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Serra Catholic takes advantage of Mikes’ generosity

3 min read

The season of giving might be OK for times like Christmas but it really stinks in the baseball season, especially the playoffs.

Gavin Pratt and catcher Stush Ferek didn’t have a connection to speak of during the game and that cost Carmichaels baseball team a 7-2 loss to Serra Catholic in the third-place game in the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs Tuesday night at Ross Memorial Park in North Franklin Township.

The loss probably means a long bus trip for the Mikes (17-3) and a shorter one for Serra Catholic when the PIAA playoffs begin Monday. The Mikes play the District 9 champion and we play the District 6 champion.

“We came here tonight and in the seventh inning, they had one hit, one hit,” said Carmichaels head coach Richard Krause. “We had nine walks and four wild pitches. You aren’t going to be able to do that and beat teams like Shenango and Serra. I was happy with the way we swung the bats.”

Serra Catholic scored the first four runs on only one hit and took advantage of the wildness of Pratt, who had six of of the Mikes’ nine walks and four wild pitches.

“I had gone up to Norwin and I saw Pratt being extremely wild and that carried over to this game,” said Serra Catholic head coach Brian Dzurenda. “We’ve done this all year. We beat Laurel 1-0 on one hit.”

One of the most unusual scoring plays happened in the first inning when Serra scored a run on a strikeout.

Mike Schank walked with one out and moved to third on two wild pitches. Then left fielder Max Rocco swung and missed at strike three and the ball bounced away from Ferek.

Rocco started to first base and Ferek fired the ball to complete the 2-3 second out of the inning. As soon as Ferek threw the ball to first, Schank broke for the plate and beat the throw back for the first run of the game.

The second run Serra Catholic scored came in the second inning under strange circumstances, too.

Dom Demoss opened the inning with a walk and stole second base with designated hitter Zach Miklos at the plate. Miklos eventually walked and Demoss made it to third base on a wild pitch. Miklos stole second and Demoss came home when the throw from Ferek arrived too late to get Miklos.

After two innings, Pratt was throwing a no-hitter but trailed 2-0.

Seraa Catholic finally scored the old fashioned way in the fourth when Miklos singled to left field with Nico Eremig on third base. He got there by – you guessed it – a wild pitch.

Pratt gave way to Drake Long with two outs in the fourth inning and the Mikes trailing 4-2. Pratt struck out five, six walks and had four wild pitches.

Carmichaels threatened again in the bottom of the sixth, when Liam Lohr and Jacob Fordyce walked to start the inning. Max Rocco, who relieved starter Zach Karp at the start of the inning, struck out Zach Hillsman and Dylan Rohrer and got Trenton Carter to bounce back to Long.

Serra Catholic put the game out of reach by scoring three runs in the seventh inning.

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