St. Marys – The 2024 St. Marys Mens Softball season got underway Monday night as defending champion Allegheny Coatings and Elk County Tool and Die both picked up wins in action at the Robin Road Sports Complex.
The Allegheny Coating Goats, the two-time defending champions, started their quest for a three-peat by defeating St. Marys Insurance 13-1 in six innings in the traditional rematch of the previous seasons championship series to kick off the new season.
In the nightcap Monday, the two teams who lost in the semifinals last year played each other, with Elk County Tool and Die picking up the 13-6 win over Deprators Beverage.
Eight teams return this season, albeit some have new sponsorship. This year’s teams include, Allegheny Coatings, St. Marys Insurance, Elk County Tool and Die, Deprators Beverage, Dream Catch, Cavalier Roofing, Dino’s Place and Metco Industries.
Teams will play a 26 game schedule this year.
The yearly Mid-Summer Classic will be played again this year, but with a new scheduling format. The tournament will start Thursday, June 13th with a pair of games. Two games will also be played on Friday night, with the tournament wrapping up Saturday this year instead of on Sunday, which is Father’s Day.
In the season opener, Allegheny Coatings would score all the runs they would need in the bottom of the first, pushing three runs across the plate. Ricky Pearsall led off the season with a double, then scored on a single by Derek Meyer. Kevin Hoy doubled, moving Pearsall to third. Andy Eck singled to center, scoring both Pearsall and Hoy, making it 3-0.
The Goats put the game away in the second, scoring five more times to make it 8-0. A two-run double by Hoy and a two-run homer by Eck accounted for most of the scoring.
SMI got their lone run in the fifth inning, coming on an RBI single by Luke Hoffman, scoring Jeff Crawford.
Eck put the finishing touches on the game, drilling his second dinger of the game in the bottom of the sixth, a three-run shot, bringing into effect the twelve-run rule.
Eck led the Goats, going 4 for 4 with 2 homeruns and 7 RBI. Hoy went 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles and 2 RBI. Pearsall added a double and Meyer had 2 RBI.
In the night’s late game, ECTD scored five times in the third and seven times in the fifth inning to put away Deprators. Back to back homers by Nate Schneider and Tyler Donachy powered ECTD in the third, with Jared Groll smacking a three run shot in the fifth.
Groll and Rudy Gleixner both finished the game going 2 for 2 at the dish. Groll had a double, homerun and 4 RBI’s. One of Gleixner’s hits was a double. Cory Huff was 3 for 4 with 2 RBI, Nate Schneider and Ty Donachy both added a homer and Kyler Lenox added a double.
Offensively for Deprators, Alec Wehler went 2 for 4 with a pair of homeruns and 5 RBI. Tyler Wehler and Jordan Weinzierl both doubled.
On Tuesday night, Metco Industries notched their first win of the season, a 22-10 win over Cavalier Roofing in the late game.
Metco jumped out to a 16-6 lead after two innings behind a six run first and a ten run second. Mike Miraglia homered, doubled, and knocked in 4 runs in the second inning. Seven singles and Justin Saline’s 2 RBI keyed the first inning outburst.
Miraglia, Dom Allegretto, Aidan Zimmerman and Saline all led Metco, knocking in 4 runs each. Allegretto added a triple and Steve Simchick was a perfect 4 for 4 at the plate.
For Cavalier, Collin Porter and Christian Cherry both hit homeruns and Eric Christoff doubled. Porter and Jack Cowen both had 2 RBI’s and Cherry and Cowan were both perfect at the plate.
The first game of the night Tuesday saw Dino’s Place turn back Dream Catch 6-5.
Leading Dino’s were Jamer Cooney and Damon Krise, who both knocked in a run in the first inning and Krise added another RBI in the sixth. Cooney finished with a pair doubles and Alex Vollmer, Krise and Cameron McMackin all added a double of their own.