HEGINS — Colby Harner knew nothing about Pine Grove Red reliever Jason Soper when the two faced off Friday evening.
Harner was looking for a fastball, and on a 1-2 pitch, he got one waist high.
“I just ripped it. That is my sweet zone,” he said.
Indeed it was, and Harner finished off what was a sweet win for Hegins, which is now one win away from a title.
Harner’s walk-off single knocked in Peyton Poletti with game-winning run to cap a three-run bottom of the seventh in Hegins’ 4-3 victory in the Schuylkill County Teener League Senior Division winners’ bracket final at Hegins Park.
Soper replaced Pine Grove starter Dominic Dostick with one out, a run in and the bases loaded. Willy Kimmel’s infield single tied the game at 3, before Harner smacked his base hit to left. The Hegins players rushed off the bench to first greet Poletti after he crossed the plate, then everybody ran over to celebrate with Harner at first.
“It feels a lot better winning like this than winning by 10 runs,” said Harner, a 16-year-old who will be a junior at Tri-Valley this fall.
Friday’s game started Thursday but was suspended by rain before the start of the bottom of the second. The comeback victory moves Hegins (18-2), the tournament’s No. 3 seed, into the championship round at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Hegins Park.
In Friday’s losers’ bracket games, No. 2 Frackville eliminated No. 5 Branch with a 2-1 win, while No. 8 DeAngelo’s Crimson did the same to No. 7 Cressona 5-2. DeAngelo’s Crimson (12-8) will travel to Frackville Red (17-3) in another elimination game at 5:30 this evening.
No. 4 Pine Grove Red (14-6) will face today’s winner in the losers’ bracket final Sunday. The winner of that game travels to Hegins on Monday. If Hegins wins, it will be the champs. If not, a deciding contest will be Tuesday.
“There is no giving up in these kids,” Hegins manager Shawn Masser said. “They know no matter what the situation, they can come back and win it. They never say die.”
It appeared Pine Grove Red would be the ones headed to Monday’s championship round, especially with the way Dostick, a lefty, was throwing.
Dostick pitched a one-hitter during Hegins’ 1-0 victory in the regular-season finale June 30. He had a no-hitter through five innings this time around before it was broken up on a single by Kimmel to begin the sixth.
Dostick wasn’t the same in the seventh, and Pine Grove Red manager Paul Wike felt that Hegins was able to finally get to Dostick after he started to miss with his pitches inside.
“He wasn’t hitting his inside pitch,” Wike said. “They were sitting, it seemed to be, away. In the last game against Hegins, we stayed away on them and they didn’t do a good job of putting it to that side. Tonight, I decided to kind of run it in on them and jam them and we had them way off balanced.
“Dominic started missing his inside in the last inning, so then he started to go away from it. He was getting it out over the plate and they were getting balls in play.”
A leadoff walk to Colton Love started the rally. Logan Yoder followed by smacking a double to center, moving Love to third. Dostick then hit Dawson Boltz in the leg with a pitch, loading the bases.
After Poletti reached on a fielder’s choice and Love was retired at the plate, Matt Barr walked to force in Yoder and make it 3-2.
That was it for Dostick, as Wike turned to Soper to try to work out of the jam.
Kimmel, who finished with two hits, hit a grounder to the left of Pine Grove Red second baseman Austin Dubbs. He dove to his left to knock it down, but his throw to first was late and Boltz came in to tie the game.
Harner then followed with his base hit to end it.
“Dostick shut us down for six innings,” Masser said. “He had us way off. We got the walk and Logan’s double, that sort of got us going a little bit.
“I just told them when we huddled up when they came (for the bottom of the seventh) that we are not done. We still have a chance. They came through.”
Up until the that point, the game belonged to Pine Grove Red.
Hegins took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth without a hit, but Pine Grove Red came right back and went ahead with three runs in the top of the sixth.
Dostick provided what was at the time the go-ahead runs when his two-run double to center knocked in Austin Ney and Nick Kreiser to make it 2-1. After Cody Wike sacrificed Dostick to third, he came home on a single to left by Alex Wtimer.
Both Dostick and Witmer had two hits apiece for Pine Grove Red.
Dawson Schwalm started for Hegins on Thursday and pitched two innings before the rains came. Love threw five innings of relief Friday to get the win, striking out three and walking five.
