Crestwood Takes Third Straight

Crestwood coming off a big win against Valley West, the Comets traveled to West Pittston to take on Wyoming Area. James Graves got the start on the mound for Crestwood. Wyoming Area sent Dylan Melberger to the mound. Melberger started the Top of the first with a 1-2-3 inning. Josh Kopcza hit a one out single to left but would be forced out at second on a grounder to third. Graves would get the runner picked off the runner at first to end the inning. Curtis Tokach would hit a two out single but a strikeout got Melberger out of the second still scoreless. Aaron Lee and Marc Minichello each hit a one out singles and both would move to second and third when Graves got a groundout to second. Graves threw a wild pitch but Wegener got the ball quickly throwing to Graves who tagged the courtesy runner Jake Hogan out at the plate. Steve Wegener and Matt Taleroski began the third with  singles. Brett Caladie would the runners over with a sacrifice bunt and Colin Macko would bring in courtesy runner Mick Bafunno on an RBI groundout. Melberger would get a groundout back to him for the third out. Mike Bonita hit a two out single to right but Graves would get a strikeout to hold the one run lead. Melberger threw a 1-2-3 4th to keep it 1-0. Cole Keating led off with a single then advanced to second on a stolen base, moved to third on a passed and got home when a passed ball entered the Wyoming Area dugout to tie the game at 1. Aaron Lee had his second hit of the game, then Minichello singled to center and moved to second when the ball was misplayed and Lee moved to third. Webb brought home Hogan on an RBI groundout to make 2-1 Warriors. Then Anthony Nardell drove home Minichello and a 3-1 Wyoming Area lead. The inning would when Graves got Minichello picked off. Steve Wegener would lead off with a single but would be forced out at second on a grounder back to Melberger. Taleroski would reach second on an errant pickoff and Brett Caladie would bring home Taleroski on an RBI single. The Comets threat was thwarted when Nardell dove to stop a ground ball and forced out Caladie at second to end the top of the fifth. Graves threw a 1-2-3 fifth to keep it a one run deficit. Graves led off with a single to center. Matt Wright entered the game for the Warriors. Justin Darden welcomed Wright with a double to left that moved Graves' courtesy runner Jake Antosh to third. After back to back popouts, Wyatt Kindler brought home Antosh and Darden to take a 4-3 lead. Wegener then followed with a single to make it first and second then Taleroski singled home Kindler to make it 5-3 Crestwood. A groundout ended the top of the sixth. Steve Homza led off with a single, then Keating singled to make it first and second. Matt Trimmer came in to pitch for the Comets. Lee followed by drawing a walk to load the bases. Trimmer got an infield fly for the first out but Ryan Webb would single home Homza and Keating to tie the game at 5. Trimmer got a ground ball to third where Tokach threw to Wegener at home for the second out and keep the game tied. A strikeout ended the sixth tied at 5. Macko led off with a single. Cole Keating came in to pitch for the Warriors. Macko would then steal second. Graves would reach on an error and Macko would score when the throw was misplayed and the Comets took a 6-5 lead. Justin Darden drew a walk. The Comets attempted a bunt but Keating got the throw to third for the first out. Darden would move to second and stole third and would score when the throw got into the outfield and a 7-5 Crestwood lead. Keating got the next two batters out to get to the bottom of the seventh trailing by 2. Trimmer would get a groundout to short for the first out and a strikeout for the second out. Steve Homza would reach on a single, but Trimmer would get a fly out to Taleroski for the final out and the Comets got their third straight victory.

Thoughts on the game: A back and forth game throughout. Both teams had great chances to win. It was also a very heated game. On the Crestwood side, several players contributed to the victory. For Wyoming Area, Marc Minichello had 2 hits, as did Cole Keating.

Crestwood 0 0 1 0 1 3 2 7
Wyoming Area 0 0 0 3 0 2 0 5

Crestwood
SS Caladie 3 0 1 1
LF Macko 4 1 1 1
P/1B Graves 4 1 1 0
2B Darden 3 2 1 0
1B Chalk 0 0 0 0
P Trimmer 0 0 0 0
DH Kovalchik 4 0 0 0
3B Tokach 4 0 1 0
RF Kindler 4 1 1 2
C Wegener 3 1 3 0
CF Taleroski 3 1 2 1

2B: Darden

Wyoming Area
CF Bonita 4 0 1 0
1B Kopcza 3 0 1 0
1B Williams 1 0 0 0
2B Homza 4 1 2 0
3B Charney 0 0 0 0
DH/P Keating 4 2 2 0
C Lee 2 1 2 0
RF/3B Minichello 3 1 2 0
LF Webb 3 0 1 3
SS Nardell 3 0 1 1
P Melberger 2 0 0 0
P/RF Wright 1 0 0 0

Pitching
Crestwood
Graves 5+ IP 22 BF 5 R 5 ER 10 H 2 K 1 BB
Trimmer (W) 2 IP 9 BF 0 R 0 ER 2 H 2 K 0 BB

Wyoming Area
Melberger 5+ IP 21 BF 3 R 3 ER 6 H 2 K 0 BB
Wright (L) 1+ IP 8 BF 3 R 3 ER 4 H 0 K 0 BB
Keating 1 IP 5 BF 1 R 1 ER 0 H 0 K 1 BB