District 11 Baseball: Haven rallies to nip Miners, advance to AA title game
Minersville second baseman Easton Schultz can't come up with the throw as Schuylkill Haven's Gavin Wade successfully steals second base during Sunday's District 11 Class AA baseball semifinal at Allen Greenawalt Field (Photo by Kelly Wiley).
ORWIGSBURG — The pressure of the situation didn’t faze Chase Yoder.
The Schuylkill Haven freshman had utilized an aggressive approach at the plate all game and he wasn’t going to change that philosophy with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning of a tie game.
It paid huge dividends for the Hurricanes.
Yoder smashed a line drive down the left-field line to plate the game-winning run and give Schuylkill Haven a 2-1 victory over Minersville in a District 11 Class AA baseball semifinal Sunday night at Blue Mountain’s Allen Greenawalt Field.
The victory propels the top-seeded Hurricanes to a district final for the sixth time in seven tournaments and avenges an 8-1 loss to the Miners in last year’s Class AA semifinals.
Schuylkill Haven (18-4) will play defending champion Tri-Valley (18-6), a 2-0 winner over Shenandoah Valley, for the Class AA title Wednesday at a site and time to be determined.
“I don’t think there’s any situation too big for him,” Schuylkill Haven coach Scott Buffington said. “He went up there, to me, his body language showed me he had a lot of confidence. I had a lot of confidence that at least we were going to get some contact.
“I’m pretty sure that was the hardest-hit ball we had all night, a good line shot down the line. Great way to end the game.”
Yoder became the hero after the Hurricanes rallied from an early 1-0 deficit with single runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
Minersville (13-10) capitalized on two Schuylkill Haven errors in the top of the first inning to score its lone run as A.J. Halford delivered an RBI single that plated Logan Hutsko.
The Miners maintained that lead through five innings as right-hander Nolan Plesnarski stifled the Haven offense.
Plesnarski threw just 58 pitches, allowed three hits, walked one and struck out five over the first five innings.
“We started out good. I thought we had good energy,” Minersville coach Shane Spotts said. “We put pressure on them in the first and we were able to get on top early, which is always helpful.
“We didn’t play well enough down the stretch. Couple of mistakes here and there. We didn’t play well enough to win today.”
Schuylkill Haven starter Hunter Correll overcame the rough first inning to keep the Miners at bay until his offense could solve Plesnarski.
The right-hander gave up just four hits, walked one and struck out six in a complete-game effort, retiring the final 11 Minersville batters. He pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the fourth by striking out Colby Leshko and getting Hutsko to pop out.
It was the last time the Miners had a runner on base.
“It was Hunter Correll at his best,” Buffington said of his ace. “Mixed his pitches, threw strikes, didn’t get himself in trouble.
“Hunter doesn’t get rattled. He just goes on, next pitch, next pitch, make the next play. He’s been like that for a long time. We’ll take that every time out.
“He’s been extremely consistent the second half of the season. Heck of a game by Hunter Correll.”
Schuylkill Haven tied the game in the sixth on a pair of errors. Gavin Wade reached on a one-out throwing error, taking second on the play. He scored when Johnny Fessler’s two-out grounder to third was thrown away down the right-field line.
In the seventh, the Hurricanes’ execution of fundamental baseball and Miners’ inability to make fundamental plays helped plate the winning run.
Landon Trostle led off the frame with a walk. He stole second after the Miners failed to execute a pick-off play during which Trostle was hung out to dry between first and second base.
Brayden Fasnacht followed with a sacrifice bunt in front of home plate. Halford, the catcher, fielded the ball and tried to get Trostle at third, but his throw was late, putting runners at the corners.
“It’s super important,” Fasnacht said of getting the bunt down. “We like to be aggressive. Whether we’re stealing or bunting, it’s a key … once we get a guy on, we have to get him over. No matter what. Then the next guy has to get him in. We just have to keeping doing that process. And we’ve been very successful with that.
“In key games like this, where it’s very low-scoring and it’s back and forth, (fundamental baseball) is very important.”
Minersville intentionally walked Alan Evans to load the bases, bringing up Yoder, who was 0-for-3 and had swung at four of the five pitches he saw. After a first-pitch strike, Yoder laced a ball down the line to plate Trostle with the winning run.
“I knew every single pitch,” the left-hand-hitting Yoder said. “(Plesnarski) was pounding the outside every single time. I made an adjustment. I hit it hard.
“There was no pressure. I knew I was on him.”
