Carmichaels rallies past Sewickley Academy for first-round win
One could say Dominic Yazzani saved Carmichaels’ season twice Monday afternoon.
The first time came when he stepped on the mound as a reliever in the fourth inning and was able to strand three runners.
Then he did so with his bat.
Yazzani ripped two-strike pitch for a double to left centerfield in the bottom of the sixth inning that brought in two runs, including the go-ahead score and the eight-seeded Mikes defeated No. 9 Sewickley Academy 7-4 in the first round of the WPIAL Class A baseball playoffs at Ross Memorial Park.
“My whole mindset was that I had to get the ball into the gap somehow and give us the lead here,” Yazzani said of his go-ahead hit. “When I was down two strikes, my goal at that point was to grip it and rip it.”
Carmichaels (9-8) advances to play top-seeded Eden Christian in Monday’s quarterfinals. Sewickley Academy finished 8-10.
“We had a great year last year making it to the WPIAL championship, but we lost eight great seniors from that team,” Mikes coach Richard Krause said. “You look at this group and we had three players that were out there for us last year, so our goal going in was to make the playoffs. We never really talked about a playoff win, so that makes this pretty special.”
Elan Caldwell and Scott Maskil Jr. walked to start the bottom of the sixth, setting the table for Yazzani, who ripped an offering from Sewickley Academy starter Austin Fritz into the gap in left center that made it to the wall.
That ended Fritz’s day on the mound. Prior to the sixth he had retired 10 batters in a row.
Carmichaels added four more runs in the frame.
Jacob Stanislaw came into pitch and was called for a balk, which moved Yazzani to third. He came in to score on an infield single by Ryder Krieg.
Krieg and Cooper Richards, who singled, came in on an error on a ball hit by Chase Ankrom to Sewickley Academy shortstop Logan Bereznay.
Billy Pietragallo led off the top of the seventh with a double and later scored, but Yazzani got Carter Jackson to fly out to center to end the game.
Prior to the rally, Carmichaels’ pitchers danced around traffic all game.
Four walks and two singles gave the Panthers a leadoff base runner in each of the first six innings.
Maskil Jr. started for the Mikes and walked the leadoff hitter four innings in a row. After giving up a one-out single in the fourth to Caden Hawkins, Krause Maskil for Yazzani.
Yazzani struck out David Young for the second out, walked Justes Mull to load the bases. Then he caught Charlie Scally looking at strike three on an inside fastball to strand the bases loaded and keep Carmichaels in front 2-1.
“Coach (Krause) told me yesterday to make sure my arm was ready,” Yazzani said. “In the third inning I warmed up in the bullpen. Two of us warmed up so I didn’t know if I was going in, but when he called for me, I was ready to go.”
Sewickley Academy broke through in the fifth when Fritz and Billy Pietragallo hit a ball to right field and after a long run the ball tipped of Maskil Jr.’s glove putting runners on second and third with no one out.
Fritz scored on a groundout by Bereznay and Pietragallo moved to third. Pietragallo scored on a wild pitch to give the Panthers the lead.
In the first two innings, Maskil was able to get out of trouble with the help of Krieg at shortstop.
With runners on first and second with one out in both frames, Krieg caught a line drive and turned it into an inning ending double play.
In the third, Mull drew a leadoff walk, stole second, moved to third on a flyout by Scally and came in to score on a single up the middle by Fritz for the Panthers first run.
Carmichaels got a run in the bottom half of the first when Chase Ankrom hit a ball past second base to drive in Andrews and make it 1-0 Mikes.
Carmichaels added another run in the second when Chase Ankrom beat out an infield single to score Connor Lapana.