How St. Joseph’s baseball came up just short in a district title game rife with rain delays

This wasn’t the kind of district title game that St. Joseph’s baseball coach Jim Dinsmore envisioned.

His team a lost a heartbreaker, 4-3, to Bishop McCort on Wednesday at Altoona’s Peoples Natural Gas Field to come up just short of the District 6 Class A baseball championship. But it was how the Wolves lost that made the game so hard for county fans to stomach.

St. Joseph’s — who still qualified for the Class A state tournament — arrived at PNG Field on Tuesday before the game was eventually postponed to the next day. Then, on Wednesday, the Wolves endured two weather delays before the game was finally called in the fifth inning. SJCA took a 3-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth, Bishop McCort scored two on a hanging fly to take the 4-3 lead — and then the wind picked up, the skies opened up, and the game was called with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.

More than three hours after the first pitch, the five-inning score was final. St. Joseph’s lost and, for the second year in a row, had to settle as the District 6 runner-up.

“I’m very proud of the boys hanging in like they did,” Dinsmore said. “It was tough, but they did a tremendous job not letting what they couldn’t control get in their heads.”

Overall, St. Joseph’s spent about nine hours at PNG Field over two days to play just shy of five complete innings. Matt Steyers went 3-for-3 at the plate, and Jack Mangene was solid in relief, pitching 3.2 innings and allowing no earned runs.

But, in the end, it just wasn’t enough.

St. Joseph’s suffered some bad luck in the first frame when ace Cam Burris suffered an injury on a fielding play near third base and wasn’t able to return in the second. In the batters’ box, in spite of Bishop McCort’s pitcher boasting a 91 mph fastball, SJCA made consistent contact and continued to put the ball in play.

Trailing 2-1 in the top of the fifth, Dinsmore had a feeling that would be the Wolves’ final chance. He knew the storms were on their way, but he didn’t want to put extra pressure on his team — so he left them to it. “Let’s cut this lead in half,” he told them.

They did him one better. With baserunners on second and third, Ben McAfee smacked an 0-2 pitch to right field to score Mangene on a sac fly. During the next at-bat, Steyers scored on a wild pitch for the go-ahead run. St. Joseph’s led 3-2.

But Bishop McCort wasn’t finished either. With two outs and two men on base, McCort sent a hanging fly ball to the outfield where St. Joseph’s just couldn’t get to it in time. Both baserunners scored.

Moments later, the wind picked up. “I knew the game was over,” Dinsmore added. “The weather was brutal.”

Bishop McCort was forced to celebrate on the concourse. St. Joseph’s had to hop on its bus for another long ride back home.

But there is a silver lining for the Wolves: The season isn’t over just yet. They qualified for the state tournament with their win in the semifinals, so they’ll take on the District 5 champ Monday in the first round of the PIAA Class A tournament. (Had they won, they would’ve instead taken on the District 7 runner-up.)

But, on Wednesday, that was of little consolation to SJCA. State tournament or not, the loss to McCort was hard to take.

“I told them you got to grieve this loss, I understand that,” Dinsmore said, adding his team will take Thursday off to regroup. “But that’s the way it goes.

“It’s a tough one, so we just got to keep focused and let them let go of this one so we’re not flat on Monday.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2019 at 7:32 PM.