West Allegheny comes up short in wild WPIAL playoff thriller against Bethel Park, 7-6
“That was a crazy game.”
More than likely, that wasn’t the first time that West Allegheny baseball head coach Bryan Cornell described a game against Bethel Park. The two schools have faced each other numerous times over the last few years – WPIAL playoffs included.
The rivalry was reignited on Wednesday night with the two sides facing off once again in the WPIAL Playoffs, this time in the 5A semifinal round. In a back-and-forth contest, it was Bethel Park who earned the victory, with a 7-6 win.
West Allegheny came out firing on all cylinders through the first two innings. On the mound, Mason Gass threw 48 pitches to strikeout three batters and didn’t allow a single run. Meanwhile, on the offensive side of the plate, Logan Lambert and Jonah Buglak hit singles to bring in runs.
Brady Miller added a double to drive in another run for West Allegheny.
However, in the third inning, Gass gave up two hits and West Allegheny decided to swap him out for senior Ben Kern. Bethel Park batted around in the inning, with Mike Bruckner and Ryan Walsh hitting doubles to bring in two runs each. Joey Levin added a single to bring home Walsh, scoring five unanswered runs on the Indians.
The number grew to six unanswered runs in the fourth inning, with a single from Bruckner to bring Aaron Hofbauer – who ran for catcher Ethan Stanhoff – across the plate.
Despite the dramatic flip in the game, Brady Miller said that it wasn’t unusual for West Allegheny.
“We’ve been in positions like that all year where we’ve been down and we fought back, so it wasn’t really anything unusual for us to experience,” Miller stated. “We knew what we had to do in that moment, and I thought we had a good fight back.”
Wil Gubba, senior catcher and pitcher, who featured for the Indians on the mound to close out the game, added that every from West Allegheny knew they’d be in for a fight.
“We knew it was going to be a fight. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Gubba said. “Tip the hat to them, they won a close game. Coming off Shaler, we were looking pretty good. Back when we won it in 2022, we saw Shaler and then saw Bethel. They won it this year, though.”
However, West Allegheny didn’t let Bethel Park enjoy the lead for long. In the fourth inning, Miller hit a single that looked like an easy grab-and-throw for Joey Levis. However, the junior left fielder dropped the ball, giving Indians’ base-runners kern and Buglak a chance to come home. Gubba later hit a sacrifice fly in the inning, scoring Miller.
“They scored six unanswered but then we tied it up. We came back and we showed grit, and that’s all you can ask these kids,” Cornell said. “At one point, you have an infield single, a walk and a bunt-attempt, and you load the bases with anyone out. We still came out of there with one run and gave ourselves an opportunity for a tying run with a runner at first base. You have to come out and play your best game in the playoffs. The better team won today.”
Cornell said he wasn’t entirely worried with Bethel Park’s runs due to the early timing in the game.
“It was so early. They scored five runs in the third inning. It was early in the ball game where you know you have a lot of baseball left,” he said. “We’ve done it before where we’ve been down in games and come back and won. That’s just baseball. It’s a resilient group, with kids that are streaky hitters. We’re able to come back and get that hit when we needed to, when we had runners in scoring positions. But we left too many runners on bases.”
In the fifth inning, Bethel Park had a potential run cancelled due to runner’s lane interference, which gave West Allegheny some breathing room. Meanwhile, in the sixth inning, the Black Hawks silenced the Indians with three-straight strikeouts from pitcher Dylan Paul.
In the seventh inning, the final run scored came off a sacrifice fly from Noah Lejeune, which brought Buckner home. West Allegheny got one more chance to bat, but two infield throws and a tag on Gubba ended the contest.
Miller said the Indians will quickly move on from the semifinal loss and get ready for a consolation game to decide if West Allegheny will make the PIAA State Tournament.
“Some positives are our chemistry. We’re always there for each other,” Miller said. “We’re family. We spent this whole week with each other — getting out of school at 11 a.m. and being family with each other, enjoying the bonds we created. That's something West Allegheny really takes pride in, is the chemistry. We need to execute some plays that we missed, get the runners home that are on base.”
Bethel Park head coach Pat Zehnder said he expects to see West Allegheny at the PIAA Tournament.
“They do everything right. They don’t make mistakes,” Zehnder said. “You can’t make mistakes against a team like that, or they’ll make you pay. We made a couple, and we were fortunate to get away with it. Up and down their lineup, I was really impressed. I was at the game last night where, with two strikes, it’s almost like they get better. They find a way to poke it through the middle or shoot a line drive over the opposite fielder’s head. They get in, they battle and they’re so scrappy and gritty.
“We know we’ll probably see them again at some point. They’re not done either.”
West Allegheny coach Cornell said that moving forward and focusing on the consolation game – which will be played at Ross Memorial Park on Wednesday, May 29, at 6:30 p.m. against Franklin Regional – is the number one priority.
“I know it hurts, it stings, but the one thing we have to convey to them: we haven’t had a state championship, and that’s still an attainable goal,” Cornell explained. “That’s how these guys won it. We beat Bethel Park in 2022 in the semifinals, and they came back and won the State Championship. So, it’s been done before.
“We have to stay hungry and that’s where we have to get our guys in the right mindset to keep them hungry and focused. There are still things to fight for in this season.”
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: West Allegheny comes up short in wild WPIAL playoff thriller against Bethel Park, 7-6
