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Mikes’ defense falters in loss to Lancers

4 min read
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ROBINSON TWP. – Carmichaels coach Dickie Krause felt his team needed a stellar performance to stay with Neshannock.

The Mikes fell far short of that in suffering an 11-1, five-inning loss to the Lancers in a WPIAL Class AA quarterfinal baseball playoff game at Burkett Park on Monday.

Lead-off batter Preston Turk went 4-for-4 with a double, three RBIs and four runs scored to pace third-seeded Neshannock (18-2), which pushed across six unearned runs thanks to five Carmichaels errors.

Frank DeLuca went 3 for 3 with two RBIs for the Lancers, and catcher Jake Staph gave his team a two-way boost by nailing two Mikes trying to steal and stroking a pair of run-scoring singles.

Neshannock advances to the semifinals where it will meet second-seeded Serra Catholic on Wednesday.

“We made a lot of mistakes, mentally and physically,” Krause said. “That’s what it comes down to.

“They’ve been one of the elite programs in Double-A for awhile. We knew how good they were. But we came into this thinking if we play our ‘A’ game and we play as well defensively as we did against Jeannette (in a 1-0 first-round win) and if we pitch well and hit better we have a chance to be in the baseball game.”

None of that came to fruition for Krause.

“We botched two rundowns in the first inning,” Krause said. “We made a number of errors in the field. We didn’t hit at all again for the second straight game in the playoffs.

“You’re just not going to beat the elite programs if you’re not playing good baseball and we didn’t play good baseball.”

The Mikes hurt themselves with four errors in the first three innings.

Neshannock set the tone by scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the first.

Turk led off with a double, took second on DeLuca’s walk, advanced to third on Gerald Taylor’s fly out and sprinted home to score while DeLuca was caught in a rundown and the throw to the plate sailed high.

DeLuca was caught in a rundown again on a quick move by Mikes starting and losing pitcher Matt Barrish but again avoided an out when he dove under the tag to get back to second base. Mikes third baseman Zach Hillsman prevented any further damage when he turned Kadin Hall’s sharp grounder into a 5-3 double play.

Staph squelched potential Mikes’ rallies in the first two innings by gunning down Barrish, who singled with one out in the first, and Al Cree, who singled leading off the second, on attempted steals.

Neshannock added to its lead in the third when five straight singles and two errors ignited a four-run rally to make it 5-0. Zach Maize, Chris Bouye, Staph, Turk and DeLuca produced the hits, which prompted Krause to relieve Barrish with Drake Long.

“We tried to stay within ourselves and not try and do too much, each batter just do your job,” Lancers coach Bubba Kirkwood said. “Hit the ball hard and if they catch it they catch it, if they don’t then let’s keep running and just play hard.”

A Carmichaels error led to three unearned Neshannock runs in the third as Turk, DeLuca and Taylor each had an RBI single to make it 8-0.

“We took advantage of a few of their mistakes, definitely,” Kirkwood said.

“When you’re playing teams like this, every mistake you make gets magnified tremendously,” Krause said.

The Mikes got on the board in the fourth when Hall relieved starter and winning pitcher Brendan Hink. Cree singled, took second on a wild pitch and scored when Zach Gamble lined a single to center.

Neshannock strung together four more hits against the Mikes’ third pitcher, Logan Mayhle, to make it 10-1 and the game fittingly ended with the Lancers scoring their final run on an error to invoke the 10-run rule.

Cree had two of the Mikes’ four hits.

Krause has plenty of talent returning for 2020.

“We start five freshmen and sophomores, and we also have some juniors who had not played a lot until this year,” Krause said. “You look at our starting eight or nine, there aren’t a lot of guys who have never been through this process and on this big stage before.”

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