Mountain Cats Suffer 7-4 Loss to Alderson-Broaddus in First Round of WVIAC Tournament

05/02/2008

Alderson-Broaddus (27-16-1) struck for four first inning runs and never trailed in a 7-4 victory over Pitt-Johnstown (35-16-1) in Friday's first round of the 2008 WVIAC baseball Championship at the Point Stadium. The Mountain Cats, who got a two-run homerun off the bat of Adam Plummer (Bellwood, Pa.), will play the loser of the Shepherd-West Virginia State game on Friday at 8:00 p.m.
The Battlers stormed out of the gate as Owen Otsuka singled and Dustin Grace walked to start the game. Each moved up a base on a wild pitch from Pitt-Johnstown starter Jon Moore (Leechburg, Pa.) before Zach Marshall plated the contest's first run on a groundout to shortshop. Alan Baumann then added a run-scoring single to score Grace. The Mountain Cats missed an opportunity to get out of the inning as Eric Texeira reached on an error. Ronnie Whitt then added the frame's key blow, a double that brought home a pair of unearned runs for a 4-0 Battler lead.
Pitt-Johnstown responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half. Josh Campanella (Allison Park, Pa.) drew a one-out walk and All-WVIAC selection Plummer put the Mountain Cats on the board with a two-run homer.
Both teams added single runs in third. Paul Day whacked a leadoff triple for A-B, one of his four hits on the day, and scored on Marshall's second run-scoring groundout of the day. The Mountain Cats forced in a run when Chris Turka (Natrona Heights, Pa.) was hit by a pitch with the sacks jammed to bring in Dan DelSignore(Johnstown, Pa.).
Alderson-Broaddus stretched the edge to 7-3 in the fifth as the Battlers chased Moore from the mound with a pair of scores. Whitt delivered an RBI double and Grant Koga followed with a run-scoring single.
Pitt-Johnstown closed the scoring with a single run in the eighth. Plummer led off the inning with a single and would eventually score on Justin Demek's (Cabot, Pa.) two-out base hit.
Alderson-Broaddus lefty Renato Lopez picked up the victory. He allowed seven hits and fanned six in the complete game effort. Moore suffered his first defeat of the season against six wins, giving up 10 hits and five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings of work.
On top of Day's 4-for-5 afternoon, A-B received three hits from Bauman as they held a 13-7 edge in safeties. Both teams committed one error.
Alderson-Broaddus will not play until Saturday's 9:30 a.m. contest against an opponent yet to be determine.

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