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HUGHESTOWN — Brett Stevens didn’t think he would be making an appearance in the Wyoming Valley American Legion League Playoffs.
The Nanticoke pitcher had vacation with his family scheduled in Wildwood, N.J. this week.
But when Nanticoke manager Joe Yudichak needed an arm because his team was playing its fourth game in as many days, Stevens answered the call.
The Hanover Area product left Wildwood at 9 a.m. Tuesday, showed up at the Pittston Area Primary Center to pitch for his team, and gave his team a much-needed boost before returning to the beach on Tuesday night.
Stevens pitched into the sixth inning, getting out of several key situations as Nanticoke defeated Greater Pittston 9-7 to force a deciding championship game today at 5:30 p.m. at the same location.
“Big game. I wanted to pitch. I wanted to win pretty much,” Stevens said about his decision to make a nearly four-hour drive. “I told (Yudichak) ‘I’m ready to come back whenever you need me so when the time comes let me know.’”
That time arrived on Monday evening and Stevens showed dedication to his team.
“I appreciate his family coming in and cutting their vacation short,” Yudichak said. “That’s a good sign for the kids today. A lot of kids don’t have commitment. And that’s called commitment when you come back for your team. A lot of kids stay away. Commitment is coming back to baseball around here and I like that.”
The tournament winner advances to the Region 5 Tournament to be held in Hughestown and at Mountain Post beginning on Saturday. The titlist will join defending state champion and regular season WVALL champ Swoyersville in the event; Swoyersville, the regular-season champ, earned the bye until regionals.
Nanticoke jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning taking advantage of a Greater Pittston error. But GP, the tournament’s top seed, came right back with two in the bottom of the frame to take a 2-1 lead.
The Nanticoke offense was too much though. The team battled for one in the second to even the score at 2-2, then three in the third and another in the fourth to take a 6-2 lead and didn’t let up the rest of the game. This despite leaving 11 runners on base total, including seven in the first three innings.
“I knew it was going to be a high-scoring game because we’re running thin on pitching and just about out, but we left six guys on in the first two innings,” Yudichak said. “But we swung the bats well.”
Greater Pittston wasn’t going away easily putting up three in the fourth on consecutive RBI hits from Mike Bonita (3 for 5) and Steve Homza (2 for 5) to pull within 6-5 and grab momentum.
Nanticoke took momentum right back in the top of the fifth with three more runs highlighted by a two-run single from Mike Piscotty to go ahead 9-5.
“I think we came here and thought we were gonna walk over Nanticoke,” Greater Pittston manager Jerry Ranieli said. “Nanticoke’s a great team. This is the second time they beat us.”
Ranieli said played its worst game of the season, committed three errors on defense, gave up a season-high in runs, and just ran into bad luck at times.
Now, Ranieli said, his team will be ready for the all-or-nothing game tonight.
“We did not play our best game. I don’t think we made that many errors or throwing blunders the whole season that we made today,” he said. “Chalk it up to a bad game. They’re 18-19-year-old kids, it happens. Maybe there was a little pressure, but we’re gonna come back (today) and battle.”
Wyoming Valley American Legion League Playoffs
Nanticoke 9, Greater Pittston 7
Nanticoke`AB`R`H`BI
Pokrinchak lf`5`3`3`1
Clarke ss`4`1`1`0
Piscotty rf`5`0`3`3
Stevens p`0`0`0`0
Rynkiewicz dh`2`1`0`1
Rimmer 3b`5`0`2`0
Peters c` 2`1`1`0
Krupinski 1b`4`1`2`0
Piestrak 2b`3`0`0`0
Morgan cf`4`2`2`2
Totals`34`9`14`7
Greater Pittston`AB`R`H`BI
Bonita cf`5`2`3`2
Homza rf `5`1`2`2
Lescavage ss` 4`0`2`1
Jackson lf`1`0`0`0
Nardell lf`1`0`0`0
Lee c`3`1`2`1
Wright 1b`4`1`1`0
Charney 3b`3`0`0`0
Rome ph`1`0`0`0
Dougherty 2b`1`0`0`0
Jurchak p`0`0`0`0
Melberger dh`4`1`2`0
Totals`33`7`13`7
2B: Wright, Pokrinchak
Nanticoke`113`130`0` —`9
Greater Pittston`200`310`1`—`7
Nanticoke`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Stevens (W)`5.2`12`6`5`2`2
Kowalski `1.1`1`1`1`1`3
Greater Pittston`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Jurchak (L)`2+`5`3`2`3`1
KRalston `2+`6`5`5`2`0
Wright `1.3`3`1`1`1`0
Keating`2.0`0`0`0`0`1
