PIAA CLASS AAA BASEBALL

Raiders' youngsters balancing lineup card

By Vinny Pezzimenti

Matt Fisher and Seth Tressler garner most of the headlines for the Bellefonte baseball team. They have been the centerpieces, along with fellow seniors Bryant James, Frank Parkes, Ian Musser and Cole McClarren, of the Red Raiders’ run to a berth in the PIAA quarterfinals.

Coach Denny Leathers has stressed on more than a few occasions this season how much their leadership qualities have meant to the team.

That’s why it came as more than a slight surprise when Leathers uncorked this line about the bottom three hitters of the lineup — all of them sophomores — after the Red Raiders defeated Donegal 8-4 in a first round state playoff game on Monday.

“I told them it’s your day. It’s going to come down to you three,” Leathers recalled. “They came through.”

Brandon Quay connected on a two-run double, Robert Gummo had two hits and an RBI and Matt Watson continued his unsung season defensively in the middle infield.

Bellefonte (18-6) will likely need similar contributions from its overlooked players in order to continue to survive and advance in the PIAA Class AAA tournament. The Red Raiders meet WPIAL champion Moon (19-4) in a quarterfinal today at 4 p.m. at White Twp. Park in Indiana.

Leathers has relied on several underclassmen throughout this season. Consider:

• Outfielder Ethan Kline and first baseman Jordon Schainholz, both juniors, have been more than dependable staples in the Bellefonte lineup.

• Eric Regel has highlighted the Red Raiders’ group of four sophomores, batting .424 with three home runs and 18 RBIs.

• Gummo is 6-2 as Leathers’ top option on the mound and will likely pitch today.

• Watson has committed just a single error in playing all but one game this season at second base or shortstop.

Quay has played less, making his big hit against Donegal — which gave Bellefonte a 6-4 lead in the fifth inning — an unexpected source of production.

“He’s been really hitting the ball in practice,” Leathers said. “He’s a talented kid. He just hasn’t had the opportunities that some of the other guys have had. He had his opportunity, and he seized it.”

Quay, who serves as the team’s top courtesy runner, had a mere eight at-bats in the previous seven games. He was 8-for-29 on the season.

“I knew I could do it,” said Quay, who has also pitched at times for junior varsity team this season. “I’ve been off and on all season. It just came to me.”

And it caught the attention of his older teammates.

“That was big time,” Tressler said. “He’s a good ballplayer. He’s going to be real good when he gets a little bit older. He hit that ball solid. That helps him out and helps his confidence.

“Like I said before, states is a different ballgame. You’ve got to be prepared every game, every second, no matter what.”

Moon figures to serve as a tougher test than Donegal, which was the fourth-place finisher in District 3.

Although the Tigers won their first WPIAL title with a 3-2 victory over Chartiers Valley, they captured back-to-back state championships in 2001 and 2002 and made a trip to state semis as recently as 2006.

Moon thumped District 8 champion and Pittsburgh City League member Perry 11-0 in five innings in the first round. But what that rout exactly means is up for debate, considering that Perry was 5-11 and that the last time a City League team won a PIAA game was 2000.

The Tigers’ wild 15-13 victory over Hopewell in the WPIAL semifinals, however, was undoubtedly impressive. Hopewell swept a pair of games from Moon during the regular season and was a heavy favorite to win the WPIAL.

“We just felt like we could play with them,” Moon coach Dom Santeufemio said. “We knew we had a good team. As far as confidence and things like that, you can’t even measure how much that win meant for us. It was huge.”

Moon then held on against a Chartiers Valley team that also advanced to the PIAA quarterfinals on Monday with an 8-3 win over Punxsutawney. Brad Schnelle threw 5 2/3 sold innings in that game and should be on the mound again today.

The Tigers have rarely needed stellar pitching, though, having scored 10 or more runs in 14 games this season.

“Our lineup, basically one through nine, has hit all year long,” Santeufemio said. “And the pitching has been good enough. We don’t have that one dominant guy, but our staff on the whole is a pretty good staff.”