Waynesburg uses right combination to stop Charleroi
Catcher Brandon Turcheck is congratulated by Waynesburg coaches after a single in the third inning of its Section 3-AAA game against Charleroi at Meadowlark Park. Turcheck went three-for-three and scored three times.
Charleroi’s Sam Miceli applies the tag on Waynesburg’s Ryan Braun that ends the fourth inning of a Section 3-AAA at Meadowlark Park Friday afternoon.
Waynesburg second baseman Trey Rohanna turns the first part of a double play that ends the top of the second inning against Charleroi Friday afternoon.
Waynesburg second baseman Luke Robinson races to first with a single, one of his two hits in the game, against Charleroi Friday afternoon at Meadowlark Park. Luke batted in a run and scored in the 8-0 Waynesburg victory.
WAYNESBURG – The Waynesburg High School baseball team is headed for the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs.
How long the Raiders stay will depend in part on the two things on display Friday afternoon at Meadowlark Park: Hunter Robinson’s right arm and potency from the top of the lineup.
Both were on display during Waynesburg’s 8-0 victory over Charleroi in a Section 3-AAA game that was closer than the score might indicate.
The win not only kept the Raiders perched atop the section standings with a 7-0 record but also clinched a berth in the WPIAL playoffs. Waynesburg, now 9-1, has four section games remaining – two against sub-.500 teams – and an odd situation with the completion of a suspended game against Waynesburg that is tied 2-2 in the ninth inning next Saturday.
The loss dropped Charleroi to 5-3 in the section and 9-3 overall. The Cougars are realistically in play for a playoff spot with as high as a second-place finish in the section. Charleroi has a game against winless Southmoreland and tough Mt. Pleasant among the section games left on the schedule.
Robinson tossed 101 pitches, struck out eight, walked two and came within one out of a complete game shutout. Dalton Riggenbach got the final out.
“(Hunter) was at his best. He was pretty good and his pretty good is better than a lot of others,” said Waynesburg head coach Scott VanSickle. “We’re a day-by-day team. This was a game that was going to put us in a really good spot.”
For the first four innings, Robinson and Emery Anden were locked in a pitching duel. The only run of the game to that point came on an RBI double by Trey Rohanna that scored Brandon Turcheck’s courtesy runner Jesse Johnson in the first inning. Robinson had to work out of jams in the third and fifth innings before Waynesburg erupted for two runs in the bottom of the fifth and five more in the sixth.
“We knew it was going to be hard to get runs because Robinson is a good pitcher,” said Charleroi head coach Luke Mollis. “He lives on his fastball but he has a good curveball and slider. We put the ball in play early. We had a couple bad innings. If we can stop that from happening, it’s a pretty close game. Too many errors.”
The top five batters went a combined 8-for-13 with 6 runs scored and four RBI. Leadoff hitter Brandon Turcheck was especially effective, going 3-for-3 and those three hits produced three runs scored, though it was accomplished by Johnson.
“We expect to do that,” said Turcheck. “We attacked first-pitch fastballs and adjusted to everything else. It takes a lot of pressure off when we put runs on the board and do our thing. Our sites are set on winning the section championship.”
Waynesburg took the game over in the fifth inning. Already holding a 1-0 lead, the Cougars got the first two outs of the inning before Turcheck singled and courtesy runner Johnson scored on a double to the base of the fence in right-center field by Luke Robinson. Hunter Robinson drove in his brother with a single to center.
Waynesburg sent 10 players to the plate and scored five times in the sixth inning. The big hit was a two-run single to center field by Riggenbach that scored Hunter Robinson and Trey Rohanna.
“This is a very important win for us,” said Hunter Robinson. “It sets the tone. It puts us in the driver’s seat in for the playoffs and we’re just going to keep going.”