Butler baseball falls in semifinal, 5-2
UPPER ST. CLAIR — Having watched his team gain momentum down the stretch, Butler baseball coach Josh Forbes stuck to his guns and kept his trust in his players.
Senior pitcher Colin Casteel gave up just three hits in six innings of work on the mound, and Lance Slater whacked a two-run homer, but the Golden Tornado wound up on the wrong side of a 5-2 final in the WPIAL Class 6A semifinal against North Allegheny Tuesday night.
Butler had won four in a row entering the night after being swept by Section 1-6A co-champion Seneca Valley late in the regular season.
“They’re baseball players,” Forbes said. “They go out there and they play baseball. You just give them the reins and let them go. You let them ride the horse. They’re going to make mistakes. This is really all about development. The older they get, they make decisions on their own, because the game gets faster.
“That’s what we try to instill to these guys, is just to play free and easy. Play with aggression, play with passion, and whatever happens, happens.”
With runners on second and third with one gone in the bottom fourth at Upper St. Clair’s Boyce-Mayview Park, the Tigers’ Anthony Varlotta hit a high chopper to Golden Tornado (13-9) third baseman Andrew Lucas, who opted to fire it home and try to beat North Allegheny’s Andrew Hart.
The throw sailed slightly over backstop Conner McTighe’s outstretched glove, which allowed Matthew Parreaguirre to come across for North Allegheny, too, for a 4-2 lead.
“It is what it is,” Forbes said. “He made a decision. We tell our guys to play free and easy and just try to play on their own without coaches telling them. Sometimes, if a coach tells you, it’s too late … In all honesty, that’s not what lost us the game. That’s not what won them the game. There’s a lot of plays in between that.
“Andrew’s been really good for us at third base all year. He’s done an excellent job, and he’s had really good at-bats. And he’s played absolutely unbelievable defense. That doesn’t define him as a third baseman or define him as a baseball player.”
It was a situation that Tigers coach Andrew Heck had his side prepared for.
“We’re going on contact there no matter what,” he said. “We had a second and third situation right there. We want to put the pressure on from our side of things … My standpoint is, we’re going there. And if we’re dead to right at home, our hitter knows that he needs to get on second base while we stay in a run-down.
“That’s just our play. It’s something we work on. That’s something we do a lot. That’s the kind of hop that you want.”
North Allegheny (16-6) tacked on one more run on a squeeze bunt by August Maslo later in the inning, which ended up spoiling Casteel’s effort.
“He gave everything he had, left it all out there,” Forbes said of Casteel’s outing on the bump. “He probably deserved better.”
Slater’s two-run blast, which carried just over the left field fence at 330 feet, evened matters in the visitors’ third. Lucas, Liam McElroy, and Mavrik Clement also had base hits for Butler.
North Allegheny moves on to play Mt. Lebanon in the WPIAL Class 6A final.
Butler 002 000 0 — 2 4 1
North Allegheny 200 300 x — 5 3 0
WP: David Posey 7IP (7K, 2BB). LP: Colin Casteel 6IP (8K, 4BB).
Butler (13-9): Lance Slater HR 2RBI R, Liam McElroy 1B, Andrew Lucas 1B, Mavrik Clement 2B, James Desmond R
North Allegheny (16-6): Harron Lee R, Spencer Barnett R, Andrew Hart 2-1B, RBI R, Owen Schall 1B, Matthew Parreaguirre R, Anthony Varlotta R, August Marlo RBI
