-2-3 in the bottom half, leadoff hitter Jacob Weckerly reached on Sosigian’s second error of the game.
Eric Dodd then singled him to third. Colton Hutchison followed by legging out a single that scored Weckerly, on the play Warriors catcher Wyatt Geibel attempted to throw out Dodd, who ran for third after the Warriors couldn’t get Weckerly at home. But the ball sailed past third baseman Gage Neal allowing Dodd to score putting the Gremlins in front 3-0 heading into the bottom of the second.
“Nothing was going correctly tonight, just defensive letdowns were the name of the game tonight,” said Moniteau head coach Ross Martin. “Way too many defensive breakdowns. Thankfully, we had two hits there in the seventh or we were going to finish the game with more errors than hits.”
The Warriors were able to make a little noise in the bottom half as Nick Sosigian leadoff with a walk. Lake Pry’s groundout advanced him to second, two batters later Geibel walked, but Brice Williams popped out to shortstop ending the inning.
Hunter Fitzingo was able to get to get Jace Ebbitt to ground into the inning-ending double play in the Gremlin’s part of the third after yielding a base hit and walk to Williams and Markus Lantz respectively.
Moniteau cracked the scoreboard in the bottom of the third.
Fitzingo and Jared Lominski each had one-out singles. Josh Adamson knocked home Lee DeMatteis who was courtesy running for Fitzingo, but Lominski got caught in a rundown and was tagged out by Stephen O’Donnell ending the inning.
In what would be Fitzingo’s last inning, another Warriors error, this one by Chance Nagy, also at second base, put Eric Dodd on first. He advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a groundout. O’Donnell’s single put Karns City ahead 4-1 after three complete as Moniteau went 1-2-3 in the bottom half.
Chance Nagy took over on the hill for the Warriors in the fifth inning, and Yough immediately drilled his second triple and was sacrificed home by Williams making it 5-1. Moniteau got a leadoff single by Bruce Williams in the bottom half, but three straight groundouts ended the inning.
Karns City then completely put the game away in the sixth inning.
Nagy went on to walk four consecutive Gremlin batters in Hutchinson, O’Donnell, Riley and Yough and the pushed the score to 6-1. Jake Jewart then came in relief of Nagy and gave up a two-run single to Williams, who had three RBIs, on the night pushing the score to 8-1.
“After the rough start we gathered ourselves, the seniors stepped up their game, and we’ve rattled off 13 out of 14 games,” said Williams. “Moniteau and Cranberry got us the last two years so we knew we had to come out and get it today and that’s what we did.”
Jace Ebbitt led off the seventh with a single for Karns City and advanced to second on Weckerly’s groundout. Back-to-back walks to Dodd and Hutchinson loaded the bases. Ebbitt then scored on a wild pitch before Jewart got out of the inning with no further damage.
Moniteau capped the scoring on the night as Geibel’s one-out single was followed by Jewart’s two-out walk and Fitzingo’s single scoring Geibel and bringing the final score to 9-2.
Karns City advances to play Chestnut Ridge in the District 5/9 Sub-Regional Championship at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Punxsutawney.
“It was a quality season with a quality record, but in the end, it’s disappointing and not living up to the expectations of ourselves,” said Martin.
“Our goal at the beginning of the season was to be playing our best ball at the end of the year,” said McElroy. “We played a couple of really tough teams when we were 2-4 in Armstrong and Kiski Prep. But ounce we got rolling with confidence in the kids and coaching staff that sets the table for good things.”
Karns City 9 Moniteau 2
Score by Innings
Karns City 1 2 0 1 1 3 1 — 9
Moniteau 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 — 2
Karns City — 9
Player, Position, AB, R, H, RBI
Stephen O’Donnell 2B, 5111, Nolan Riley 1B, 5100, Tyler Yough SS, 4221, Cullen Williams C, 4013, Markus Lantz 3B, 4010, Jace Ebbitt LF, 4110, Jacob Weckerly DH, 4100, Eric Dodd P, 4210, Colton Hutchinson RF, 4111, Jimmy Thompson CF, 0000. Totals: 38-9-8-6.
Moniteau — 2
Player, Position, AB, R, H, RBI
Jake Jewart SS, 4000, Hunter Fitzingo P, 4021, Jared Lominski DH, 4010, Nick Sosigian 2B, 2000, Josh Adamson CF, 3011, Lake Pry 1B, 3000, Gage Neal 3B, 3000, Wyatt Geibel C, 3110, Brice Williams RF, 3010, Brian Kusner 1000, Lee DeMatteis 0100, Chance Nagy LF, 0000. Totals: 30-2-6-2.
Left on base: Karns City 6, Moniteau 4, Karns City 1 Moniteau 5, Extra base hits: Karns City 2 Tyler Yough 2 Triples, Moniteau none. Stolen Bases: None. Caught Stealing: None.
Pitching:
Karns City
Eric Dodd — 7 IP — 6 Hits — 2 Runs — 2 Earned Runs — 2 Walks — 4 Strikeouts.
Moniteau
Hunter Fitzingo 4 IP — 6 Hits — 4 Runs — 2 Earned Runs — 2 Walks — 2 Strikeouts.
Chance Nagy 1 ⅔ IP — 1 Hit — 4 Runs — 4 Earned Runs — 4 Walks — 1 Strikeout.
Jake Jewart 1 ⅓ IP — 1 Hits — 1 Run — 1 Earned Run — 0 Walks — 0 Strikeouts.
Winning Pitcher — Eric Dodd
Losing Pitcher — Hunter Fitzingo
