May 19, 2022 4 min read

WEST MIFFLIN – In the span of one inning, Wes Parker went from goat, the bad kind, to hero for the Peters Township baseball team.

The hulking first baseman came on in relief in the seventh inning, needing three outs to beat Penn-Trafford. Instead, he was touched up for two runs that gave the Warriors a one-run lead.

But in his best Field of Dreams moment, Parker sent a line drive up the middle, scoring Sam Miller with the game-winning hit with no one out in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Indians a 6-5 victory over upset-minded Penn Trafford in the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals at West Mifflin High School Thursday.

The win sends top-seeded Peters Township, which raised its record to 20-1 with the win, into the semifinals against section rivals Thomas Jefferson Monday at a site to be determined.

“That’s how I felt, goat to hero,” said Parker. “I had to make it dramatic.”

Parker said going into the seventh inning, the only one he would pitch in favor of starter Tucker Ferris, was a lot like “meditation.”

“Going into that inning, I felt untouchable and they touched me,” Parker said. “Only the fastball was working and I had to rely on that. I threw an offspeed pitch and they hit it right up the middle. I had to get off the field and let my guys pick me up.”

The key for Penn-Trafford in the seventh was a double steal with no outs that put runners on second and third. Dylan Grabowski drove them both in with a single up the middle. That gave Penn-Trafford, the No.8 seed in the tournament, a 5-4 lead.

“It was a gut instinct,” said Penn Trafford head coach Dan Miller. “This is a resilient bunch and they wanted to win. I figured at worse, we’d have a guy at second and still have a chance to win. Grabowski does a nice job barreling the bat up on the ball and all of a suddenly we have a chance to win.”

But Jack Kail lined a double to center field and Sam Miller drove him in with a double of his own to tie the game. Miller went to third base on the play when the ball got away from the second baseman.

Then Evan Del Signore relieved starter Nolan Morasti, who tantalized Peters Township with a breaking ball all game. But Morasti was going through the lineup for the fourth time and had reached 95 pitches when Peters Township reached him for the tying run in the seventh.

Parker deposited DelSignore first pitch into center field and the celebration was on.

Morasti probably deserved better. He confounded Peters Township hitters with the big, breaking curve while Penn Trafford built a 3-1 lead heading to the bottom of the fifth.

That’s when Bryce Thompson sent a rare Morasti fastball over the left field fence for a three-run home run and gave Peters Township its first lead of the game, 4-3.

“I hit a fastball,” said Thompson, the Indians left fielder. “I knew it was gone when I hit it. I was thinking we got the lead so let’s get the win.”

Maybe it was early-game jitters but two first-inning errors, the only ones for either team, lead to a two-run lead for Penn Trafford.

“I wasn’t worried because I had a belief in the process we had all year,” said Peters Township head coach Rocky Plassio. “We have a very special group. When we stay together, there isn’t anything we can’t do. (Penn-Trafford) punched us in the mouth and every single time we found a way to come back. They deserve a lot of credit.”