Titans win neighborhood battle with Jaguars
In a nonsection battle between two local teams with high hopes in Class 4A West Mifflin and Class 5A Thomas Jefferson, it was the Titans that had a fast start and held off the Jaguars for a 7-5 win.
In a nonsection battle between two local teams with high hopes in Class 4A West Mifflin and Class 5A Thomas Jefferson, it was the Titans that had a fast start and held off the Jaguars for a 7-5 win.
The game, which was a home game for TJ (4-3) that was played at West Mifflin’s (6-3) turf facility due to rain, saw the Titans jump on TJ starter Noah Kaszer right away. Kaszer surrendered four earned runs on three hits in the first frame as West Mifflin never relinquished that lead despite a late rally from the Jaguars.
“That game was lost in the first inning,” TJ coach Tim Vickers said. “That’s the simplest way to put it. They dictated what was happening in the first inning. Looking back, there was an error on a groundball that our shortstop typically fields smoothly, and that kind of put the wheels in motion. I didn’t think we had great at-bats until late in the game.”
For West Mifflin, Caden Wills posted a solid outing for the complete- game win. He gave up seven hits and five runs, four earned, with no walks and four strikeouts. Offensively, Jayvon Thompson went 3 for 4 with two RBIs, Ryan Buchleitner hit 2 for 3 with an RBI and Chase Maggio also added two hits.
“Caden pitched a hell of a game,” West Mifflin coach Jeff Kuzma said. “The kid is one of our top pitchers, he’s our starting shortstop, and he just set us up well for today and moving forward by getting through this game in less than 100 pitches. That’s not easy to do, and he also got us a win on the day.
“Jayvon had a great game. He’s one of our best hitters, and he’s in his senior season, so he’s been around it for some time. He’s an ultra competitor. Sometimes we need to reel him in because he’s one that leaves his emotions on the field, but that’s okay because he’s learning to harness them and use them to play well like he did today.”
The Titans got their bats working right away, posting four runs in the top of the first to open up a nice lead.
Maggio opened things up with a single before Wills was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. After a passed ball allowed both runners to advance, Thompson lined a single to center field that scored two runs and quickly made it 2-0.
Thompson stole second during Braeden Andzelik’s at-bat before he drew a walk, and both runners managed a double steal that set Hunter Horne up with two runners in scoring position.
Horne grounded out, but Buchleitner singled to score one run and Andzelik stole home before the top of the frame ended at 4-0 in favor of the Titans.
On the other side, the Jaguars went down 1-2-3 in the first frame. They elected to swap Kaszer for Damian Bosco, who went ahead and sat West Mifflin down 1-2-3 in the top of the second.
Wills almost did the same to the next three TJ batters, forcing two groundouts before Andy Brnusak gave the Jaguars their first hit of the day with a double. However, Josh Chalovich flew out to end the second with the score at 4-0.
Both teams committed errors that led to runs in the third frame, bringing the score to 5-1 in favor of West Mifflin when Andzelik and TJ’s Justin Fry touched home.
Thompson singled and Andzelik drew a walk on a long at-bat before a single from Buchleitner loaded the bases with one out. Bosco struck out Eli Kurta to make it two outs, but an error covering first base allowed Dakota Leister to reach first and Andzelik to score. Buchleitner was tagged out trying to advance to second on the same play to end the top of the third.
Fry reached base on an error to open the bottom half, made it to second on a sacrifice bunt and advanced to third by tagging up on a fly out from Kaszer. That set up Cincinnati baseball commit Luke Kosko with a chance to bring a run in, and he hit a hard groundball to Maggio at short that forced an E6 and brought Fry home to make it 5-1. Carter Kirsch then flew out to center to move the action to the fourth inning where the Titans managed another run.
After Maggio singled, he used great baserunning to cash in on another TJ mistake. He stole second and then used a passed ball that Kirsch had to go towards his own dugout to retrieve to round third and score, making it 6-1.
Thomas Jefferson struck back with two runs of its own in the bottom of the fourth inning as Tyler Lesko was plunked and Chalovich doubled to score courtesy runner Tyler Mitrisin and make it 6-2. Then, Fry singled to score courtesy runner Justin Berberich and bring the score to 6-3 before Bosco struck out.
After plenty of scoring in the first four innings, the fifth and sixth frames were silent from both teams as neither managed to add to their score.
That changed in the top of the seventh as West Mifflin added one final run to bring the score to 7-3. Thompson opened things up with a double before Andzelik drew another walk and Horne singled on a bunt to load the bases. After a strikeout, James Moneck laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to score one more run for the Titans.
But Thomas Jefferson didn’t back down there, with Kosko crushing a double to drive in a run and Kirsch knocking in another run before the action ended.
Moving forward, the Jaguars will be back in action against Connellsville on Monday while the Titans will play at Uniontown the same day.
