DuBOIS, Pa. — It wasn’t an all that pretty performance for either team in the District 9 Class 2A Championship game at Showers Field in DuBois, but the team that banged out the most hits, Johnsonburg, took home the trophy.
(Photo by Jared Bakaysa of JB Graphics. See more of Bakaysa’s work here)
Johnsonburg’s 14 hits overcame the 12 walks issued by its four pitchers in a 12-6 win over Brockway Wednesday. The Rams head to the PIAA playoffs Monday, June 4, against District 5 champion Conemaugh Township at a site and time to be announced.
Although Johnsonburg has operated in a cooperative agreement with Ridgway since 2015, it’s the first trip to the state playoffs since the Rams won the Class 1A state title in 2013 as the D9 runners-up.
“(Class) 2A is a different class, something different and it’s great for the kids,” said Rams manager Jeff Peterson, whose team improved to 15-4. “I told them at the beginning of the season that what I’m looking at right now is the No. 1 seed coming out of District 9 and a district champ. I wasn’t lying to them. There it was. They had the opportunity to get it and all they had to do was take it and they did well. I can’t say enough.”
The Rams never trailed in the game and scored in all but one of their six at-bats. That helped keep the Rovers at arms’ length at the very least, although the 12 free passes kept things interesting.
Their top three batters — Kacey Raubenstrauch, Austin Green and Neil MacDonald — went a combined 8-for-11 with seven runs scored two doubles and a triple. Green and MacDonald each had three hits with two of MacDonald’s going for doubles. Raubenstrauch had two hits with a triple.
In the Rams’ four-run fourth, Johnny Mitchell blasted a solo home run over the high fence’s 333-foot sight in straightaway center field one batter after MacDonald singled and went the rest of the way around the bases after it was misplayed.
No. 9 hitter Daunte Allegretto had two hits and scored three runs as the Rams put the pressure on the Brockway’s shaky defense that while it committed four errors, had some other miscues that helped open things up.
“We’ll take it. We usually don’t have that many hits,” Peterson said. “We’ve been struggling with the sticks and have been working this week on it and we’ll take it. You have to put the ball in play to win the game and they had some errors. That’s what happens when you put the ball in play. We didn’t watch it this time and dink and doink it. We hit the ball.”
Much better than what he saw in their two regular-season matchups, both wins — 5-4 on May 8 and 9-3 April 10.
“We struggled off these guys last time,” Peterson said. “All of those pitchers we struggled against. This time we stayed back and waited a little bit and hit the way we were supposed to hit.”
The Rams took the lead for good in the bottom of the first. Raubenstrauch led off with a single, stole second and scored on MacDonald’s double that was lost off the bat by left fielder Zane Puhala.
They scored twice in the third to make it 3-0, taking advantage of three walks, a hit batter and Zack Zameroski’s suicide squeeze bunt on a two-strike pitch.
Mitchell cruised through the first three innings for the Rams, retiring seven straight going into the fourth before Tyler Serafini singled off Mitchell’s glove to reach. He came around to score on Tino Inzana’s groundout to get the Rovers on the board.
Then the Rams put together their four-run fourth to go up 7-1. Allegretto reached on an error to start a stretch of five straight batters reaching. Green singled in a run and got in scoring position when Raubenstrauch was thrown out at third base.
MacDonald followed by singling up the middle and the ball skipped under centerfielder Anthony Inzana’s glove, allowing MacDonald to circle the bases. Mitchell followed with his home run.
But the Rovers scored in their final four at-bats to keep things interesting.
Two unearned runs in the fifth cut it to 7-3, but the Rams added three more in the bottom of the inning, two of them unearned as well to build back up to 10-3. The big knock was Ben Freeberg’s two-out, two-run single.
“We needed those runs,” Peterson said. “You look at where we were at the end of the game, that could’ve closed up in a hurry. We got the needed runs. When they got a couple runs, we got a couple back. If we wouldn’t have done that anything could’ve happened.”
Gabe Watts replaced Mitchell in the sixth and struggled with his control, walking four and hitting a batter among the nine batters he faced. Zane Puhala singled in two runs in the sixth and Watts got into the seventh, but was pulled after a walk and hit batter to start the inning.
MacDonald walked the first batter he faced, then went 3-0 on Zach Foradori before Green came in and threw ball four to force in a run. With the score at 12-6 and no outs with the bases loaded, Green got Dom Inzana to line into a double play and then Green whiffed Matt Holt to claim the title.
“They’re a helluva team and keep scrapping. I told them no matter what the score is, it’s not over. We weren’t able to throw a strike and that got my blood pressure up,” Peterson said.
The Rams scored twice with two outs in the bottom of the sixth when Allegretto singled, Raubenstrauch tripled him in and scored on Green’s single.
Johnsonburg beat Cameron County for the Class 1A title in 2007 and lost in the state final. The Rams lost to Ridgway in the 1997 Class 2A title.
“The way everything fell into place, it couldn’t have fallen any better for us to be honest,” Peterson said. “Brockway knocked off No. 2 seed (Coudersport), then (No. 3 seed) Brookville. They knocked out teams with some premier pitchers that really could have changed the whole direction of how things could’ve gone.
“It couldn’t have worked out any better. We’ve seen these guys before. We were ready for that pitching this time. We chased and looked terrible, but we sat back and waited and made hard contact today. All way around, there were a handful of guys who hit the ball hard today, not one or two. It’s great.”
JOHNSONBURG 12, BROCKWAY 6
Score By Innings
Brockway 000 122 1 – 6
Johnsonburg 102 432 x – 12
Brockway – 6
Cam Baka p/3b/ss 2001, Tyler Serafini ss 3111, Matt Clark 1b 1110, Angelo Inzana cf 3000, Tino Inzana 3b/p/3b 3001, Zach Foradori rf 1101, Dom Inzana c 3000, Connor Ford cr 0100, Ben Glasl 2b 2100, Matt Holt 2b 1000, Zane Puhala lf 3112. Totals: 22-6-3-6.
Johnsonburg – 12
Kacey Raubenstrauch cf 2321, Austin Green 2b/p 5233, Neil MacDonald ss/p/ss 4231, Johnny Mitchell p/3b/ss2/b 4111, Ben Freeberg rf 3012, Zach Zameroski c 3011, Tyler Singer dh 3000, Garrett Gregori 3b 0000, Gabe Watts p/lf 0000, Paul Gresco 1b 4110, Daunte Allegretto lf/3b 4320. Totals: 33-12-14-9.
LOB: Johnsonburg 10, Brockway 8. Errors: Brockway 4, Johnsonburg 1. DP: Johnsonburg 1. 2B: MacDonald 2. 3B: Raubenstrauch, Zameroski. HR: Mitchell. SAC: Raubenstrauch, Zameroski. SF: Baka. SB: Raubenstrauch, Freeberg, A. Inzana. CS: T. Serafini (by Zameroski-MacDonald). HBP: MacDonald by Baka. Mitchell by Baka. A. Inzana by Watts.
PITCHHING
Brockway
Cam Baka 2 1/3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO
T. Inzana 1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO
T. Serafini 2 2/3 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO
Totals: 6 IP, 14 H, 12 R, 9 ER, 4 BB, 7 SO
Johnsonburg
Mitchell 5 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 2 SO
Watts 1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 SO
MacDonald 0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 SO
Green 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO
Totals: 7 IP, 3 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 12 BB, 5 SO
Winning pitcher: Mitchell.
Losing pitcher: Baka.
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