Three’s were wild again for the Allegheny Coatings Goats Wednesday night as they scored three runs in the first, second, third and sixth innings, on their way to a 16-8 win over Elk County Tool & Die to take a 2-0 lead in their best of five championship series in action at the Robin Road Sports Complex.
Game three will be played at 6:30 pm Thursday night. A win by the Goats would complete the sweep and give Allegheny Coatings their second championship and first since 2017. An ECTD win would send the series into next week, with game four Monday at 6:30 pm and a fifth and deciding game would follow Tuesday night at 6:30 pm.
After ECTD went scoreless in the top of the first, the Goats got things going in the bottom half of the inning, putting up the first of their four three spots. Back-to-back singles by Ricky Pearsall and Derek Meyer had runners on the corner. Andy Eck grounded into an RBI fielders choice, scoring Pearsall. Kevin Hoy would single, moving Eck to second and both runners would advance one base on a fly ball off the bat of Cole Peterson. Justin Quiggle followed that up with a two-run single and the Goats led 3-0 after one inning of play.
Josh Zelinski led off the second with a single for ECTD but was erased on a double play and a fly ball out would end the second for the Diemen.
The Goats got going again in the home half of the second when Dalton Kline, batting last in the lineup, rolled the top of the order with a leadoff single. Pearsall followed with another single, moving Kline to third. A Meyer single scored Kline and moved Pearsall to third with Meyer strolling into second on the throw. Eck knocked in Pearsall with a sacrifice fly and Meyer scored on a groundout by Hoy to push the lead to 6-0 after two.
ECTD got on the board with four in the third to cut the lead to 6-4. An RBI single by Brandon Sicheri scored Nick Reuscher. Danny Singer’s sacrifice fly scored the second run for the Diemen and a double by Kyler Lenox scored two to account for the ECTD scoring.
An RBI single by Jake Geer and a two run double by Pearsall pushed the Goats lead back to five at 9-4 after three innings.
That score would remain the same until the top of the fifth when Rudy Gleixner smacked a two-run homer and Lenox followed that up with a solo shot to cut the lead to 9-8.
Two sacrifice flies, one by Dalton Kline and the other by Hoy scored two in the bottom of the fifth for Allegheny Coatings. Meyer also roped a two-run single to right center in the inning and the Goats up five again, leading 13-8 heading to the sixth.
ECTD got two runners to reach base in the top of the sixth but couldn’t cash in and still trailed 13-8 going to the bottom of the sixth.
Allegheny Coatings got three insurance runs in the sixth when Dalton Kline hit a three-run homer to left to extend the lead to 16-8.
ECTD went 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh and now trail Allegheny Coatings two games to none in the best of five showdown.
Leading the Goats with a perfect 3 for 3 night was Dalton Kline. Kline had a homerun and 4 RBI’s. Meyer was also 3 for 3 with 3 RBI’s and Pearsall finished 4 for 5. Dillon Kline also had a solid night, going 3 for 4.
Gleixner led ECTD, going 3 for 3 with a homerun and 2 RBI. Lenox ended up 2 for 3 with a double, homerun and 3 RBI. Singer and Nate Schneider both finished 2 for 3 as well.