First Posted: 7/24/2013
HANOVER TWP. – The winning rally started with the first of seven straight singles and didn’t stop until the final two, decisive runs scored on a play of pure hustle.
But really, Greater Pittston’s Region 5 American Legion baseball title was won even before that.
“We were sitting in the dugout, as a team,” Greater Pittston catcher Trent Grove said. “I’m going to play track and field in college at Temple. My other friends aren’t playing baseball. We’ve been playing together since we were 4, 5 years old. We said, ‘This is the last baseball we’re going to play in our whole lives.’
“If that is the last at-bat in my life, I knew I had to do it.”
He did, and so did the rest of Greater Pittston.
Grove’s bases-loaded, two-run single ignited a six-run rally that shocked Swoyersville and turned a four-run deficit into Greater Pittston’s 7-5 victory in the Region 5 American Legion baseball championship game at the Hanover Area High School baseball field.
“I just kept telling them, ‘Don’t give up and something good’s going to happen,’ ” said Greater Pittston manager Jerry Ranieli, whose team will head to the eight-team Pennsylvania state playoffs this coming Tuesday.
His gritty team proved him right.
With two on and two out in a tie game, Erik Walkowiak capped the dramatic comeback by beating out a bouncer far behind first base by out-running Swoyersville’s infielders to the bag for an infield hit. Both Justin Martinelli and Chuck Bressler – running hard all the way from second base – scored the game’s final two runs on the play, completing Greater Pittston’s gutsy comeback against its powerful Wyoming Valley league champion and rival.
“We hustle,” Walkowiak said. “We’re not a team that slows down running to first base because we know we’re going to be out. What I saw on that ball was, ‘This might be deep enough that I could beat him to the bag.’ “
Essentially, that typified Greater Pittston’s pact of refusing to be beaten.
It’s a mindset that showed up during Tuesday morning’s tournament elimination game, when Greater Pittston went 11 innings to defeat Jersey Shore, 9-7 for the right to play Swoyersville for the regional title in the afternoon. Greater Pittston scored three runs in the top of the 12th in that game on two bases-loaded grounders and Grove’s suicide squeeze bunt single.
“That’s how badly we wanted it,” Walkowiak said, “and how much this really means to us.”
It meant Greater Pittston had to dig even deeper when Swoyersville built a 5-1 lead with just two innings left in the championship game.
“We weren’t giving up,” Grove said. “Everyone was together with whatever it takes, whether it was with hits, bunts, diving into bases.
“Whatever we could do, we were going to do that.”
The unbreakable resolve finally did in Swoyersville.
Trailing by four runs with six outs left to Greater Pittston season, Jordan Zezza, Jake Granteed and Joe Gavenonis began the eighth inning with singles. Grove then grounded a two-run single past third base to pull Greater Pittston within 5-3, then Dylan Maloney beat out a bunt single and Martinelli rifled a run-scoring single to right field.
On the verge of tying the game, Greater Pittston got a little too aggressive trying to bunt the tying run home with the bags jammed again, as Grove was tagged out on a missed suicide squeeze play. But Bressler regrouped by grounding a single into left field, scoring Maloney with the game-tying run.
An out later, Walkowiak produced the winning runs with a hit that didn’t even leave the infield.
“We play small ball here,” Ranieli said. “We don’t have the big power guys in the middle of our lineup. The way we score runs, we bunt, we squeeze, we hit-and-run. It’s 100 percent National League baseball with us.”
It’s about something else, too.
“Team confidence really picked us up,” Walkowiak said. “We’ve won a state championship in teeners, almost won district in high school (with Wyoming Area’s District 2 semifinalist team last season).
“We have trust in each other and we have confidence.”
Greater Pittston needed every ounce of it against a Swoyersville team that won its first 23 games this season, already defeated Greater Pittston three times during that run, and seemed headed to another win against its league nemesis with a four-run lead entering the eighth inning.
Mike Leonard started Swoyersville’s surge when the began the bottom of the first with a double, then scored on Ryan Hoban’s sacrifice fly.
After Greater Pittston tied the game when Grove raced home on Martinelli’s squeeze bunt in the top of the fourth, Swoyersville got the run back on Matt Zielen’s RBI infield single in the bottom of the frame.
Then Swoyersville started pulling away.
Nick Hogan tripled home Jeremy Sabecky in the fifth inning, then scored on a deep sacrifice fly by Joe Pachulis. And Sabecky raced across the plate on Leonard’s second double of the day, giving Swoyersville a seemingly-comfortable 5-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh.
Then came the stunning eighth.
“After a couple positive things started happening, we started to get excited,” Ranieli said. “All of a sudden, the momentum changed.”
And so did Swoyersville’s fortunes, after a 23-0 season ended suddenly with two straight late-game losses during the last two days of the Region 5 tourney.
