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Gloria Gates Care takes 1-0 lead in Federation finals

Kelley Federation League Finals

By Michael Boytim 5 min read

Connor Waite will be one of the players the Altoona Area High School baseball team leans on heavily next season as he enters his senior year, and he's been gaining confidence by dominating the George B. Kelley Federation this summer.

Waite, a member of Gloria Gates Care -- the new Federation entry made up of many players from the Mountain Lions varsity and junior varsity squad -- was selected as the league's MVP prior to Wednesday's first game of the championship series.

It didn't take him long to show why.

Waite tripled and scored in the first inning and added a sacrifice fly and an RBI double later in a 13-4 Gloria Gates Care triumph over Laurel Medical in the first game of a best-of-three series to crown the Kelley Federation champion at Vets Field.

"All the hard work is paying off," Waite said. "I'm sticking to my approach in games and helping with run support for our pitchers. This was a great idea having a Federation team and getting to play with our high school team. We want to win for Coach Smith. It's great to play for him, and he's a great guy. It gives us a lot of connections and gives us an opportunity to help the younger kids."

Waite has also pitched well for Gloria Gates Care this season, something he'll likely be doing more of along with fellow incoming senior Eric McAllister, next spring.

"He swings a really sweet bat," Gloria Gates Care acting head coach Tom Smith said. "He does a really nice job on the mound for us. He's pretty much carried his momentum over from the high school season. He's had a great summer, both pitching and hitting and proved that again tonight. They were trying to pitch wherever they could, but he was on everything they were throwing to him. We're expecting good things from him next year, but we're just focused on trying to get everyone to play good ball this summer."

Offensively, Gloria Gates certainly did that.

Waite, winning pitcher Conner Pike, Carter McConnell, Leland Baer and Kelley Federation Rookie of the Year Brayden Pike each had two hits, and Ari Holzer and Alex Glasgow had pinch-hit RBI singles.

Gloria Gates Care only lost one game in the regular season but was taken to a deciding third game by Sons & Daughters of Italy in the semifinals.

"This is our first year putting a team in the summer," Smith said. "We're just trying to get guys some continuity. We just came off a really tough semifinal series. The kids from Cambria Heights and Northern Cambria played us really tough. And if Laurel had all their guys, they are missing some players, that's a good team. We were missing some guys, and now we have our whole team, and they are short-handed. We're not nine runs better than them. We have to come out and play much better in the field tomorrow."

Gloria Gates won despite eight errors.

"We didn't play great tonight," Smith said. "Making eight errors in a game is not a good game by our standards. We need to clean that up. That should not happen."

Gloria Gates jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but Laurel Medical got within three when Evan Young reached on an error and scored in the top of the fifth inning.

But Gloria Gates put up six runs in the bottom of the inning to put the first game in the series away. Game 2 is tonight at Vets Field at 7 p.m.

"It's their first year, but they have been playing together since last fall," Laurel Medical coach Evan Sanders said. "We knew it would be a tough challenge playing against them. We're just trying to play the best game we can."

Grayson Johnson had two hits for Laurel Medical, including a double, but Laurel left 12 runners on base in the seven-inning game.

"They had some timely hits, and we didn't. That's how it goes sometimes," Sanders said. "This is our fourth year straight in the championship. We lost a bunch of guys from last year and didn't know what we would have going into this season, so we're very pleased and pleasantly surprised with what we have been able to do."

LAUREL MEDICAL (4): Morgan cf 420, R. McConnell rf-3b 400, Young ss 411, Rossman c 401, E. Moser p-rf 401, Keefer 3b-p 301, Cicero 2b 400, Johnson lf 402, Biddle dh 210, S. Moser 1b 000. Totals -- 33-4-6.

GLORIA GATES CARE (13): B. Pike cf 322, Kraft c 300, Waite 1b 322, McAllister ss 231, C. Pike p-cf 332, C. McConnell rf 312, Glasgow ph 101, Hainsey 3b 201, Holzer ph 101, Palladini 2b 000, Hileman dh 200, Beegle dh 110, Baer lf 412, Starr eh 100, Keith eh 100. Totals -- 30-13-14.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Laurel Medical 001 012 0--4 6 1

Gloria Gates Care 203 062 X--13 14 8

E--McAllister 3, C. Pike 2, Palladini 2, B. Pike, Keefer. 2B--Johnson, B. Pike, C. McConnell, Waite, Baer. 3B--Waite. RBI--C. Pike 3, Waite 2, C. McConnell 2, B. Pike, Glasgow, Hainsey, Holzer, Baer, Keefer, Rossman. WP--C. Pike. LP--E. Moser. SO--C. Pike 5, E. Moser 5, Keefer 1. BB--C. Pike 1, B. Pike 1, E. Moser 3, Keefer 2.

Umpires: Jason Oakes (HP); Shaun Feather (1B); Kyle Wilson (3B).

Best-of-three series: Gloria Gates Care leads 1-0.

Starting at /week.