HARMONY — Tuesday night marked the lone matchup between two Beaver Valley schools in the 2024 WPIAL baseball playoffs as No. 12 Sewickley Academy matched up against No. 5 Western Beaver in the Class 1A first round.
After the Panthers put the Golden Beavers on the ropes in the top of the 4th inning after striking pitcher sophomore pitcher Vincent Ross for three runs, Western Beaver used a patient approach at the plate to take the lead and go on to defeat Sewickley Academy 11-5 on Tuesday.
With Western Beaver trailing in the 4th inning, Chad Miller gave his team a simple message which in turn helped them regain its composure as it looked to erase the crooked number.
“I told them going into the inning that he [Jordan Smith] was getting up in his pitch count,” Miller told the Beaver County Times following the game. “I just continued to tell them to relax and time him up because he did a good job mixing up his pitches on us and threw us off our timing a couple of times. We just needed to let the game come to us and not try to go get it and they did just that. When a ball was just a little high or low, we took the pitch and we weren’t as aggressive as we were earlier in the game.”
The Golden Beavers worked a total of 10 walks in the contest including five walks in their four-run 4th inning as they made Sewickley Academy pitchers Jordan Smith, Nolan Donnelly and Jacob Stanislaw work deep into counts which allowed Western Beaver to take full control of the game.
A big factor in the team’s offensive success during the game was the work of the Golden Beavers' center fielder Benji Valdez.
Valdez may be in the nine spot in the order but he was one of the key pieces on the offensive side of the plate that produced for the Western Beaver offense.
The center fielder made his presence known at the bottom of the order as he worked a and a stolen base while also recording two singles which in turn produced two RBIs.
Miller has coached Valdez since his freshman season and has moved Valdez all around in his order. But the nine-hole, that's the spot the center fielder thrives the most in when he is in the lineup.
“He [Valdez] only started playing when he was in the eighth grade and then started for us as a freshman,” Miller said. “He has been all over the lineup but he just seems the most comfortable there. He does a great job at working the count and when he gets on base, he’s one of our fastest guys. When he flips the order, he flips it with his speed because it's easy to get him to second base, and from there, we only need that one key hit to drive him home.”
The Golden Beavers rolled out two sophomore pitchers in Vincent Ross and Christian Stefanikis who pitched well only allowing runs to score in two innings during Tuesday night’s contest.
Even with Ross not having his best stuff under the lights at Seneca Valley, he still pitched well enough pitching into the fifth inning allowing five runs and holding onto a one-run lead.
“He was fired up and walked a couple of guys today which was uncharacteristic of him,” Miller said. “When we were losing and Sewickley Academy hit a few seeing-eye singles, he stayed within himself and got out of the inning. Even with his pitch count up late in the outing, he got us two key outs late that helped us maintain the lead.”
As for Sewickley Academy, Tuesday night’s game marked the end of the line for the Panthers as they capped off an impressive season after only returning six players after seeing many of their players leave the program and graduate.
But for Sewickley Academy manager Andrew Petruska, couldn’t be more excited for his ninth season with his program after the growth that he saw from his team.
“When we got our new turf field, we have been out there since January in the snow working out and practicing and making sure that we were getting reps. We had guys on our team this season that have never played baseball before or just played at the community level so it was a little dip in the types of players that our section rivals have but it has just been the journey of growing as players and learning how to win and lose. Our program is growing, with a lot of freshman and sophomores getting a lot of playing time, I cannot wait to see where this program is headed.”
With the victory, Western Beaver will now take on Bishop Canevin on Monday at a location and time to be determined.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Western Beaver's patient approach leads to 11-5 win over Sewickley Academy
Comments / 0