May 4, 2020 4 min read

As Comeback Week continues in “When Sports Were Played,” we revisit what might have been the most improbable turnaround ever in a WPIAL baseball playoff game, when Washington overcame a nine-run deficit to win 17-16 over Seton-LaSalle in a crazy quarterfinal played May 22, 1997. The Little Prexies would go on to win the WPIAL championship that year.

McMURRAY – You might have had a feeling last Saturday that this was going to be an unusual postseason for the Washington High School baseball team. That’s when the Little Prexies’ starting pitcher earned a save in a WPIAL preliminary round victory over California.

But not even a good Hollywood script writer could have come up with the unusual events that occurred Thursday afternoon in Washington’s thrilling 17-16 come-from-behind over Seton-LaSalle in the Class AA quarterfinals at Peterswood Park.

Just how unusual was the game? Try these facts:

• Washington fell behind 9-0 in the top of the first inning and trailed 10-0 in the third.
• Washington’s pitchers did not strike out a single batter.
• Washington starting pitcher Brad Auld was removed in the top of the first inning after retiring only one of the first eight batters.

Auld was later brought back to the mound as a relief pitcher – in the first inning. Auld got the final two outs of the inning and then pitched into the sixth.

• Diontae Walker also pitched twice for the Little Prexies, in the first and seventh innings.
• Washington won the game by scoring 12 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Eleven of the runs were unearned.
• The Little Prexies led 17-10 after the 12-run sixth. Washington then used three pitchers in the seventh as Seton-LaSalle scored six runs. Dan Staniszewski, the last Washington pitcher, had never pitched in a varsity game, but he got Matt Fontana to ground out to end the game with the tying run on third base.
• Only two batters struck out in the game, and one of them reached base when the third strike got past Seton-LaSalle catcher Jim Reilly.

“Amazing. Simply amazing,” said Washington coach Bob Peton. “This was the greatest comeback I have ever seen.”

Washington (15-2) will play Deer Lakes in the semifinals.

“When we fell behind 9-0 in the first inning, we said if you have to fall behind 9-0 now is the inning to do it,” said Peton.

Seton-LaSalle scored its nine first-inning runs on only five hits, then made it 10-0 when Fontana scored on Matt Cunningham’s sacrifice fly in the top of the third.

But Washington answered with four runs in its half of the inning.

‘When we scored four runs in the third, we started to believe we could beat this team,” Peton said.

Washington made it 10-5 in the fifth on Walker’s run-scoring double, which set the stage for the 12-run sixth.

Scott Belcastro began the inning with a single and Joe Gregula reached on an error. Following a flyout, Josh Courtney singled to load the bases. Auld then walked to force in a run and knock starting pitcher T.J. Henderson out of the game.

Reliever Mickey Droney then walked in two runs, and another run scored when Droney dropped the ball trying to tag Staniszewski, who had hit a slow roller up the first-base line.

Walker walked as the Little Prexies took an 11-10 lead. Another single by Belcastro, doubles by Nick Humbert and Nigel Trainer, a hit batsman and an error led to six more runs.

Seton-LaSalle used two doubles, a single, three walks and a hit batsman to score the six runs in the seventh.