May 17, 2016 4 min read

UPPER ST. CLAIR – It was his pitch when ahead in the count. It was his pitch when behind in the count. It was his pitch in the few times he was in a jam Tuesday afternoon.

Bentworth right-handed pitcher Ty Mitchell went into the Bearcats’ WPIAL playoff game against Vincentian Academy with the plan to throw his sharp-dropping 12-to-6 curveball until the Royals figured out how to hit the pitch.

Vincentian never did.

The only reason Vincentian is still playing today and Bentworth is not are the Royals received a lot of help in the seventh inning in the form of errors and Mitchell finally ran out gas in the ninth.

Vincentian’s Kyler Fedko drew a bases-loaded walk on a 3-2 pitch from Bentworth reliever Hunter Neely with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to force in the winning run and give the Royals a 2-1 victory in a Class A first-round game at Boyce Mayview Field.

Vincentian (15-6), the Section 4 champion and No. 6 seed in the postseason, was held to three hits by Mitchell, who pitched 8 1/3 innings. It was the first time Mitchell has pitched more than seven innings in a game at any level of competition. He worked fast and stayed ahead int he count, walking two and striking out only two.

Mitchell held Vincentian to only one hit through the first eight innings before leaving with one out in the ninth, after giving up two singles.

“I’m more of a curveball guy than a fastball pitcher,” Mitchell said. “I kept throwing curveballs outside and they popped them up. When I threw it inside, they kept hitting grounders. The curveball is basically my go-to pitch. That was the best it’s been all year.”

It was so good that, combined with a thick infield grass, Mitchell got 12 outs on groundballs. He would have had more had the Bearcats not committed five errors – all on grounders.

“(Mitchell) was outstanding,” Vincentian coach Paul Quarantillo said. “He kept us off balance. He did an outstanding job.”

Mitchell was so good that Bentworth (12-7) was one out away from a potential third meeting with Section 1 rival California in the quarterfinals. California, however, was upset in the final game of the Class A tripleheader at USC, losing to Brentwood 4-2.

Bentworth led 1-0 entering the bottom of the seventh. Royals catcher Mark Yakim reached on a bobbled grounder with one out. Vincentian tried to bunt him to second base but the ball went back to Mitchell, who threw out Yakim at second base for the inning’s second out.

A wild pitch moved Aiden Thomson to second base, and two errors – another booted grounder and a low throw to first base – allowed Vincentian to score the tying run.

Bentworth had taken the 1-0 lead in the fifth when singles by Riley Nickeson and Nick Silver around an error set up Neely’s two-out bases-loaded walk off Vincentian starter Garret Barto.

“They gave us one and we gave them one,” Quarantillo said.

In the ninth, Vincentian’s James Sesky led off with a single up the middle. It was the Royals’ first hit since the third inning, 23 batters earlier. A bunt moved Sesky to second and Thomson hit a wicked single off Nickeson at shortstop. That was all for Mitchell.

“We couldn’t have gotten a better-pitched game,” Bentworth coach Dion Jansante said.

A foulout and walk loaded the bases with two outs. Fedko, who entered the game with a .611 batting average, went ahead in the count 3-1 against Neely, then fouled off two 3-2 pitches before taking ball four to end the game.

“We kept things tight and played for one run,” Jansante said. “We just couldn’t get a key hit.”

The Bearcats were held to four hits, none after the fifth inning.

Bentworth put runners on first and second with one out in the fourth, then had both runners picked off by Barto.

“Believe it or not, we spent a lot of time in practice working on that pickoff move to second base,” Quarantillo said. “It paid off.”

“That inning didn’t hurt as much as the seventh, the three errors,” said Jansante, whose team had won five one-run games during the regular season.