Sports

By John Erzar jerzar@timesleader.com
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WILKES-BARRE TWP. – Sensing imminent trouble, Northwest Area coach Jim Hill made a pitching change after two innings Wednesday.

And then he made another and another.

“No matter who we threw, they were all over it,” Hill said.

They were the Old Forge Blue Devils, who pounded out 19 hits against four Northwest pitchers for a 19-6 five-inning victory in the District 2 Class A baseball championship game at King’s College.

Old Forge (17-2) gained D2’s only PIAA playoff berth. The Blue Devils will return to states for the first time since 2001, playing the District 3 runner-up – the loser of today’s Holy Name vs. Newport game.

Northwest finished its year at 16-2.

“Guys always say it’s hard to give away second-place medals,” Hill said. “After a game like this, you look at the whole season.”

Perhaps that was a good idea since not much good happened for the Rangers on a scorching afternoon for baseball.

Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the first, Northwest lead-off hitter Dan Wido was plunked with a pitch. He moved up to second on a balk, to third on a passed ball and scored on Matt Kempinski’s sacrifice fly.

That ended the positives for the Rangers until they tacked on some late runs after Old Forge had the game well in hand.

Old Forge scored twice again in the second, then had the first of two seven-run outbursts in the third. By that time, Northwest was on its third pitcher and the Blue Devils were on their third cycle of the batting order.

“It was important in the second to get two more to put them back on their heels,” said Old Forge coach John Armillay, who is the brother of former Pittston Area football coach Steve Armillay. “They could never get back over that hump.”

Old Forge pitcher Kyle McMyne made sure of it. The right-hander kept the Northwest hitters in check with a fine mixture of pitches and a somewhat unusual delivery. McMyne would start his windup almost in slow motion before launching himself toward the plate extremely fast.

Moreover, McMyne shook off his inauspicious start to hold Northwest to one hit through three innings – a clean single by Kempinski with two outs in the third.

“He has had a hard first inning all year long,” Armillay said. “He gets his emotions draining and then he does a lot of things for us. He usually has rough first innings and usually settles down.”

Northwest’s Ryan Jola finally tagged McMyne for a two-run double in the fourth, but Old Forge had built a 12-1 lead by then. And any hopes for a miraculous comeback ended when Old Forge battered Northwest’s third and fourth pitchers of the game for seven more runs in the fifth.

“We were going to try to mix and match,” Hill said. “We thought we’d get them with the next guy and that didn’t work. They would bring guys of the bench, and the first pitch even guys with bad swings (were hitting).”

Wes Ravert added an RBI double in the fifth for Northwest.

Old Forge’s hitting was solid top to bottom. Lead-off hitter Jared Yanniello finished 4-for-4 with three RBI and four runs scored, while No. 9 hitter Joe Graziano had two doubles and four RBI.

on the web

For more photos of the District 2 Class A championship game, go to www.timesleader.com