Third time not charm for Jefferson-Morgan
McMURRAY – As the saying goes, it’s always very difficult to beat the same team three times in one season, much less one month.
Jefferson-Morgan High School’s baseball team won the first two meetings against Greensburg Central Catholic earlier this month by a combined score of 21-18, but this time the Centurions emerged victorious, defeating the Rockets 7-1 Wednesday evening at Peterswood Park to secure a berth in the WPIAL Class A baseball final.
Jefferson-Morgan will play a consolation third place game next week against Union, which fell to Jeannette 7-3 in the other Class A semifinal.
The Rockets’ loss means that none of the top four seeds in the Class A bracket will make it to the playoff final at Wild Things Park May 30-31.
“I think after the first two games against them that we lost, we really weren’t playing our best baseball,” Greensburg Central Catholic head coach Dennis Reist said.
“I think we were going through the motions. We had a closed-door meeting after that, and the kids really responded. They’ve worked hard for the last two weeks in order to put us in this position.”
Through the first four innings, Greensburg Central Catholic right-hander Antonio Cavallo had allowed no hits and had seven strikeouts.
Jefferson-Morgan head coach John Curtis had high praise for Cavallo.
“Antonio pitched a great game; he really pitched an excellent game,” Curtis said. “He played the first time we played (the Centurions) during the season. He follows his pitches well.”
At one point, before being pulled in the fifth inning for right-handed reliever Joel Lonigro, Cavallo had retired nine straight batters.
“That was the third great outing he’s had this year,” Reist said. “This one he put it on the money. When we needed it, he put it out there.”
The Rockets were only able to amass four hits for the game against the duo of Cavallo and Lonigro. J-M’s first hit of the game didn’t come until the bottom of the fifth inning off a single from Justin Maddich.
From the onset, it was clear that the Centurions (12-4) were intent on using their speed throughout the batting order to get around the bases. They finished with 10 stolen bases.
“Early on, we were looking to run the bases, and also bunting too – put the ball in play and make them move,” Reist said.
First-baseman Jason Hoover was the star on offense for GCC. He went 4-for-5 at bat, including three RBI.
An inability to get hits against Cavallo combined with a subpar showing from right-hander Jake Broadwater were a recipe for disaster for Jefferson-Morgan.
“They played well today and we didn’t have our bats,” Curtis said. “We only had a couple hits, I don’t know how many we had, but we didn’t do enough to give our team chances to score.”