Baseball

Fifth spells doom for Williamsburg

By Nate Ritchey

nritchey@altoonamirror.com

The sixth-seeded Williamsburg baseball team battled its way through the first two rounds of the District 6 playoffs.

The result was, what is believed to be, the first trip to a district baseball championship game in school history.

So, count it as no surprise when the Blue Pirates fought from start-to-finish on Saturday afternoon at Peoples Natural Gas Field.

Unfortunately, WHS was unable to come out the victors as it fell to top-seeded Bishop McCort, 7-4, in the District 6 Class 1A title game.

"As far as I know, never," Williamsburg coach Bob McCall said when asked about Williamsburg's last title game appearance. "I've tried to find information and nobody can find anything. So, this is the fartherest we've ever been into it.

Whoever our opponent is, we're just going to move on and play ball like we have all year. … We've just got to focus on the next game, and try to win a game at states. We've never done any of this. It's just a privilege being here."

The Blue Pirates (7-12) will meet the winner of the District 5 championship game between Rockwood and Southern Fulton when PIAA state playoff action gets underway on Monday, June 6.

"They (Williamsburg) are a scrappy group of kids," Bishop McCort coach Chris Pfeil said. "Sometimes in high school basbeball, records are deceiving. … We scouted them very hard, and we knew we were going to be in for a battle. That's just a group of kids that are tough. I take my hat off to them, they're going to be a tough out next week."

Meanwhile, the Crushers (15-8) will meet the loser of that same title tilt on the same day.

The Pirates had everything they needed right from the start: the right guy on the mound in starting pitcher Rowan Gorsuch, a defense to back up their sophomore hurler, their bats were working early and a fan base one has come to expect from the Williamsburg community.

WHS, unfortunately, ran into one thing they desperately wanted to avoid -- the bad inning.

With the Pirates leading 4-3, the bad inning came in the bottom of the fifth as the Crushers put four runs on the scoreboard, chased Gorsuch from the contest, and made freshman Dylan Shawver's stint on the mound a short one as they send him back to his infield spot after just 15 pitches.

McCort freshman Colby Cannizzaro worked a walk from Gorsuch, who threw 61 pitches, to begin the fifth.

"Rowan did a good job of mixing speeds, and keeping us off-balance," Coach Pfeil said. "… We had some good things happen, and it was big to touch him up there and force them (Williamsburg) to make a move."

Shawver came on in relief and struggled mightily to find the strike zone.He walked Brock Beppler on four pitches, and fellow pitcher Mason Pfeil on five to load the bases.

Bishop McCort cleanup hitter Joe McGowan plated Cannizzaro with a single to left field, and Beppler was awarded home when it was deemed by the umpires that Pirates third baseman Colten Wagner obstructed his path upon rounding third.

With the Crushers holding a 5-4 edge, Nate Conrad laid a bunt down the third base line that drew no throw.

"Usually, that (nerves) doesn't get to him (Shawver)," McCall said. "Today, I think, maybe it did just get to him a little bit."

McCall was forced to pull Shawver in favor of Lambert Palmer, and the senior got Roman Fetzko to hit into a 1-2 force play at the plate as the bases were loaded.

Ethan Kasper was hit by a Palmer pitch to send Nick Yost, who was a courtesy runner for McGowan, home to make the score 6-4.

With the bases still loaded, Ben Smith flew out to Caydence Hughes in right that allowed Conrad to tag up to set the eventual final.

Palmer got Stevens to strike out to end the game-changing inning, and then struck out the Crusher side in the sixth.

After Palmer was walked by Pfeil to start the seventh, Gorsuch, who three RBIs, stroked a single.

On Shawver's flyout to BM Beppler in center field, Palmer tagged up and went to third. However, the Crushers appealed at second, and it was ruled that Palmer left early.

With the Blue Pirates down to their last out, Dylan Hartman flew out to Cannizzaro at second base to give Bishop McCort the ninth district title in school history.

Williamsburg jumped all over Pfeil at the start as Uplinger led off with a single as the ball dropped in when Beppler slipped.

Palmer followed by singling and then Gorsuch doubled them both home with as he found the gap in right center to give the Pirates the 2-0 after their half of the first inning.

"We were pumped up," McCall said. "We were the underdog from the get-go, we were the underdog from the beginning of this year."

McCort would respond with three in the second when Kasper singled to left, stole second and then came all the way around on a Stevens single to center.

Stevens would steal second before Cannizzaro reached on a Palmer throwing error from short to first -- allowing Stevens to cross the plate and move Cannizzaro to second.

Beppler smacked a double that allowed Cannizzaro to come home to put Bishop McCort up 3-2.

"We were a little unsettled (at the beginning). We had an outfielder slip and they had a hit-and-run they executed perfectly -- hit it where the hole was," Coach Pfeil said. "We got out of it with only giving up two, and I thought we kept our composure and chipped away.

Williamsburg came right back. Palmer opened the top of the third with a single, then stole second before Gorsuch doubled him home.

Gorsuch moved to third when Shawver grounded out to Conrad at second, and then scored when Hartman lined a single to left center to put the Pirates back in front 4-3 -- where it stayed until the bottom of the fifth.

"Rowan has thrown like 180 pitches the last three games. It's only been a couple of days rest, so that's essentially what happened today," McCall said. "Lambert came in and he hasn't thrown more than nine or 10 innings this whole year because he's been hurt … We out hit them (Bishop McCort), we didn't have as many errors as they did -- we just ran out of steam pitching."

WILLIAMSBURG (4): Uplinger c 412, Palmer ss-p 322, Gorsuch p-2b-ss 313, Shawver 2b-p-2b 401, Hartman 1b 201, McGregor cf 300, Brantner dh 300, Wagner 3b 000, G. Hughes lf 300, C. Hughes rf 300. Totals -- 28 4 9.

BISHOP MCCORT (7): Cannizzaro ss-2b 220, Beppler cf 312, Pfeil p-ss 300, McGowan c 101, Yost cr 010, Conrad 2b-p 311, Fetzko 1b 300, Kasper 3b 212, Smith dh 300, Jarvis rf 000, Stevens lf 311. Totals -- 23 7 7.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Williamsburg……………… 202 000 0--4 9 1

Bishop McCort…………… 030 040 0--7 7 2

E--Palmer, Kasper, Beppler. 2B--Gorsuch 2, Beppler 2. RBI--Gorsuch 3, Hartman, McGowan 2, Stevens, Beppler, Smith. SB--Kasper 2, Stevens, McGowan. CS--Uplinger, McGowan. WP--Pfeil. PB--Uplinger. HBP--Hartman, McGowan.

PITCHING

Williamsburg: Gorsuch (L) --4 innings, 5 H, 2 K, 2 BB, 3 R, 1 ER, 61 pitches; Shawver -- 0 innings, 2 H, 0 K, 2 BB, 2 R, 2 ER, 15 pitches; Palmer -- 2 innings, 0 H, 4 K, 0 BB, 3 R, 0 ER, 23 pitches.

Bishop McCort: Pfeil (W) -- 6 1/3 innings, 9 H, 5 K, 2 BB, 4 R, 4 ER, 97 pitches; Conrad -- 2/3 inning, 0 H, 0 K, 0 BB, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 pitches.

Records: Williamsburg (7-12); Bishop McCort (15-8).