Panthers pounce on Weir miscues for senior day win
Weir High’s Teddy Glyptis makes contact with a pitch. - Andrew Grimm
CELEBRATING — Buckeye Local’s Hadyn Boyce (center) and Alex McDiffitt bump helmets while celebrating with Daniel Divjak (left) after the Panthers scored a run during Monday’s game against Weir High at Bill Mazeroski Field. - Andrew Grimm
Buckeye Local pitcher Kaleb Stang fires a pitch. - Andrew Grimm
Buckeye Local’s Daniel Divjak lays down a bunt. - Andrew Grimm
Weir High’s Teddy Glyptis makes contact with a pitch. - Andrew Grimm
CELEBRATING — Buckeye Local’s Hadyn Boyce (center) and Alex McDiffitt bump helmets while celebrating with Daniel Divjak (left) after the Panthers scored a run during Monday’s game against Weir High at Bill Mazeroski Field. - Andrew Grimm
Buckeye Local pitcher Kaleb Stang fires a pitch. - Andrew Grimm
Buckeye Local’s Daniel Divjak lays down a bunt. - Andrew Grimm
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CONNORVILLE -- In baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, just looking at parts of a stat line in the box score can be quite deceiving.
Monday's meeting between Weir High and Buckeye Local at Bill Mazeroski Field was one of those games on the diamond.
Weir High pitcher Aleks Zanieski fired six innings without an earned run, the Red Riders had more than double the number of hits as the Panthers, and the hosts did not have an RBI.
However, it was Buckeye Local ahead in the only stat that truly matters after the final out -- runs -- by a 7-4 count. The Panthers, avenging a loss at Weir High on Friday night, celebrated senior day with the victory, taking advantage of five Red Rider errors.
"We took advantage of a couple of their mistakes and I thought we did a good job of enticing those mistakes on the basepaths," Buckeye Local head coach Jeff Patrick said. "Our goal is to steal as many bases as possible because we're not slugging it as well as we'd like and we took advantage of our opportunities.
"I give credit to their pitcher, he gave up zero earned runs in a loss, that's tough. He's one of the better arms we've faced this year.
"It's crazy how baseball works sometimes, it was us that had a lot of errors against them on Friday, today we took advantage of their mistakes, got a couple timely hits and took advantage of passed balls. You never know in baseball."
After the Red Riders got on the board first with a Zanieski RBI single in the top of the first, the Panthers were ready to pounce when Weir miscues opened the door in the middle innings.
In the bottom of the third, Buckeye Local (6-13) evened the score when Grant Dombroski doubled and scored on the first of three Weir errors in the inning. The Panthers loaded the bases with two outs with a single and an error, then Jordan Kovalski put up a fly ball that the Red Riders misplayed and let fall for a third error, scoring two more runs.
Kaleb Stang raced home on ball that got away to make it 4-1 before the Red Riders could get out of the inning.
An inning later, the Panthers scored two more runs on passed balls after another two-out error.
"We had way too many errors in the book, and we had several more mental errors that don't show up in the book," Weir High head coach Dave Cowden said. "You can't give any team extra outs. This was (Buckeye Local's) senior day, they have a bunch of seniors and were excited to play and we gave them a bunch of extra outs, you just can't do that.
"I thought Zanieski pitched his heart out, he pitched well enough to win. I don't think any of the runs they had were earned. We dropped fly balls, didn't cover bases, didn't make throws … this is a setback for us certainly, we've got to put it behind us and be ready to go (today)."
The Red Riders (10-15) mounted a comeback bid with a three-run top of the sixth, getting runs on an RBI single from Teddy Glyptis and a two-run knock from Lucas McAllister – each of whom had two-hit days for Weir.
The Panthers, though, got a run in the bottom half to push the lead back to three when Dom Kempton singled and scored on a wild pitch with two outs.
In the top of the seventh, the Panther infield turned a perfect 6-4-3 double play to end the game just before a storm rolled in.
Stang went the distance on the mound for Buckeye Local, striking out four and working out of a couple of jams.
"Getting a win on senior day is big for us," Patrick said. "I've been in the district for five years, we have seven seniors and I got to see this group start out playing PONY league on this field when their parents were coaching them and now have had them for four years. They're a special group. I'm hoping that we can turn things around the next couple weeks and give them a run in the tournament because they've worked really hard and they deserve it."
UP NEXT
Weir High: Looks to bounce back today hosting Wheeling Park.
Buckeye Local: Is on the road today to play Big Red at the Crimson Complex.
Buckeye Local 7, Weir High 4
WH 1-0-0 0-0-3 0 – 4 10 5
BL 0-0-4 2-0-1 x – 7 4 0
WEIR HIGH (10-15): Zanieski (LP, 6IP, 7R, 0ER, 4H, 9K, 2BB, 1HBP) and Williamson. Glyptis 2S, RBI; McAllister 2S, 2RBIs; Zanieski 2S, RBI; Braswell S; Glass S; Horstman S; Williamson S.
BUCKEYE LOCAL (6-13): Stang (WP, CG, 4R, 4ER, 10H, 4K, 5BB, 1HBP) and McDiffit. Griffin S; McDiffit S; Dombroski S; Kalman S.