Motivated Waynesburg dominates Freedom

UPPER ST. CLAIR – The Waynesburg baseball team has had its fair share of postseason demons over the last decade.
Perhaps the hardest setback happened last year when the Raiders fell to Shady Side Academy in a rain-shortened, five inning game by one run.
Waynesburg was able to exercise some of those playoff demons Wednesday night and gain some redemption as the Raiders picked up their first postseason win since 2011 with an 8-1 victory over Freedom at Boyce-Mayview Park.
“This playoff win is just special, especially after what happen to us last year,” Waynesburg coach Jamie Moore said. “The kids were really focus for this game and they carried a quiet confidence heading into this game. We were ready.”
The last time the Raiders (12-5) won in the playoffs was a semifinal triumph over Laurel eight years ago. Waynesburg will play top seed Freeport in the quarterfinals next week with a time and site to be determined.
Luke Robinson was electric on the mound for Waynesburg as the junior righthander threw six stellar innings and allowed an unearned run on four hits with nine strikeouts and two walks on 98 pitches.
“I had a lot of confidence and just kept pounding the strike zone,” Robinson said. “I had a lot of movement on my pitches and I was able to work the outside the corner. I like to work the outside and then come back inside with some off-speed stuff.”
Evan Zimmer pitched a scoreless seventh for the Raiders.
“We have a mature team,” Moore said. “Everything worked out for us and we did all the little things to win a playoff game. Luke gave us a tremendous outing and he was locked in. When he is out there, it gives everyone a lot of confidence. He just controls the game and we play well behind him.”
Both teams tallied a run in the opening inning as losing-pitcher Noah Henderson scored on a two-out infield error for the Bulldogs (9-10) and Kyle Blasco hammered a RBI single for Waynesburg.
After a scoreless top of the second, Waynesburg scored four runs on five hits in the bottom half of the inning to take firm control of the first round contest.
Jesse Johnson grabbed a RBI hit and then Tyler Switalski pounded a bases-clearing, two-out triple for the big hit in the inning.
“This was big and I think everyone last year thought we should have won that playoff game,” Switalski said. “We always have that game in the back of our minds. We wanted that redemption this season. On my triple, I was just trying to hit the ball the other way. I had a full count, so I was sitting on a fastball.”
The Raiders extended their lead to 8-1 in the fourth, via run-producing doubles by Trevor Stephenson and Robinson, as well as a RBI fielder’s choice by Switalski.
“Our goal was to do better than last year,” Robinson said. “We really wanted this game badly and we did all the things we had to for the win. We are excited to play Freeport next and we will bring a lot of confidence into that game. We put it all together tonight.”
Robinson, Stevenson and Blasco all finished with multi-hit games in the 10-hit attack.
“We hit in bunches and this lineup is very tough one through nine,” Moore said. “I think our baserunning has really picked up and that has given us another way to produce runs. We have really picked it up the second half of the season. We had some tough losses early on, and now we playing for each other and playing with pride.”