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HUGHESTOWN — Hunter Ralston started to stretch in the Pittston Area dugout before the seventh inning.
His teammates stayed away from the pitcher.
It was a typical scenario for a hurler looking for a piece of history.
The senior was three outs away from not only pitching his team to the District 2 Class 5A championship game, but from tossing his first career perfect game.
In the end he settled for one of two.
Ralston tossed a one-hitter to lead the Patriots to a 3-1 victory over Wallenpaupack as they reach Sunday’s D2 final against North Pocono at 3:30 p.m. at PNC Field.
“Right when I got here today, my pre-bullpen and everything, I felt good,” Ralston said. “I knew it was gonna be a hot day. So I worked hard the days before to get my stamina up and that’s what I did.”
Holding a 3-0 lead in the seventh inning, Ralston took the mound having thrown just 65 pitches. The inning started off when a hard-hit grounder wasn’t handled, and the Buckhorns put a runner on for the first time.
But Ralston got a little shaky at that point because he hadn’t pitched out of the stretch the entire game. He walked the next batter before allowing the only Wallenpaupack hit of the game to the next batter, Derrick Vosburg, to load the bases with no outs.
He settled down to retire the next two batters before hitting the next batter to force in the only run he allowed.
“That (error) threw me in a little shimmy because I haven’t thrown out of the stretch the whole game. So getting used to that took me a little while,” Ralston said. “It was a little different.”
Ralston tossed a gem, pitching to contact and getting weak groundballs and pop-ups. There were just five balls the entire game that left the infield, including the base hit. He struck out four and had four innings where he threw 11 pitches or less. The right-hander had a three-ball count just four times — three of them ended in strikeouts, and the other one was a walk.
“My pitching coach, (John) Richards prepared me the whole week for everything with what we had to do,” Ralston said. “It really goes to him. Because he told me ‘this one’s me. I got this one. You got all the other ones. Just turn your brain off and it’s all me.’ So give credit to him.”
The win was a little sweeter for the Patriots because they defeated the Buckhorns in the district tournament after being eliminated by them the previous two seasons. A bases-loaded walk in the third inning gave PA a 1-0 lead. In the fourth, two Patriots runs scored when two Wallenpaupack outfielders dropped flyballs leading to a 3-0 advantage.
“This win for our program is huge,” Pittston Area coach Paul Zaffuto said. “The accumulation of four years with these kids, the seniors hitting the weight room and everybody coming to hit everyday. I know everybody says that, but we legitimately go four, five days a week from November just hitting, hitting, hitting, hitting. Then we do our drill work in the winter. The dedication they put in on this level is phenomenal.”
Pittston Area is in the district final for the first time since winning three district championships in a row from 2005-07.
“It’s been (12) years for us. And to have to watch everybody else go there and we have to watch it every year, it’s heart-breaking,” said Zaffuto, who is in his 20th year as head coach. “And now, we’re going back.”
District 2 Class 5A Semifinals
Pittston Area 3, Wallenpaupack 1
Wallenpaupack`AB`R`H`BI
Schmalzle ss`3`1`0`0
Peifer c`2`0`0`0
Vosburg p`2`0`1`0
Levant 3b` 3`0`0`0
Smith cf`3`0`0`0
Nolan rf` 2`0`0`1
Santiago 1b`3`0`0`0
Liddy 2b`2`0`0`0
Vargo lf`0`0`0`0
Gardsy dh`2`0`0`0
Totals`22`1`1`1
Pittston Area`AB`R`H`BI
Krawczyk cf`3`1`1`0
Stella c `3`1`2`0
Cencetti 3b`3`0`0`0
DeLucca lf`3`0`0`0
Cherkas 1b`3`0`1`0
Baiera ss`0`0`0`0
Brody dh`2`0`0`1
Ralston p`2`0`0`0
Cunis 2b`2`0`0`0
Dillon rf`3`1`0`0
Totals`24`3`4`1
2B: Stella
Wallenpaupack`000`000`1 — 1
Pittston Area`001`200`x — 3
Wallenpaupack`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Vosburg (L) `4.0`4`3`1`4`5
Levant`2.0`1`0`0`1`0
Pittston Area`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Ralston (W) `7.0`1`1`1`1`4
