May 5, 2022 4 min read

BURGETTSTOWN – Seton LaSalle made four errors but only gave up one run and held on to win what coach Cole Johnson called “the biggest game of the season.”

Good things happen when you’re one of the district’s best baseball programs and have a pitcher throwing at Brian Reed’s level on Thursday afternoon in Burgettstown.

The two teams started the week undefeated and tied for the lead in Class 2A Section 4. Now, with two wins over Burgettstown, Seton LaSalle has a stranglehold on the section, and, with each team having two league games left, the worst that can happen for the Rebels is that they share the section championship.

Reed took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and only gave up one run on two hits before giving way to Gio LoNero, who kept the Blue Devils from scoring in the seventh to close out a 2-1 win.

The win puts Seton LaSalle (10-0, 11-1) two games ahead of Burgettstown (8-2, 10-3).

Burgettstown has played 13 games and scored 10 runs or more in seven of them, but the offense was impotent against Reed.

“You can’t hit, you can’t win,” Burgettstown coach Doug Tunno said.

Burgettstown starting pitcher Andrew Bredel’s performance – two runs on four hits over six innings – would have been good enough to win most days.

Bredel faced the minimum six batters through his first two innings, with the only baserunner going away on a double-play ball in the next at-bat. Then, in the top of the third, the bottom part of Seton LaSalle’s batting order caused trouble.

No. 7 hitter Cole Starrett walked, and eighth-place hitter Mike Todd did the same. Dom Monz then did what No. 9 hitters do and laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Bredel, trying to get the lead runner at third, threw the ball past third baseman Sam Elich and allowed courtesy runner Corey Meyers to score and give the Rebels a 1-0 lead.

One run was the final margin, and Bredel regrets throwing to third and not first.

“I should have just calmed down and realized that first base was the better option,” Bredel said. “Everybody was screaming, and it just got the better of me. I rushed the throw.”

Brian Vogel Jr. added to the lead three batters later with a sacrifice fly and a 2-0 lead, and with Reed pitching the way he was, it felt as safe as bubble wrap.

That is, until the bottom of the sixth.

After Reed got the first out, Eric Kovach laid down a bunt and reached on a throwing error by catcher Cole Starrett. A.J. Kuzior then drew a walk to put runners on first and second, but Reed got momentum by fanning his opposite, Bredel, for his 11th strikeout.

Burgettstown answered, however, on an RBI single by Luke Lounder that scored Kovach and made it a 2-1 game.

Approaching the high school pitch limit, Reed fell behind 2-0 to Brodie Kuzior but fought back to get his 12th and final strikeout, his 18th and last out of the afternoon.

“It was huge,” Reed said. “It got our whole team motivated to get ready and win this game.”

Win, they did. LoNero came on for the seventh and got the first two outs. Burgettstown, hesitant to go into the grave, stayed alive when No. 9 hitter Jackson LaRocka singled. When LaRocka moved to second, Johnson decided to walk leadoff hitter Nathan Klodowski, and like in the sixth, the Rebels were on edge.

The next batter, Kovach, hit the ball hard, but at Rebels center fielder Monz, who made the catch and ended the game.

It was a big day for Seton LaSalle, and in hockey terms, Reed was the game’s first star.

His recipe for success was simple.

“Just throwing the fastball,” Reed said. “They couldn’t hit it. They were too late, and I just kept throwing it and shutting them down.”

For Tunno, the reason his team didn’t win was just as simple.

“You have to hit the ball, right?” he said. “We had 13 strikeouts today, our team. What does that do? There’s only 21 outs.”

Burgettstown is two games behind and has two games left, both against Fort Cherry, Monday and Tuesday. Seton LaSalle’s last two section games are against Brentwood.

Burgettstown’s offense has been hot for most of the season, and for Tunno, it has to get hot again.

“We just have to pitch and hit,” Tunno said. “That’s what we’ve done all year. We have good pitching; we just have to hit.”