Post 10 battles back for first win
Pennybacker pitches short-staffed Weirton past Toronto
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WEIRTON -- Despite a delay of roughly an hour and an elevated pitch count, Justin Pennybacker did not want to leave the mound.
His coach granted his request to stay in the game, and the right-hander put away Weirton Post 10's first win of the season, 8-5, in come-from-behind fashion over Toronto Post 86, by striking out the side.
"Justin was incredible," Weirton head coach Jason Swartzmiller said. "We kept asking him if he was good. We knew lightning was 30 minutes and we had a couple so it kept getting pushed back. We don't want to hurt him, he's a college pitcher and a great pitcher for us. He said, 'I'm going back out there no matter what, you're not taking me out.' That is the kind of competitive fire he has.
"We gave it to him and he earned it."
The delay came with a runner on and no one out in the top of the seventh when a hard, but brief, rain shower and lightning forced the players into the dugouts. When the game started back up, Pennybacker fanned Seth Kerner (the game resumed with a 0-2 count), before allowing Cole Bodnar to double and issuing a walk to load the bases.
After the walk, he didn't throw another pitch for a ball, fanning pinch-hitters Kobe Herrick and Richie Gualtiere back-to-back to end the game.
Pennybacker doing it with strikeouts was extra important as the defense behind him was playing down a man. After starting the game with nine players dressed, Riley Nolan collided with the Toronto (3-4) catcher during an attempted suicide squeeze in the bottom of the sixth inning and was ejected from the game. Post 10 (1-6) took the field for the seventh with a full infield, but just two players in the outfield.
"He was a bulldog," Swartzmiller said. "He put everything on his back right there to finish it. He was getting close (to the pitch count limit), but he competed. He was fantastic there at the end."
Pennybacker finished with seven strikeouts, five walks and two hit batters, allowing five runs on nine hits in the complete game effort. He had two hits and three RBIs at the plate, too.
After an 0-6 start and having several games canceled due to weather and field conditions, finally getting the first win was important to Swartzmiller.
"It feels like the weight of the world is lifted off our shoulders," he said. "We knew we were close, we knew it was going to come. I'm very proud of these guys."
As tough as the delay was for Pennybacker, Toronto head coach Steve Sninchak felt it also had an affect on his batters.
"I think it was (tough on the batters) after the rain came through," he said. "It's kind of dark over here and it was an adjustment. We didn't gradually go into it, we went from playing in the day to playing in the dark with the hour-and-15 minute delay."
Post 86 got off to a good start, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Conrad Gump doubled in two runs with a shot to right, then Bodnar added another with an RBI single the same direction.
That remained the score until the top of the third when Toronto tacked on another run on another RBI single by Bodnar, this time up the middle, after Weirton left two runners on in each the bottom of the first and second innings.
Post 10 was finally able to break through in the bottom of the third.
Luke Gillette walked and stole second, then scored to put Weirton on the board on Luke Beatty's RBI double to center. Beatty got to third on a dropped third strike that allowed Joey Dawson to reach first. Pennybacker plated Beatty with an RBI single, then Nick Paul brought Gillette in with a sacrifice fly to make it a 4-3 game.
An RBI groundout by Jory Clapham in the fifth made it a 5-3 lead for Post 86, but it could not hang on.
Riley Watson replaced Post 86 starter Seth Kerner, who went five innings allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits with five strikeouts and four walks, and the Weirton bats got going again.
"We're short on pitching," Sninchak said. "Kerner threw all he could. We go to the bullpen and we're asking kids that have never really even been on the mound to come in and pitch in a Legion game and it's tough. We can't blame them, it's the situation we're putting them in. It's what we have right now. We just have to play through it."
Nolan reached on an error and Nate Elias singled for the second time in the game to put two on. They got to second and third when Andrew Goettel attempted to bunt Nolan in and the collision, and subsequent ejection, happened. Christian Ridgway singled to load the bases, then Gillette singled in a run to make it a one-run game again.
Beatty plated another with a single to tie it, then the go ahead run crossed when Goettel raced home from third during a rundown between first and second. Pennybacker gave himself some added insurance with a two-run double to center to make it an 8-5 Weirton lead.
"One thing we talked about after our last game at Brilliant was we need to be better competitors than we are players," Swartzmiller said. "That really showed. We don't put our heads down. We could have easily put our heads down when we got down early thought, "here we go again, 0-7,' but we continued to battle the whole game to get what we deserved."
UP NEXT
Toronto: Travels to St. Clairsville on Saturday morning for a doubleheader beginning at 10 a.m.
Weirton: Returns to Edwin J. Bowman Field today against New Martinsville at 6 p.m.
(Grimm can be reached at agrimm@heraldstaronline.com)
Weirton 8, Toronto 5
Toronto 3-0-1 0-1-0 0 -- 5-9-1
Weirton 0-0-3 0-0-5 x -- 8-9-0
TORONTO (3-4): Kerner (5IP, 3R, 2ER, 4H, 5K, 4BB), Watson (LP, 1IP, 5R, 5ER, 5H, 0K, 0BB) and Gump.
WEIRTON (1-6): Pennybacker (WP, CG, 5R, 5ER, 9H, 7K, 5BB, 2HBP) and Beatty.
TWO OR MORE HITS: Toronto (Gump 2, Bodnar 3); Weirton (Ridgway 2, Beatty 2, Pennybacker 2, Elias 2). DOUBLES: Toronto 4 (Marelli, Gump, Bodnar, Boyd); Weirton 2 (Beatty, Pennybacker). TRIPLES: none. HOME RUNS: none. RBIs: Toronto 5 (Gump 2, Bodnar 2, Clapham); Weirton 7 (Beatty 2, Pennybacker 3, Paul, Gillette).