Jun 6, 2022 4 min read

ST. MARYS – The Burgettstown High School baseball team enjoyed its first trip to the PIAA playoffs so much that the Blue Devils decided to stick around for another round.

Brodie Kuzior hit a grand slam in the third inning, drove in five runs and pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief as the Blue Devils defeated District 9 champion Johnsonburg 6-5 Monday in the opening round of the PIAA Class 2A playoffs at Berwind Park.

The win sends Burgettstown (15-5) to the second round Thursday against District 9 runner-up Redbank (14-6), which knocked off WPIAL champion Serra Catholic 2-1 in eight innings Monday. The site and time of the game will be announced today.

What made the Burgettstown win so impressive is that the Blue Devils played with their ace pitcher Nathan Klodowski, who also is the team’s leadoff hitter. He was serving a one-game suspension after being ejected from the WPIAL third-place game.

That didn’t bother the Blue Devils as they scored five times in the top of the third inning to erase an early 3-0 Johnsonburg lead. The first run of the inning scored when Burgettstown starting pitcher Andrew Bredel drew a bases-loaded walk to push across Sam Elich, who started the big outburst with a double.

Kuzior followed with his grand slam that gave Burgettstown a 5-3 lead.

Johnsonburg scored an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth, but Burgettstown pushed its lead back to two runs in the fifth when Bredel hit a two-out double, moved up on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Kuzior, giving him five RBI in the game.

Johnsonburg added another run on an RBI groundout after a leadoff triple by Cam Marciniak in the bottom of the fifth, cutting Burgettstown’s lead to 6-5. That would be the final run in the game.

Bredel struck out seven over 52/3 innings. Kuzior allowed only one walk in his final 1 1/3 innings.

Ephrata 9, Peters Twp. 7

Coy Schwanger hit a two-out, two-run homer in the third inning and Ephrata followed with seven runs in the fourth to rally and defeat Peters Township 9-7 in first round of the PIAA Class 5A playoffs at War Memorial Field in Ephrata.

Peters Township (21-3), which ended its season with losses in the WPIAL championship and state tournament opener, forged a 4-0 lead before Ephrata (20-8), the District 3 runner-up, mounted a charge and grabbed a five-run lead.

The Indians battled back and closed to within 9-7 by scoring three times in the sixth but had that inning cut short by a runner being thrown out at home plate.

The day started well for PT as Drew Ripepi, the Indians’ leadoff hitter, smacked the first pitch of the game over the fence in left field for a home run. The Indians, who outhit Ephrata 14-10, had two more singles in the inning and two throwing errors allowed a second PT run to score.

The Indians made it 4-0 in the third inning when Jack Kail singled and Sam Miller belted his eighth home run of the season, a two-run shot to left centerfield.

Schwanger’s two-run homer in the bottom of the third off PT starter Wes Parker cut the Indians’ lead in half to 4-2.

Things fell part for PT in the bottom of the fourth. With PT leading 4-3 and an Ephrata runner on third base, the Indians failed to over home plate on a foulout to the first baseman, allowing a runner to race home and tie the score.

Drew Hurst then hit a two-run single to give Ephrata the lead, and Dawson Shelley’s two-run single made it 8-4. Ephrata scored seven times in the inning on five hits and two PT errors.

Peters Township battled back in the sixth when they had five hits. Nick Sampson had a run-scoring single that made it 9-5. Jack Kail smacked a two-run double that trimmed PT’s deficit to 9-7, but Ripepi was thrown out at home plate trying to score on the play.