CRESSON, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Ty Carrier drove in Bryson Bain with the eventual winning run and Tate Minich closed the door.
It was a wild 7-6 extra-inning win for the Redbank Valley baseball team over District 3 runner-up Camp Hill Wednesday at Mount Aloysius College and it kept its season alive.
The Bulldogs now advance to the PIAA Class 2A tournament, where they will face Serra Catholic, the undefeated District 7 champs, in the first round Monday at a site and time to be determined.
(Photo by Madison McFarland)
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“Our guys have fought through some adversity this season, but I love their resiliency,” said Redbank Valley coach Craig Hibell. “Pretty much every time that we’ve been kicked down, we’ve been able to get back up. I think that speaks volumes about our captains and it speaks volumes about our younger guys, who have been mature enough to bounce back from the bad times and create opportunities to win games.”
Redbank (13-6) was coming off a tough loss to Johnsonburg in the District 9 Class 2A championship game. The Bulldogs fell behind 7-0, stormed back to cut the deficit to 7-5, but eventually lost 9-5.
Two days later against Camp Hill (17-6), Redbank was down quickly again.
The Lions led 2-0, but the Bulldogs rallied to go up 3-2.
After falling behind again, 4-3, Redbank Valley took a 6-4 lead.
Camp Hill chased Bulldog starter Carrier with back-to-back hits in the bottom of seventh. Tate Minich came in and got out of the inning, but both of the runners he inherited came around to score to force extra innings.
Bain led off the top of the eighth with a walk and moved up to second on a passed ball. Breckin Minich then singled and Carrier drove Bain home for the eventual winning run.
Tate Minich is rarely used as a pitcher — he had thrown just two innings this season before Wednesday. But he went two strong against Camp Hill to get the win.
“Ty really did a great job today giving us a chance to win,” Hibell said. “He threw a lot of strikes.
“Tate is just a tremendous athlete,” Hibell added. “He’s only thrown four innings now all year and all four of them have been pretty high-leverage situations. He’s just a natural thrower. We try to preserve his arm being a catcher, but today — it’s such a tight game and a do-or-die game with the season on the line — we wanted him in there.”
Redbank Valley was able to get to Camp Hill ace Luke Parise, who came into the game with some eye-popping numbers.
Parise was 5-1 with a 1.32 ERA. In 53 innings, he had struck out 91 and walked just 12.
But with a tight strike zone, Parise couldn’t adjust. He was charged with six runs, four earned, in 5 2/3 innings.
Cam Wagner had a pair of hits and two RBIs. Ty Carrier had a three hits and Breckin Minich, just a freshman, was clutch again.
He was 2-for-3 with a key hit in the eighth.
Tate Minich also had multiple hits, including a double, as Redbank collected 11 hits as a team.
“One good thing is we faced several guys with good velocity throughout the year,” Hibell said. “We faced (Chase) Kriebel from Clarion and (Branson) Carson from Moniteau. There’s guys we faced this year that threw as hard as this guy today, so we were ready for this higher velocity.”
Redbank will now prepare for Serra Catholic (23-0), which beat Neshannock Tuesday for the WPIAL title. The Eagles have given up three or fewer runs in 21 games with seven shutouts.
“They’ve been good all year,” Hibell said. “We just have to be better than them on Monday.”
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
