St. Marys – Jared Groll’s walkoff three run homerun with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday evening gave Elk County Tool & Die a 25-23 win over defending champion Allegheny Coatings in the St. Marys Mens Softball League MidSummer Classic held at the Robin Road Sports Complex.
The tournament started Thursday evening with two games, two more on Friday night, then the remainder of play on Saturday, a change from years past, when the tournament ended on Sunday, Father’s Day.
ECTD went undefeated in the tournament, reaching the finals by beating St. Marys Insurance in the first round. They then beat Allegheny Coatings in the winners bracket semifinal, and dispatched Metco Industries in the winners bracket finale to reach the championship game.
Allegheny Coatings won their opening round game against Dino’s Place, the lost to ECTD and had to run the table in the losers bracket to have hopes of trying to win two years in row. In the losers bracket, they beat Cavalier Roofing, Deprators Beverage and Metco Industries.
In the championship game, both teams scored a run in the first inning and neither team could cross home plate in the second inning.
The Goats, visitors on the scoreboard, again put up a goose egg in the third inning. ECTD would capitalize. Austin Goodrow led off the inning with a double. Danny Singer followed suit with another double, scoring Goodrow. Rudy Gleixner was up next, launching a homerun to left to score Singer and make it 4-1. After a walk to Groll and a double by Nate Hall, Kyler Lenox went deep, hitting a three run dinger to push the lead to 7-1. Cory Huff would double and score later in the inning on a double by Corey McGuire to make it 8-1 after three.
The Goats would come roaring back in the top of the fourth, scoring 12 runs to take a 12-8 lead. Kevin Hoy led off the inning with a solo home run. Dillon Kline doubled a few batters later, scoring Andy Eck. An infield single by Dalton Kline had the bases loaded with no outs. Ryan Grimm would single, scoring Brett Quiggle. Jake Geer also singled, scoring Dillon Kline to cut the lead to 8-5. Rich Quiggle singled to left, scoring Dalton Kline to close the gap to two, 8-6. After an infield fly for the first out, Derek Meyer knocked in a run with a single. Hoy would get up a second time in the inning, doubling this time to knock in 2 more runs and put Allegheny Coatings up 9-8. An RBI single by Eck and a two run homerun from Brett Quiggle would complete the scoring and have the Goats on top 13-8.
ECTD would answer with three in the bottom of the fourth on two RBI’s singles and a sac fly to cut the lead to just one, 12-11.
The Goats would put up a seven spot in the fifth. Cole Peterson got things going with a two run homer. With the bases loaded, Brett Quiggle tripled to right center, clearing the bases and pushing the Goats lead to eight, 19-11. Quiggle would score to finish off the inning on a sacrifice fly by Dillon Kline and the score stood at 20-11.
In the bottom of the fifth, a three run blast by Groll and an RBI double from Huff put 4 runs on the board for ECTD, cutting the lead to 20-15.
Allegheny Coatings would extend their lead to 23-15 in the top of the sixth, thanks to a two run double by Meyer and an RBI single from Hoy.
ECTD would cut the lead to just one, 23-22, in the bottom of the frame. Hall doubled in the inning, as did McGuire to help with the rally.
The Goats would go quietly in the top of the seventh inning, setting the stage for the game winning heroics by Groll.
Goats pitcher Rich Quiggle got two outs quickly to start off the bottom of the last inning. A single up the middle by Singer and another single to left by Gleixner had runners on first and second with two outs for Groll. Groll hit the 3-1 pitch high and into the air to left center, if it stays in the park, game over, if it clears the fence, it is a walkoff. The ball landed about 15 feet past the fence and ECTD could celebrate the 25-23 victory.
Action resumes in regular league play on Monday night. ECTD and Allegheny Coatings are both undefeated in league play, and if they can remain unbeaten come Friday night, they will play again, the first time this year during the season, with first place on the line.