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West Greene can’t complete comeback against Eden

3 min read

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UPPER ST. CLAIR – The West Greene baseball team might be one of the youngest squads to make the WPIAL playoffs this spring.

With just two seniors and two juniors, the Pioneers knew they had a tough task going up against a red-hot Eden Christian team in their Class A first-round matchup Wednesday afternoon at Boyce-Mayview Park.

The lack of postseason experience showed in the first five innings, but the Pioneers had an answer in the sixth and really tighten things up before suffering a 7-5 loss.

“I love our fight late in the game,” WG coach Shawn Lohr said. “We were down 7-0 and this could have easily ended with a 10-0 loss in five innings. Our young kids didn’t back down and battled back in the sixth. We just got those clutch hits in the sixth.”

This was only the third time the Pioneers have been in the playoffs, including last year’s loss to Cornell and an opening round setback in 1993.

The experience also was a factor on the mound, as Eden’s senior Warren Schmotzer outdueled West Greene’s sophomore Caleb Rice.

Schmotzer allowed a hit in each of the first three innings, but was able to wiggle out of trouble. Schmotzer went six innings and allowed five runs on seven hits with eight strikeouts and one walk on 91 pitches.

Rice managed to throw only 3.1 innings and took the loss, allowing six runs on only two hits with five walks and one strikeout on 45 pitches.

“He can be Jekyll and Hyde for us,” Lohr said. “He can be a shutdown pitcher, or he could have an outing like today. He wasn’t able to throw his off-speed stuff for strikes and struggled with his command. When you do that, you are going to struggle.”

Corey Wise pitched the remainder of the game, allowing just four hits with a strikeout and a free pass on 42 pitches.

Eden grabbed two runs in the bottom of the first, via an RBI triple by Daniel Adams and RBI groundout by Mark Williams.

The Warriors extended their lead to 3-0 after a two-out, run-producing double by Markus Williams in the third inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, Eden broke the game open with four runs and chased Rice with just one out in the inning. Schmotzer collected a two-run single, followed by an RBI hit from Luke Vittone. Schmotzer later scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-0.

West Greene did get out of the jam with a nifty double play that was started when Dalton Lucey caught a line drive then tagged third base for two outs.

After a scoreless fifth, the Pioneers’ offense found its hitting touch and plated five runs on four hits. Rice started the rally with a RBI hit followed by a pair of two-run doubles by Corey Wise and Casey Miller.

“Their pitcher struggled in that inning, but we took advantage of it,” Lohr said. “I told the guys to move up in the batters’ box because he wasn’t throwing his curveball for a strike. We moved up in the box and we made some solid contact on some fastballs.”

Joey Reed collected a one-out single in the seventh, but Eden got out of the frame and secured the victory with a fly out to centerfield and an infield pop out.

Hunter Hamilton had three hits for West Greene, and Wise two doubles.

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