Sons usually idolize their dads.
But, in Monday night's game 2 of the Altoona AAABA championship series, it was a dad thanking his son.
Jordan Faretta, son of Nittany Oil/Minit-Mart's manager Joe Faretta, helped spark a two-run third inning that led Nittany Oil to down Red Bull, 2-0, and capture the series via sweep.
"It's hard coaching my son," Joe Faretta said. "He is a gamer. But Dad is always tough on him. He got two crucial hits for us today.''
"Tough is an understatement,'' Jordan Faretta said. "He is very hard, but you know what, that is what good fathers do. They push you and try to make you as good as you could possibly be. It can be tough sometimes, but I guess if you work hard, it all pays off in the end.''
Jordan's leadoff single in the third, Cayden Stover's double and Von Walker's two-run single resulted in the game's only runs.
"It feels great,'' Jordan Faretta said. "All the hard work he has done. He has put so much time and effort into this team. It feels good to just pay it off. It feels good to just give something back to him.''
The younger Faretta was Nittany Oil/Minit-Mart's only player to record two hits. Faretta, Stover and Walker, the 7-8-9 hitters, had four of the team's five hits.
"We played a great team, and we beat a great team, and we are a great team,'' Joe Faretta said. "We have guys that pick each other up. They stay together all year. Ups and downs. It was a tremendous effort by many of our pitchers and our timely hitting with the bottom of the lineup. Who would ever think the bottom of our lineup would start to bring it around?''
Along with timely hitting, Kyle Schneider's complete-game shutout pitching helped propel Nittany Oil past last year's champs.
It is the second straight complete-game performance from a Nittany Oil pitcher. In game 1, Trey Stover pitched a complete game, striking out 10. Monday night, Schneider fanned 11.
"The thing is, who would have thought we would have ever won this thing with out going to [closer] Austin Mock?'' Joe Faretta said. "He led the the PSAC in saves. He is one of the most dominant closers I have seen in a long time. For us not to have to go to Austin, I was worried there [Sunday] night, of course. Then tonight again. Our starters would not let me get the ball off of their hand.''
Schneider struck out at least one batter each inning and faced fewer than four batters per inning until the seventh, where he saw five.
"Kyle Schneider threw a great game,'' Red Bull manager Jeff Miller said. "He deserves all the credit in the world. But I'm not one to make excuses, but he was facing like six high school kids. College starter against six high school kids, that's what it is going to look like.''
Red Bull was the first team to win an Altoona AAABA title after the league expanded last year.
"It's tough because most of the guys on the team know what we are playing for and how much fun we had last year,'' Miller said. "It's heartbreaking for him. They are upset. The newer guys don't know as much, but they can see it in the other guys. They really wanted it. It wasn't in the cards.''
Nittany Oil/Minit-Mart will now play in the AAABA Regional Tournament this weekend at both the Juniata Field and the Penn State Altoona Campus.
"We are excited. We are ready to this weekend," Joe Faretta said. "I have all my horses back. It's going to very entertaining. We are going to give it everything we have.
"A lot of effort, a lot of time, but we did it.''
RED BULL (0): Carothers ss 400, Pope cf 302, Stern 3b 200, DeLuca rf 300, Herncane lf 200, Negri ph-lf 100, Appleby dh 300, Pugh 301, Laurito c 300, D. Fry pr 000, M. Fry 2b 301, Chamberlain p 000, Ferguson p 000. Totals -27-0-5 .
NITTANY OIL/MINIT-MART (2): Doran cf 200, T. Stover dh 300, Myers rf 300, Henderson rf 000, Mock 201, Taylor 1b 300, Hill c 200, Faretta 2b 312, C. Stover 3b 211, Walker 201. Totals -22-2-5 .
SCORE BY INNINGS
Red Bull000 000 0-0 5 1
Nittany Oil/Minit-Mart002 000 x-2 5 1
E-Mock, Chamberlain. 2B-C. Stover. RBI-Walker 2. WP-Schneider. LP-Chamberlain. SO-Schneider 11, Chamberlain 4, Ferguson 3. BB-Schneider, Chamberlain, Ferguson 2.
Series: Nittany Oil/Minit-Mart wins, 2-0
