C-H’s offense absent in first-round loss to North Catholic

McKEES ROCKS – When Chartiers-Houston baseball coach Vince Capozza was gathering information on how to advance the Bucs to the quarterfinals prior their first-round WPIAL playoff game, he gleaned two strengths of their opponent.
One of the reasons Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic reached postseason play was the consistency of starting pitcher Joe Alampi. The other was that the Trojans give Alampi a lot of help by making moves on the basepaths.
Chartiers-Houston couldn’t find an answer for either as Alampi only allowed three hits in seven strong innings while the Trojans stole six bases to defeat Chartiers-Houston, 3-0, in a Class AA game at Burkett Park Tuesday afternoon.
“We just couldn’t get it going,” Capozza said. “The middle of the order wasn’t producing and we couldn’t get a timely hit. (Alampi) pitched a good game. Whenever you pound the zone like he did today, and got ahead in the count, we had to hit his pitch. He dictated this game.”
Alampi scattered three hits from the Bucs – two singles from Matt Whitfield and another from Cam Hanley – while not allowing a runner from C-H to reach third base.
“When he is on like he was today, with command of his fastball and hitting his spots, he is one of the toughest pitchers in 2-A,” North Catholic coach John Haggerty said about Alampi. “He pitched outstanding today. He had them off balance the entire time. Maybe other than one or two times, nobody squared up the baseball.”
One person squaring up the baseball just fine was North Catholic’s Tyler Elwood, who went 2-for-3 and brought home all of the Trojans’ runs.
With runners on second and third, Elwood hit a sharp ground ball feet beyond the plate that ended up bouncing over the head of Bucs third baseman Ryan James to give North Catholic a 2-0 lead in the second inning.
The Trojans’ speed gave them plenty of opportunities to add on in the middle innings. However, many of their six stolen bases led to the same amount of stranded runners left in scoring positon.
Elwood would break that streak in the sixth inning by driving home Jack Cassidy with a single to put the Trojans ahead, 3-0.
“He is a big-time player,” Haggerty said about Elwood. “He is one of our senior leaders and does a great job, especially when it counts.”
Cassidy reached base in all three plate appearances, scoring twice for the Trojans.
Those behind C-H starting pitcher Jordan Davis didn’t help matters by committing four errors, including what resulted in the game-winning run in the second inning, while also being retired in order four times.
Davis pitched six innings, scattering seven hits.
Whitfield went 2-for-2 but was stranded at first base both times.
“We had a successful season,” Capozza said. “The one thing that hurt us was the competitiveness in our conference. Their conference is much more competitive than ours. Once you get past Carmichaels, California and us this year, it drops off tremendously. You aren’t playing many games like this, maybe only four of them, and that’s not going to prepare you.”