At the conclusion of Friday night’s games, the playoff picture is now set, even though there is one more night of the regular season to play in St. Marys Mens League Softball.
St. Marys Insurance, the regular season champions, are the top seed and will take on the winner of the play-in game between Deprators Beverage, the eight seed, and N&S Contractors, the number nine seed.
Second seed Allegheny Coatings will play seventh seeded Eckert Technical Services. PA Powdered Metals, the third seed, will battle Carlson Technologies, the sixth seed. In the final pairing, fourth seeded Buttonwood/East End Beverage will square off against the fifth seed, Tyler Landscape.
In action Wednesday night, Allegheny Coatings took care of Eckert Electrical Services 23-11 and Tyler Landscape rallied past PA Powdered Metals 16-15.
The Goats (19-4) got big games from Derek Meyer (3 for 4, 2 HR, 3B, 4 RBI), Cole Peterson (3 for 4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI), Kevin Hoy (HR), Dillon Kline (HR), Justin Quiggle (HR) and Ricky Pearsall (2B, 3 RBI). The Goats pounded out 27 hits and scored 14 runs in the second inning.
For ETS (9-15), Tyler Zelinski was 3 for 3 and was Nick Reuscher 2 for 2. Josh Zelinski, Kyler Lenox and Tyler Donachy all homered and Jared Groll and Justin Eckert both added doubles.
Tyler Landscape, trailing 15-14 heading to the bottom of the seventh, got a leadoff double from Jordan Weinzierl. PPM walked hot hitting Andy Eck to create a force at any base. Eric Bush stepped to the plate and crushed a line drive to the fence in left center, scoring both Weinzierl and Eck for the walk off win.
Weinzierl led TLM (10-12) with a 4 for 5 performance that included two doubles and an inside the park homerun. Dalton Bauer and Brock Lewis were both 3 for 4, with Bauer smacking a pair of dingers.
PPM (13-11) was led by Danny Singer’s 3 for 4 night. Singer had a double and homerun among his three hits. Nick Brennen was also 3 for 4 with two doubles. Luke Hoffman, Cory Huff and Jack Herzing all added doubles.
Thursday night saw the Buttonwood/East End Beverage Honkey Spuds dispatch of N&S Contractors 19-6 and St. Marys Insurance, in a possible playoff preview, needed to rally in the bottom of the seventh inning to salvage a 14-13 win over Deprators Beverage.
The Spuds (12-11) got a monster performance at the dish from Zack Austin, who finished 4 for 4 with two homeruns, a double and knocking in 6 runs. Jamer Cooney was also 4 for 4 with 2 RBI’s, Garrett Hornung was 3 for 4 with a homerun, double and 3 RBI’s.
Trailing 13-8 headed to the bottom of the seventh, SMI got a leadoff homerun by Kurt Eckert to make it 13-9. Three straight singles by Nathan Liggett, Jeremy Williams and Ben Cortina and a sacrifice fly Tony Chiodo cut the lead to 13-11. Two more singles by Kyle Garner and Lucas Wendel set the stage for Jake Cortina, whose double scored Garner and Wendel, the tying and winning runs.
Eckert led SMI, going 4 for 4 with the homerun. Kenny Vogt and Jeremy Williams both homered and Wendel tripled. Jake Cortina finished with 4 RBI’s and Eckert had 3 RBI’s.
Leading the was for Deprators, who finish the regular season 7-17, was Alec Wehler, Scott Wehler and Austin Green, who all went 3 for 4. One of Green’s hits was a triple, while Alec Wehler had a double.
Friday night, St. Marys Insurance put the finishing touches on a 23-1 season with a 19-8 win over Eckert Technical Services. With the loss, ETS drops to the seventh seed in the playoffs.
Leading the Insurancemen was Kenny Vogt with a perfect 5 for 5 night that included 2 homeruns, a triple and 5 RBI’s. Rudy Gleixner and Lucas Wendel both added 5 for 5 efforts. Gleixner smacked a pair of dingers and a triple, while all Wendel’s hits were of the one base variety. Kiel Nissel added a round tripper and Jake Cortina pitched in with a double.
For ETS (9-15), Brandon Sicheri was 3 for 4 with a homerun, triple and 3 RBI’s. Tyler Donachy was also 3 for 4 with a double. Justin Eckert added a dinger and Colby Lenox was 3 for 3 with a double.
In the nightcap, Carlson Technologies defeated PA Powdered Metals 10-6 to secure the sixth seed and a first round playoff rematch with PPM.
CTI (10-14) got a 5 for 5 performance from leadoff hitter Eric Herzing that included a double. Mick Vogt was also 4 for 4 with a double and Mike Miraglia added a homerun.