Charles in charge: Grand slam, 5 RBI help Burgettstown take control of section
By Joe Smeltzer
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
McDONALD – At first, it didn’t seem to matter all that much.
A grand slam is always exciting, whether Shohei Ohtani hits it or Burgettstown High School’s Brian Charles does it.
With that said, Burgettstown was already winning 7-3 before Charles’ blast, so when that ball sailed over the left-field wall in the top of the third inning, it felt like more of an explanation point than a game-defining play.
As it turned out, Burgettstown needed all four runs.
Without Charles’ blast, Burgettstown would have lost its rivalry game at Fort Cherry, and as a result, Charles already considers it the biggest homer of his career.
“It has to be number one,” he said.
Burgettstown went from being up 11-3 to being one pitch away from losing the game.
But with the Blue Devils clinging to a 12-11 lead in the bottom of the seventh, runners on second and third and one of Fort Cherry’s stars, Matt Sieg, at the plate, Burgettstown’s Jayden Roach — who pitched 2.1 innings in relief — struck out Sieg, who hit the ground with his bat in frustration.
Burgettstown survived, winning 12-11, and wrapping up at least a share of the Class 2A Section 1 title. Fort Cherry came oh so close.
For Roach, this one meant a little more than most.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “Rivalry team, getting a win over them, close game like that, nail-biter. Having that last strikeout … awesome.”
Burgettstown (10-1, 12-2) scored fin the top of the first when Charles drove in two runs with a single. He’d end the day going 2-for-4 with five RBI.
The lead didn’t last long. In Fort Cherry’s (9-2, 12-2) half of the first, Colton Temple tied it with a bomb over the center-field wall. Burgettstown retook the lead in the third on an RBI double by Matthew Bredel, making it 3-2. Roach then doubled the lead with another single. Bredel then came home on a double by Sam Elich. One batter later, Roach scored on a wild pitch. Elich then came home on a single by Blake Neal to make it 7-2.
Fort Cherry, which can gain a share of the section title by winning the rematch today in Burgettstown, made it 7-3 in the second when Sieg drove in Nathan Wolfe with a single. But in the next half inning, Charles hit the grand slam that seemingly put the game to bed.
But Fort Cherry did keep fighting, scoring five runs in the bottom of the fourth. The last two came in on Temple’s second two-run homer of the day. Burgettstown pushed the lead back to four in the fifth when Colton County drove in Neal with a single to make it 12-8. Fort Cherry cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the sixth on a two run single by Tyler Wolfe. But on the same play, Wolfe was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double, ending the inning with Burgettstown still up by two.
In the last half inning, Ryan Huey singled home Wolfe to make it 12-11. On the throw, Huey advanced to second and Shane Cornali to third, setting the stage for Sieg.
Roach won the seven-pitch battle and ensured that the postgame would be euphoric, not apocalyptic.
“It definitely would have been a heartbreaker. Losing a game like that would definitely stink, for sure.”