May 29, 2024 By Jonathan Guth 4 min read

It’s hard to beat a good team three times.

Avella lost the regular-season series to section rival Carmichaels by a combined scored of 20-5 in two games, but behind a strong pitching performance from Bryce Wright and some clutch hitting, the Eagles clinched a spot in the PIAA Class A baseball playoffs with a 6-2 victory over the Mikes on Thursday at Ross Memorial Park.

Avella (12-6) will play District 10 champion West Middlesex (10-11) Monday in the first round of the state playoffs. The site and time have yet to be determined.

Eagles coach Jason Fogg believes his team is the first in program history to qualify for the state tournament.

“I have been at Avella for 20 years, and I can tell you it hasn’t happened in 20 years, but I’ve been talking to my friends, and I don’t think it’s ever happened,” Fogg said. “They did some damage to us in the middle of the year, but that’s a really good baseball team, and I think that was a little extra motivation for the boys.”

Avella won its first two games in the playoffs, including a victory over section champion Fort Cherry in the quarterfinals, but lost in the semifinals to Eden Christian that set up Wednesday’s third-place game.

“That was a huge win (against Fort Cherry), and to be honest with you, that was kind of our Super Bowl,” Fogg said. “We were a little spent there for that semifinal game, but we had a week to recharge, and they came out great today and played really great baseball.”

The Mikes’ season comes to an end at 13-6.

“We didn’t hit,” Carmichaels coach Richard Krause said. “We knew them well, we played them twice during the regular season, and things do change over the course of a season.

“They beat Fort Cherry. Fort Cherry is a really good baseball team. That makes them a really good baseball team, so we knew that going in. We had a lot of respect for them, but to come in and get one hit. We didn’t pitch well, we didn’t hit, we didn’t do much of anything.”

Wright, a sophomore, yielded two unearned runs on one hit over 6⅔ innings. He had seven strikeouts and walked three. Wright was pulled after reaching 105 pitches while facing the Mikes’ Dom Colarusso. Per the pitch-count rules, Wright was able to finish the at-bat against Colarusso, and the righty did it in style with a strikeout.

“I think the atmosphere is what was different in this game,” Wright said. “Everyone came to play, was hitting the ball and that kept me up on the mound. I kept hitting the outside corner and was throwing a lot of sliders and a few fastballs. The slider is my favorite pitch.”

Isaiah Bradick finished the game with a strikeout.

Carmichaels took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as Colarusso reached on a two-base error, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Robbie-Wilson Jones’ groundout.

“It started the way we wanted with a guy at third and nobody out,” Krause said. “We got the guy in, but we got him in on a ground ball. We got the bare minimum instead of having the chance of a big inning and sparking something. You have to give him (Wright) a lot of credit. The young man threw a great game. Credit to Avella and Jason.”

Avella responded with two runs in the bottom of the first on back-to-back singles by Chuck Rush and Brian Martos, who scored on wild pitches for a 2-1 advantage. Rush and Martos had three hits apiece.

The Eagles extended their lead to 5-1 in the third with three runs on three hits. Wright hustled into second base with a double after hitting a ball to right field before advancing to third on a single by Rush.

Wright scored on Martos’ single that dropped between the center and right fielders for a two-run advantage.

Bradick was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Rush scored on Westley Burchianti’s groundout. Martos raced home on Brayden Fuller’s groundout for a 5-1 lead.

Avella scored its final run in the fourth as Wright scored a two-out single by Martos. Wright and Rush had back-to-back singles to set the stage for Martos.

The Mikes cut the deficit to four in the fifth when Colarusso walked, stole second, moved to third on an error and scored on Liam Lohr’s groundout. Lohr, who started on the mound for Carmichaels, had his team’s lone hit.

Lohr had five strikeouts and no walks.