Meadville to face Cathedral Prep at UPMC Park for 4A crown
In a rematch of last year’s game, the Meadville baseball team will play Cathedral Prep in the District 10 Class 4A championship.
Today’s game, set for noon at UPMC Park, will be the third meeting this season. Cathedral Prep swept the season series with wins of 6-1 and 11-8.
“Playing them is what we want. We know what we’re gonna get with Prep,” Meadville head coach Tony Tartaglione said. “We have to score runs. We played them tough twice this year. I think we will give them a game.”
Meadville advanced to the title game with a 6-5 walk-off win against Grove City in the quarterfinals and a 3-0 win versus Sharon on Friday in the semifinals. Cathedral Prep, the top seed, defeated General McLane 6-2 on Friday.
The Bulldogs will likely turn to sophomore ace AJ Feleppa. Feleppa has a 1.84 ERA with 76 strikeouts, 12 walks and 17 earned runs on the season. As a freshman, he started against Cathedral Prep in the title game and pitched five solid innings before the Ramblers scored seven runs in the sixth inning.
At the plate, senior and Allegheny College commit Rocco Tartaglione leads the team with 29 hits and 21 RBIs. Bradyn Miller (28), Henry DeSantis-Biggs (22) and Jacoby Thompson (21) each eclipsed the 20-hit mark as well.
Cathedral Prep’s ace is Jason Fultz. The Clemson commit has allowed two earned runs in 30 innings this season with an ERA of .467. He also has a batting average of .559 with 11 home runs and 37 RBIs. Andrew Costello, a Wake Forest commit, has a .571 average with 40 hits, seven homers and 30 RBIs.
The winner will play the third seed from District 7 on June 3 to open the PIAA playoffs. The loser will play the District 2 runner up at Mount Aloysius College on Thursday in a sub-regional for the final PIAA qualifying spot.