DeAngelo’s Crimson 5
Cressona 2
CRESSONA — Coby Williams pitched into the seventh inning and had three hits to pace No. 8 DeAngelo’s Crimson to win over No. 7 Cressona in a completion of a suspended losers’ bracket game.
One of Williams’ hits was a two-run single in the seventh, part of a three-run inning that gave DeAngelo’s Crimson some insurance.
Eli Doyle and J.R. Hanrer added two hits apiece for DeAngelo’s Crimson. Mike Winter had a RBI double in the first, while Tyler Timberlake hit a game-tying single in the sixth.
Williams struck out eight. Timberlake earned the save when he got out of a two-out, bases loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh.
Nate Nabholz, Ben Norris and Cole McNulty had singles for Cressona, which scored its two runs on a two-base error in the third to take a 2-1 lead.
DA Crim (12-8) 100 001 3 — 5 12 2
Cress. (12-8) 002 000 0 — 2 3 3
No. Nabholz, Williams (1), Timberlake (7) and Doyle; Caulfield, Freeman (2) and Na. Nabholz. W — Williams. L — Freeman. Sv — Timberlake.
HITS: DeAngelo’s Crimson — Baucum, Doyle 2, Williams 3, Winter, Messina, Blum, Timberlake, Harner 2. Cressona — Luckenbill, Norris, McNulty.
2B — Winter.
Frackville Red 2
Branch 1
FRACKVILLE — No. 2 Frackville Red pushed across runs in the second and third innings and held on for a victory over No. 5 Branch in a completion of a suspended losers’ bracket game at Memorial Park.
Nick Kowalishen scored Frackville’s Red first run when he forced home Austin Dietz on a bases-loaded walk in the second. Bobby Wagner stole home in the third to make it 2-0.
Alex Norris pitched three innings of one-hit ball in relief of Scotty Grigas to get the win.
Branch outhit Frackville Red 7-4 as Matt Leiby was 3-for-3. He drove in Nolan Hoffman for Branch’s only run in the fourth after Hoffman tripled with one out.
Branch (13-7) 000 100 0 — 1 7 2
Fr. Red (17-3) 011 000 x — 2 4 0
Hendricks and Andruchek; Grigas, Norris (3) and Neary. W — Norris. L — Hendricks.
HITS: Branch — Hendricks, Kuehn, Andruchek, Hoffman, Leiby 3. Frackville Red — M. Wagner, Grigas, B. Wagner, Kowalishen.
2B — Hendrick, B. Wagner. 3B — Hoffman.
Game Summary
Schuylkill County Teener League
Senior Division Playoffs
Winners’ bracket final
PINE GROVE RED (3) — Anspach lf 4 0 1 0, Soper ss-p 3 0 1 0, Ney 3b 0 1 0 0, Kreiser cf 4 1 1 0, Dostick p-ss 4 1 2 2, Wike c 2 0 0 0, Witmer 1b 3 0 2 1, Dubbs 2b 2 0 0 0, Bohr dh 3 0 0 0, Wolff rf 0 0 0 0. Totals 25 3 7 3.
HGEINS (4) — Kimmel ss-cf 4 0 2 1, Harner 2b 3 0 1 1, Schwalm p-ss 3 0 0 0, Masser 3b 3 0 0 0, Love rf-p 2 0 0 0, Yoder 1b 2 2 1 0, Boltz cf 1 1 0 0, Poletti c 1 1 0 0, Behard cr 0 0 0 0, Barr lf 2 0 0 1. Totals 21 4 4 3.
PG Red (14-6) 000 003 0 — 3
Hegins (18-2) 000 010 3 — 4
One out when winning run scored
E — Pine Grove Red 1, Hegins 0. LOB — Pine Grove Red 8, Hegins 3. 2B — Dostick, Yoder. SB — Yoder 2. CS — Soper, Witmer. S — Wike.
PG Red IP H R ER BB K
Dostick L 6.1 2 4 4 4 2
Soper 0 2 0 0 0 0
Hegins IP H R ER BB K
Schwalm 2 1 0 0 1 0
Love W 5 6 3 3 5 3
Soper pitched to 2 batters in the 7th.
HBP — by Dostick (Yoder, Boltz). WP — Love.