“There’s no easy way to deal with the situation,” Swoyersville manager Sean Tool said. “You have to look (the players) in the eyes and tell them, ‘Your season’s over with. You dominated a game for eight innings and we came out on the short end of it.’ Congratulations to Greater Pittston. I hope they do well in states.”
“They may be 23-0, but we stayed together playing harder today,” Grove said. “And it paid off.”
Championship Game
Greater Pittston`AB`R`H`RBI`2B`3B`HR
Erik Walkowiak p,cf`5`0`1`2`0`0`0
Jordan Zezza cf,lf`5`1`2`0`0`0`0
Jake Granteed 3b,2b,p`5`1`2`0`0`0`0
Joe Gavenonis lf,3b`3`1`1`0`0`0`0
Trent Grove c`4`1`2`2`0`0`0
Dylan Maloney rf`5`1`2`0`0`0`0
Justin Martinelli ss`2`1`1`2`0`0`0
Chuck Bressler 1b`4`1`1`1`0`0`0
Mike Carey 2b,p`3`0`0`0`0`0`0
Totals`36`7`12`7`0`0`0
Swoyersville`AB`R`H`RBI`2B`3B`HR
Mike Leonard 2b`5`1`3`1`2`0`0
Nick Hogan lf`5`1`2`1`0`1`0
Ryan Hogan c`2`1`0`1`0`0`0
Joe Pechulis 3b`3`0`0`1`0`0`0
Evan McCue 1b`3`0`0`0`0`0`0
Logan Zavada p`0`0`0`0`0`0`0
Matt Labashosky dh`1`0`0`0`0`0`0
Ricky Stayer rf`1`0`0`0`0`0`0
Chris Nixon p`0`0`0`0`0`0`0
Billy Gregory p`1`0`0`0`0`0`0
Matt Zielen rf,p`3`0`1`1`0`0`0
Jeremy Worlinsky ss`4`0`1`0`0`0`0
Dan Flaherty pr`0`0`0`0`0`0`0
Jeremy Sabecky cf`3`2`2`0`0`0`0
Totals`31`5`9`5`2`1`0
Greater Pittston`000`100`060 – 7
Swoyersville`100`120`100 – 5
LOB – Greater Pittston 9, Swoyersville 7. DP – Swoyersville 1. E – Grove, Carey. Sac – Martinelli, Labashosky. SF – R. Hogan, Pechulis. SB – Sabecky 3, Zielen 2, Walkowiak 2, R. Hogan. CS – N. Hogan, Sabecky.
Greater Pittston`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Walkowiak`4 1/3`5`4`4`3`2
Carey,W`2 2/3`2`1`1`1`3
Granteed, S`2`2`0`0`0`4
Swoyersville`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Zavada`5`3`1`1`3`2
Zielen, L`2`6`5`5`1`1
Nixon`1`2`1`1`0`1
Gregory`1`1`0`0`1`1
HBP – Sabecky (by Walkowiak), Gavenonis (by Zavada). WP – Carey.
Elimination Game
Greater Pittston`AB`R`H`RBI`2B`3B`HR
Erik Walkowiak cf,p`5`2`0`0`0`0`0
Jordan Zezza lf,cf`5`2`0`1`0`0`0
Jake Granteed p,2b`6`0`2`1`0`0`0
Joe Gavenonis 3b`4`2`0`1`0`0`0
Trent Grove c`6`2`3`1`0`0`0
Dylan Maloney rf`5`0`2`1`0`0`0
Justin Martinelli ss`4`0`0`1`0`0`0
Chuck Bressler 1b`2`0`0`1`0`0`0
Adam Romanowski p,lf`1`0`0`0`0`0`0
Mike Carey 2b`1`1`1`0`0`0`0
Totals`42`9`8`7`0`0`0
Jersey Shore`AB`R`H`RBI`2B`3B`HR
Colton Potter ss`4`2`1`1`0`0`0
Boone Costa cf,p`3`0`1`0`0`0`0
Christian Rishel lf,cf`6`0`2`3`0`0`0
Zach Miller 2b`6`0`1`0`0`0`0
Chris Glunk p,lf`1`0`0`0`0`0`0
Zach DePasqua dh`4`1`0`0`0`0`0
Eric Huling c`5`1`1`0`0`0`0
Travis Eiswerth 3b`5`1`0`0`0`0`0
Jordan Bartges 1b`5`1`1`1`0`0`0
Cody Bradley rf`4`1`1`1`0`0`0
Totals`43`7`8`6`0`0`0
Greater Pittston`100`210`020`03 – 9
Jersey Shore`000`014`001`01 – 7
Greater Pittston`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Granteed, S`7`6`5`1`3`6
Mott`2 1/3`1`1`1`1`0
Walkowiak, W`1 2/3`1`1`0`1`0
Jersey Shore`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Glunk`9 1/3`6`6`3`5`3
Costa, L`1 2/3`2`3`0`1`2
