(Butler, PA)
UPDATED: 3/26/21 - Greater Allegheny picked up their first win of the season with convincing 18-8 performance versus Penn State Beaver on Friday, March 26 at Pullman Park.
Paced by a 5 RBI night from Brian Koglin (Fox Chapel, PA/Fox Chapel HS) and 4 hits each for Nick Krevo (Irwin, PA/Norwin HS) and Douglas Painter (Warren, OH/ Eastern Gateway Community College) GA collected a season high 20 hits.
GA fell behind early with a shaky first inning yielding 4 runs for the opposing side. It was short-lived. The bats came alive in the bottom of the 2nd inning pulling GA ahead 6-4. They never looked back from there. GA hit the accelerator in the bottom of the 5th scoring 11runs to kick things into overdrive. Beaver would try and rally scoring 3 runs over the final 2 innings but it was too little, too late.
Clay Shelander (Irwin, PA/ Norwin HS) went 4 2/3 innings collecting his first win of the season.
Game Preview Story:
It has not been the start of the season that Coach, Kenny Creehan had hoped for.
2 close losses in opening weekend at home and a tough away loss at Penn State Fayette on March 24 and Greater Allegheny Baseball is like a boxer that has been dealt an early round blow trying to regain their footing.
"We just have to find a way to put together a solid game from start to finish", said Coach Creehan. "What's happened early on is we make a mistake or two and the team's take advantage."
The margin for error at this level is pretty small especially with PSUAC West teams. The division is strong top to bottom. 1 fielding error, 1 wild pitch, and things can escalate pretty quickly. Teams have the ability to capitalize on mistakes with a force of a Mike Tyson punch.
There is some reason for optimism, however. GA has a .301 OBP through 3 games, collecting 17 hits and 9 walks. Meaning, they are getting on-base. It becomes a matter of translating those opportunities into runs going forward.
The first two games of the season were highly competitive and cat and mouse the entire way versus Mont Alto. One bad inning away at Fayette and things might be a bit different. "I know we're 0-3 out of the gate but we could very easily be 2-1. But, we're not. So, we just have to find a way to get the first one and build off of that," said Creehan.
The first chance to get on the winning track comes tonight. GA returns to action with a 3 game set (1 home and 2 away) vs Penn State Beaver at Pullman Park. March 27th's games are at 2PM and 4PM at New Brighton's High School Field.
Penn State Beaver enters tonight's game 2-1 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
Creehan added, "We have good players and we need them to perform up to their capabilities and I know they will." First pitch for tonight is set for 7:30PM
