By Jose Negron
Through five innings Thursday night, Mon City struggled to get things going at the plate.
The Rams had plenty of baserunners, drawing six walks against Franklin Regional starter Brian Pirone, but a goose egg was found in both the hit and run columns.
Then, the sixth inning came along.
Trailing by six runs, the Rams manufactured four to cut their deficit to two before ultimately falling at the hands of Franklin Regional, 7-4, in the second round of the Western Pennsylvania Summer Baseball League playoff tournament at the DiVirgilio Sports Complex in Rostraver Township.
“I’m so proud of these guys because I don’t think we’ve seen a pitcher who threw that hard all year,” Roberts said of Pirone, who struck out eight and walked six in 4 2/3 innings of no-hit baseball for Franklin Regional. “It was tough catching up the first couple of innings, but I loved the way they battled.”
Mon City, which finished with 10 walks and just three hits, got its offense going in the sixth inning after Luke Treloar took over on the mound in relief for Franklin Regional.
Eli Callaway led things off with a walk before moving to second on an errant pickoff throw from Treloar. Callaway then advanced to third on a groundout and scored on an RBI double down the right field line off the bat of CJ Novotney.
Novotney, who struck out in his first two at bats, was tagged out at third trying for a triple, but his clutch extra base hit allowed the Rams to get on the board and cut the lead down to 6-1.
“He didn’t look too good his first couple of at bats, so for him to come back and get that big double down the line, that made me so happy,” Roberts said of Novotney, who missed the first eight games of the summer with a broken hand. “That was his last at-bat pretty much and he made it count.”
To read the rest of this story, please see a copy of Friday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at https://e.monvalleyindependent.com.