Apr 25, 2022 5 min read

McDONALD – t’s not often that a baseball game ends on a walk-off strikeout.

Monday’s game between Fort Cherry and Chartiers-Houston did.

With two outs, two on and the game tied in the bottom of the seventh inning, Chartiers-Houston’s Ryan Parise struck out Fort Cherry’s Dylan Rogers.

But instead of the game going to extra innings, the pitch got past catcher Ryan Lane. Fort Cherry courtesy runner Ethan Faletto scored, and the Rangers won, 6-5.

Fort Cherry tied the game on a passed ball in the same at-bat, and Rogers saw another one coming.

“I knew it was going to hit the ground and go past the catcher,” Rogers said. “So I was like, ‘I’m going to swing, my boy is going to take home, and we’re going to win.'”

Rogers didn’t want to strike out, but he and his teammates were happy with the way things happened.

Faletto – a courtesy runner who didn’t start the Class 2A Section 4 game – said he thought there was “maybe a 10 percent chance” of the game ending the way it did.

Standing on third base, however, he had to be ready for the scenario.

He was.

The Rangers are now 5-1 overall, 5-1 in the section and keeping pace with Burgettstown and Seton LaSalle, who entered the day 6-0 and 5-0, respectively.

It was an uplifting win for Fort Cherry and a deflating loss for Chartiers-Houston (3-4, 5-5). The Bucs have already lost more games than they did all of last season when they went 15-4 and made it to the WPIAL quarterfinals.

The game’s last moments summed up his team’s day well for coach Andy Manion.

“There were some runs gifted,” Manion said. “Not to take anything away because (Fort Cherry) executed. There were some errors, free passes, hit batsmen, wild third strikes, all sorts of things like that. Then there were some baserunning mistakes. All facets of the game.

“The frustrating thing is when you go through that constantly in practice, and you think you’re prepared for it, and then we don’t execute. They executed better than we did today. That’s what it boils down to.”

The Rangers opened the scoring in the bottom of the first when a single by Ryan Craig scored Louis Serafin. The Rangers added another run later in the inning.

Chartiers-Houston got one back in its half of the second when a single by Parise scored Jake Mele, but that half inning was soured somewhat by the poor execution Manion referenced.

Matt Rieger led off the inning and reached base via a hit-by-pitch. With Mele batting, Fort Cherry catcher Owen Norman picked Rieger off first.

Later in the inning, with a run in, two outs and runners on first and second, Fort Cherry pitcher Ryan Steele picked Chartiers-Houston’s Ryan Opfer off first base to limit the damage.

The Rangers further made the Bucs pay in the bottom half of the inning when Faletto – coming on for Steele, who doubled earlier in the inning – scored on a passed ball.

Chartiers-Houston kept fighting, however, and tied the score with two runs in the fourth. The first scored when a fly ball by Parise hit center fielder Rogers’ glove, and the second came in when No. 9 hitter Justus Buckingham drew a bases-loaded walk.

The Bucs took the lead in its half of the fifth. With Rieger on first, a line drive by Mele went past a diving Rogers, allowing Rieger to score and giving Mele an RBI double.

Fort Cherry answered right away in the bottom half, however, and tied the score on a leadoff home run by Serafin.

In the top of the seventh, Chartiers-Houston’s Lane Camden led off with a go-ahead home run and almost was the day’s hero.

The lead held until there were two outs in the bottom of the seventh. With the bases loaded, a pair of passed balls changed the whole afternoon for both teams.

The day might not have had a true hero, but Fort Cherry coach Bob Sawhill doesn’t mind.

Sawhill said the team wasn’t “supposed to be that good” after graduating five seniors. Yet, Fort Cherry is right in the thick of things in Section 4.

“It helps us immensely,” Sawhill said. “Because we’re very inexperienced. The second baseman, the pitcher, the center fielder and the right fielder, they are all new.”

Fort Cherry doesn’t have much time to savor the win, and Chartiers-Houston doesn’t have much time to sulk in the loss. The two teams face off again today, this time in Houston.

Manion is eager to see how his squad responds.

“(This type of loss) doesn’t build; it just reveals the character,” Manion said. “And that’s what we’re going to find out tomorrow and see what they have.”