BV Legion one win away from championship

Belle Vernon will host the Fayette league’s championship Monday at 6:30 p.m. as they face Connellsville.

Fresh off a game three victory over Charleroi to advance to the Fayette County American Legion Championship against Connellsville, Belle Vernon is looking for one more win against a squad that mirrors their own according to head coach Tom Jackson.

Connellsville swept Uniontown with two 6-5 victories to advance to Monday’s championship game, which is set for a 6:30 p.m. start at John Di-Virgilio Sports Complex.

“They’re just as good as us,” Jackson said. “I mean, they’re almost a mirror image of us. They put up a lot of runs like us, they have a bunch of good pitching like us, so I think it’s going to be a good game.

“They’re well coached. Brian Sankovich is a great coach. They’re an older team, they have a lot of good college players. They have just as much pitching as us, so it should be good. We’re the number one going into regionals and they’re the number two, so it’s setting up to be a good game.”

Connellsville is led by Chase Sankovich, Mason Miller, Aiden Newmeyer and Anthony Piasecki among others. All four players came up big in their two wins over Uniontown as Newmeyer won both games as a reliever and Piasecki came up with the series- winning RBI.

Making up their entire squad is Jacob Lee, Newmeyer, Eli Armstrong, Grayden Gillott, Miller, Piasecki, Sankovich, Miller, Kace Shearer, Cohen Groh, Even Means, Matthew Firestone, Ethan Porreca, Crue Harwell, Noah Zawislan and Logan Lowery.

Belle Vernon (15-1) suffered its first loss of the season during its semifinal series against Charleroi as it has been smooth sailing for the majority of the regular season, including a doubleheader sweep of Connellsville at home on June 13.

BV defeated their championship foes 12-7 and 7-2 that day at the site of Monday’s game as Kaden Faychak, AJ Grese and Colton Lee impressed. Faychak went 3 for 6 across both games, Grese hit 2 for 3 with three RBIs in the first contest and Lee went 2 for 4 with three RBIs in the second game.

All year long, Belle Vernon has managed to pair strong pitching and defense behind them with impressive offense. AJ Wardropper, Alex Nash, JB Crovak and Mason Suss are among the plethora of arms they have.

Belle Vernon’s full squad is made up of Grese, Nash, Austin Hoffman, Carson Matusik, Charlie Nigut, Cole Matusik, Lee, Jake Wessel, Jaxson Bozek, Crovak, Wardropper, Faychak, Kole Doppelheuer, Suss, Mitch Vuick and Zach Bird.

So far, things have been good for Jackson’s group.

“I couldn’t be happier about how we’ve played this year,” he said. “We knew what we had this year pitching-wise, and it’s worked well so far. The crazy thing about this team is that they keep their heads up no matter what, they never bury their heads. Even when we lost to Charleroi, we kept grinding and grinding until they went and got game three.”

Monday will give Belle Vernon its toughest test of the year, despite already winning twice against their adversaries. Jackson said that BV will have to focus on its fundamentals and get the expected contributions from everyone on the team to realize their goal of winning the Fayette County playoffs.

There’s no question that this Belle Vernon team is hungry for it.

“This team is ready to play every day,” Jackson said about his group. “We’re practicing Friday and Sunday. As a coaching staff, you can tell that the kids want it. They come to us and tell us, ‘Let’s have practice two times before Monday.’ It’s Friday night and these kids are 18, 19 years old, they could be doing a lot of other things with their time rather than hitting baseballs. But here we are.”