May 22, 2019 5 min read

There is no substitute for experience.

Nobody on the California High School baseball team knows that better than seniors Nate Zemany and Jacob Swartz.

And as the battery for the Trojans – Zemany, the pitcher, and Swartz, the catcher – took the field inning after inning on a hot Wednesday afternoon, California saw that youthful Quigley Catholic didn’t have the much-needed experience.

During a three-error fourth inning, the Spartans, who were making their first semifinal appearance, angrily clenched their gloves and pounded their fists.

“They started arguing with each other,” Zemany said. “I heard them in the dugout cussing and yelling at one another. Some of them were trying to get it together and others just kept screaming. They weren’t getting along too well.”

California just kept its cool.

Despite only two hits – neither of which left the infield – the top-seeded Trojans exploited fourth-seeded Quigley Catholic’s mistakes and frustrations by scoring all three of their runs in the fourth inning to defeat the Spartans 3-1 in a WPIAL Class A semifinal game at Washington & Jefferson College’s Ross Memorial Park.

The win advances California (17-1) to its fifth district championship since 2010. The Trojans will play Union, which defeated Vincentian Academy 6-1 in the other semifinal, in next week’s final at Wild Things Park. The day and time has yet to be determined.

“Experience helps a lot,” said Swartz, who was a sophomore on California’s WPIAL Class 2A championship team in 2017.

“Everybody on our team knows the tradition here and how we have a lot going,” Swartz continued. “We have a lot of section and WPIAL titles and want to keep that going. It’s the experience keeping us together. We work as a team and push through whatever. That’s what we do best.”

The Trojans were forced to overcome another early deficit after a throwing error led to Quigley (13-7) scoring an unearned run for a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Quigley’s starting pitcher, sophomore Alex Tomsic, made the one-run lead look insurmountable through the first three innings. Making California look lost at the plate, Tomsic didn’t allow a hit, walked one and needed only 37 pitches to breeze through his first nine outs.

Then the Spartans simply fell apart.

Swartz led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a swinging bunt, which landed him on third base after a throwing error. Payton Conte walked. Brody Conner lifted what looked to be an easy fly out to left field that was dropped to tie the game at 1-1. With one out and the bases loaded, Jordan Kearns lined a pitch back at Tomsic that ricocheted off his leg to third base for a run-scoring infield single. Fred Conard then gave California a 3-1 lead with a sacrifice fly to center field.

“It snowballed for us,” said California coach Lou Pasquale. “We dug ourselves a hole Monday (in the quarterfinals) and dug ourselves a hole again today. It wasn’t as big of a hole but we got out of it. We were fortunate because to that point we barely put the ball in play. A lot of high school baseball is just about putting pressure of the defense. If you can do that, I believe you are going to be successful.”

The frustration for Quigley increased as it failed to solve Zemany’s pitching. Gripping the bats tight eventually led to the Spartans slamming them to the turf in anger after easy outs.

Zemany, who entered the final inning with 95 pitches, only needed two pitches to record the first two outs in the seventh. He then struck out the final batter swinging to seal the victory. Zemany allowed four hits, walked four and struck out seven in the complete-game victory.

“He kept it an easy game for me to catch,” Swartz said. “He kept throwing strikes, let them put the ball in play and allowed others to do their jobs.”

Tomsic was equally as impressive on the mound. He struck out 10, walked two, allowed two earned runs but committed a pair of errors.

“A lot of games we haven’t been coming up with the timely hits. We’ve struggled a bit (offensively)” said Quigley coach Kip Richeal. “Our pitchers feel like they have to be perfect out there. If we make errors, that makes the pitch count go up, but I didn’t see him laboring out on the mound. I thought he pitched well. It was just that fourth inning.”

It will be Pasquale’s first championship appearance as a head coach for California. He was the assistant coach in two other appearances from the Trojans.

“We preach to our guys day after day after day to not get rattled,” Pasquale said. “If something happens you have to move on. You have to make the next play and the next pitch. I think (Quigley) did get a little rattled.”