H.S. Baseball: Wyoming Area punches ticket back to District 2 Class 4A title game | The Sunday Dispatch

WEST PITTSTON — The Wyoming Space offense gave standout pitcher J.J. Hood an early lead, and he repaid the Warriors in type with one in all his finest outings of the yr in Thursday’s District 2 Class 4A baseball semifinals.

Boosted by a four-run first inning, Hood saved the Honesdale bats in examine from first pitch to ultimate out, handing over a shutout because the Warriors coasted to a 7-0 victory to advance to Wednesday’s 4:30 p.m. championship sport towards Dallas at Wilkes College.

“I’m feeling wonderful proper now,” Hood mentioned. “ … It was a fantastic all-around effort from the workforce right this moment. When you will have a lead, you may go on the market and, with the protection making performs, you’ll get outs.”

The second-seeded Warriors needed to stage a late-game comeback to slide previous Hanover Space within the quarterfinals. On Thursday, it was all enterprise from the very first Wyoming Space at-bat, a Jack Mathis single that kicked off a four-run first inning for the Warriors.

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“I assumed right this moment was night time and day from the primary spherical,” Wyoming Space coach Rob Lemoncelli mentioned. “My guys had been able to go the minute they bought to the park.

“We undoubtedly labored on our mindset, and these guys had been prepared right this moment.”

Wyoming Space despatched 10 batters to the plate within the first inning. Mathis was first throughout to attain on a sacrifice fly from Jake Kelleher, and runs adopted from Evan Melberger, Hunter Lawall and Hood himself, who helped his personal trigger proper out of the gate by reaching on successful by pitch.

Honesdale pitcher Peter Modrovsky left the bases loaded within the first inning, and settled down sufficient to pitch 5 innings. However the early deficit had the Hornets unable to climb out of that gap.

Hood completed his sport with simply 5 hits and a stroll scattered towards 9 strikeouts, 4 of which got here in his final two innings of labor.

“As soon as I get going, I really feel like I’m fairly onerous to cease,” Hood mentioned.

The UConn-bound senior appeared to get stronger as the sport went on.

“Each little bit of recognition that he will get, he deserves. He works three hundred and sixty five days a yr, like an absolute animal,” Lemoncelli mentioned. “I’m so glad that he’s on our workforce. … As he goes, we go.”

After the primary inning, the Warrior bats had been held in examine for a short time by Modrovsky earlier than one other outburst within the fourth inning broke the sport open even additional.

A leadoff double from nine-hole hitter Casey Noone — that was nearly snuffed out by an unimaginable diving effort from Honesdale middle fielder Max Mickel — bought the Warriors going, and the primary six Wyoming Space batters reached base within the house half of the fourth.

Savvy baserunning on the a part of numerous Warriors, together with a dropped tag on the plate by Honesdale, helped push three extra runs throughout earlier than Modrovsky was in a position to strand the bases loaded as soon as once more.

Seven completely different Warriors tallied hits, and all 9 batters within the lineup reached base. Catcher Jake Kelleher had arguably the largest day on the plate for Wyoming Space, going 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI.

Multi-hit efforts additionally got here from Mathis, Melberger and Lawall. Mathis and Melberger additionally scored twice.

“We get that backside of the order clicking, we now have actually harmful 5 and 6 hitters,” Lemoncelli mentioned. “After we get the seven-eight-nine guys going with the precise strategy, seeing pitches and driving the ball the opposite approach as they’ve been doing, we’re going to be a tricky out.”

With Wednesday’s victory, the Warriors have punched their ticket for a return journey to the District 2 Class 4A title sport, a championship that the workforce received final yr en path to a second-place end within the state event.

Dallas reached the ultimate by beating Tunkhannock, 10-0, within the different Class 4A semifinal on Thursday.

Wyoming Space 6, Hanover Space 4

Evan Melberger and Hunter Lawall mixed on a two-hitter, however Wyoming Space wanted 5 runs within the backside of the sixth to rally from three runs down in Tuesday’s district quarterfinal.

Lawall struck out six in three innings of reduction to get the win and went 2-for-3 with a run scored.

Casey Noone drove in two runs.

J.J. Hood, Jack Mathis and Jake Kelleher all had doubles.

Lake-Lehman 13, Wyoming Space 11

HUGHESTOWN — Neither Lake-Lehman nor Wyoming Space had been going to make use of their high pitchers Might 21, both by design or due to relaxation necessities.

So the Wyoming Valley Convention Division 2 baseball championship sport was anticipated to have loads of offense. And it did as Lake-Lehman outlasted Wyoming Space, 13-11, in a marathon that lasted almost three hours on the Pittston Space Main Middle.

Each groups completed 11-1 within the division, necessitating a particular playoff sport two days earlier than the beginning of the District 2 playoffs. Wyoming Space began Evan Melberger, its No. 3 hurler who was on a pitch depend. Lake-Lehman gave veteran Ty Federici a pair innings.

After that, the sport for each side was turned over to an array of pitchers with very restricted varsity expertise. The most effective of the bunch ended up being Lake-Lehman junior Travis Jones. He threw the ultimate 2 1/3 innings, permitting one hit and putting out three, however extra importantly, permitting no runs after Wyoming Space scored 10 occasions towards two different pitchers.

“He was clutch,” Lake-Lehman coach Mike Sholtis mentioned. “He got here in there and threw strikes.”

Jones and Wyoming Space sophomore Matt Rusinchak, who threw two scoreless innings, settled down a sport the place each groups batted round twice.

Lake-Lehman took a 6-0 lead with a five-run second inning. Graedon Finarelli had a three-run homer. The Black Knights additionally drew 5 walks, with 4 of these gamers scoring.

Lake-Lehman made it 7-1 within the third, however Wyoming Space responded with 4 runs within the backside of the inning. Jake Kelleher plated three runs with a homer and Joe Colarusso singled within the different. The Warriors took a 7-6 lead within the fourth when a throwing error on Hunter Lawall’s grounder scored two. These runners had reached base by way of a stroll and successful batter.

The Black Knights got here again with six within the high of the fifth to regain the lead at 13-7.

A pair errors together with one other stroll and successful batter allowed Lehman to ship 11 batters to the plate, just for Wyoming Space to ship 10 within the backside of the inning and rating 4 occasions to chop the deficit to 13-11. Lawall had a two-run triple between RBI singles by Kelleher and John Morgan.

“That’s what we speak about on a regular basis,” Wyoming Space coach Rob Lemoncelli mentioned. “We simply wish to compete each single pitch, maintain ourselves within the sport it doesn’t matter what. We’re by no means out of the sport. You don’t should get all seven again without delay.”

Kelleher completed with 4 RBI, three runs and two hits.

Lawall had three hits, three runs and two RBI.