BROOKVILLE, Pa. (D9Sports) – There is something about the playoffs that the Brockway Rovers baseball team likes.
(Photo of Zane Puhala of Brockway. Photo by Paul Burdick. Check out more of Burdick’s work here)
After winning six games in eight weeks during the regular season, seventh-seeded Brockway has now won District 9 Class 2A playoff games on back-to-back days after knocking off defending champion and third-seeded Brookville, 7-5, in the semifinals at Brookville’s McKinley Field Thursday. That came on the heels of an 8-6 win at second-seeded Coudersport Wednesday.
“I think we just told ourselves it is time to step up,” left fielder Zane Puhala, who had two hits, three runs scored and two RBIs in the win, said. “It’s time to go. It’s win or go home now. People didn’t think we could get these two wins. But we came out and did our job.”
Watch more of Puhala’s thoughts on the victory.
Puhala’s manager, Terry Moore, said just getting to play games has been big for the Rovers.
“This year, maybe, we could never get into a roll,” Moore said. “It was one game, three days of snow, one game, two weeks of rain. We had to play five games in six days one week. We went 2-3 that week, but we were in every game. We played Brookville tough. We played Johnsonburg tough. We played with teams all year, except for a couple of the games. Being there last year (when Brockway lost to Brookville in the D9 2A title game), a lot of these kids were there last year, so they know the pressure of being in the playoffs. They clutched up.”
It helped that Brockway played a fairly clean game whereas Brookville seemingly couldn’t get out of its own way.
The Raiders allowed five unearned runs in the game thanks to five errors, including four from sophomore third baseman Aaron Park, who committed two throwing errors and two fielding errors a day after throwing over 100 pitches in a win over Curwensville.
Brookville also had a couple of base-running mistakes including Brady Caylor failing to move up a base on what would have been a passed ball that ended up most likely costing the Raiders two runs in the fourth and freshman Chase Palmer running into the game’s final out after Brookville had cut a 7-3 deficit heading into the bottom of the seventh into a 7-5 deficit and had its two best hitters – Seth Dunkle and Park – coming up after Caylor’s RBI single that saw Palmer get thrown out at home after going past third when he most likely should have held at second. Brookville also left the bases loaded twice in the game and stranded 11 baserunners.
“The bottom line is we just made too many mistakes,” Brookville manager Bruce Ferry said. “To win a playoffs game, you need to pitch well, play defense and run the bases. We didn’t run the bases very well, and we made too many errors. We gave them too many opportunities. Credit to them, they took advantage of them.”
The first inning was a microcosm of the game for Brookville.
A Park throwing error on a one-out ball hit to third by Matthew Clark followed by a wild pitch allowed the Rovers to grab a 1-0 lead.
Then, in the bottom of the inning, Brookville had Brockway starter Tyler Serafini on the ropes drawing four walks off the junior right-hander in the inning but somehow managing to score just two runs despite Serafin throwing 38 pitches.
“The thing with (Tyler) this year, he has started slow but he has calmed down,” Moore said. “He never gets out of sorts. He will come back in the next innings, and he will throw strikes. Just like every time this year, he has found a way to wiggle out of it. He did. He kept us in the game like he has all year.”
Serafini got some help from his defense when shortstop Cameron Baka made a great diving play on a ball hit up the middle by Dane Lyle that looked destined for a two-run single up the middle. Instead, Baka was able to smother the ball and flip to second baseman Ben Glasl for an out at second. When Cole Labenne followed with an RBI single it became clear that Baka’s play probably saved at least two runs for the Rovers if not more in the inning.
“It was absolutely a huge play,” Moore said. “He went a long way to get the ball. He was pretty near the bag, I think it was just instinct to flip it to second base. They score at least two more runs if he doesn’t stop that ball. That was a huge play. It was probably the biggest defensive play we made. It probably settled us down and kept us in the game.”
Down 2-1, Brockway tied the game in the third when Puhala led off with a single and stole second. Baka then walked, and Serafini sacrificed the runners up 90 feet. Clark then hit a ball that Park couldn’t field at third with Puhala scoring.
Brookville retook the lead, 3-2, in the fourth but it could have been so much more for the Raiders.
Tyler Park got the inning started by reaching first on catcher’s interference. A wild pitch moved him to second and he went to third on a groundout by Palmer. Caylor followed with an RBI double to right-center, and after Dunkle flew out, Aaron Park walked.
With Tanner Labenne at the plate, a pitch from Serafini glanced off the glove of the catcher Dominic Inzana and all the way to the backstop. But Caylor never budged off of second base meaning Park couldn’t advance either.
That mistake proved costly when Labenne singled to right, but Caylor got a late break off second and Ferry, coaching third, was forced to stop him at third. If he had been at third he scores, and Park, a good baserunner, probably scores as well from second.
Serafini then got out of the jam thanks to another fine play from Baka who fielded a grounder by Lyle deep at shortstop with a lot of traffic in front of him and threw Lyle out at first.
Two more Brookville errors allowed Brockway to tie the game at three in the fifth,
Puhala led off with a grounder to third that Park again couldn’t field. Then Lyle, the Brookville pitcher, tried to pick off Puhala at first and threw the ball away with Puhala going all the way to third. Baka followed with a single to left to tie the game and end Lyle’s day.
Lyle still got Baka out, as he moved to catcher and threw out the Rover trying to steal, as Dunkle escaped the rest of the inning without further damage.
Brookville wasn’t so fortunate in the sixth, as Park’s fourth error and his second throwing error led to three decisive runs for the Rovers.
With one out, Glasl singled to right, but Dunkle got the second out and then got Dominic Inzana to ground a ball to Park at third. But the sophomores’ throw skipped past Tanner Labenne at first allowing Glasl to go to third and Inzana to second. Puhala followed with a base hit to left scoring two runs, and Puhala then made it 6-3 when he scored on a single to left by Serafini.
Brockway added on an important insurance run in the seventh when Angelo Inzana walked to lead off and scored on a two-out single to center by Zach Foradori.
“That extra run that Zach clutched up and knocked in, having that fourth run was a relief for us,” Moore said. “It helped us in the end.”
Brockway needed all the runs it could get, as Brookville tried to rally in the bottom of the seventh.
But somehow, the Raiders managed to score just two runs despite getting five hits and making just one out at the plate.
Lyle, Cole LaBenne and Trenton Gilhousen started the inning with three straight singles to load the bases. But Tyler Park bounced into a 5-3 double play with Lyle scoring leaving Brookville down to its final out.
Palmer kept the game alive with a single to left putting runners at the corners, and when Caylor followed with a bloop single to center it looked like things were lining up perfectly for the Raiders with Dunkle and Aaron Park about to come to the plate. But Caylor never stopped around second and then tried to dodge the play at third running past the bag – no one was 100 percent sure if he even touched third – and continued towards home where Serafini, now playing third base, tracked him down for the game’s final out.
“That’s baseball,” Moore said. “Things like that happen. We have been on the other end of it. Things happen in baseball that you can’t understand. But they happen.”
Brockway will take on top-seeded Johnsonburg in the title game at 4 p.m. May 30 at Showers Field in DuBois.
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