It took nearly three decades, but it was definitely worth the wait for Charleroi baseball.
Behind a complete-game effort by senior Brock Henderson and some timely hits by freshmen, the No. 9 Cougars registered their first postseason victory since the 1990s with a 4-2 victory over No. 8 Mt. Pleasant in a WPIAL Class 3A first-round contest Tuesday evening at W&J’s Ross Memorial Park.
“I know when I played in 1996 we had a couple of good teams in the regular season,” Charleroi coach Luke Mollis said. “But we always got snake-bitten in the playoffs. We could never get over that hump. When I took over as head coach, one of my main goals was to end that playoff drought.”
Henderson was highly efficient for the Cougars (12-8) on the mound, as the righty needed only 66 pitches to get through six innings.
“I just threw strikes today and let them put it in play,” Henderson said. “I don’t have a lot of strikeout pitches, and I am not going to blow anything by anybody. I just kept them off-balanced and got ahead in the count. My curveball was working for me, and they got under that pitch a lot.”
In the bottom of the seventh with two outs, Henderson gave up some hits to the Vikings (12-9), but any hopes of a comeback fell short as he was able to get a flyout to center for that elusive playoff win.
Mt. Pleasant had three of its four hits in the bottom of the seventh.
“Our philosophy all spring has been to never quit,” Mt. Pleasant coach Chris Firmstone said. “Their pitcher did a good job of keeping us guessing at the plate. We had some early chances but couldn’t cash in on them. It was nice to see us get some hits in that seventh, but it was way too late for us.”
Charleroi advanced to the quarterfinals next Monday against top seed Avonworth, a 6-0 winner over Waynesburg Central, with a site and time TBD.
The Cougars grabbed an early run in the first frame, as Lazer Glasser reached via a fielder’s choice, made his way to second on a wild pitch and took third after a groundout. Tristyn Woods came up to bat with two outs and delivered with a clutch, run-producing single to right.
Mt. Pleasant was looking to even it up in their half of the opening inning, but Henderson wiggled out of the early bases loaded jam. Henderson avoided any runs as he induced a pair of popouts in the infield to get out of the frame.
“Brock gave us a tremendous effort,” Mollis said. “He is very crafty, and I think his stuff is very sneaky. It doesn’t jump at you on film, but when he can work both sides of the plate he makes it tough for hitters. He was able to throw all three of his pitches today, and his pitch count was so low. He was so efficient.”
The second inning was a ton easier for Henderson as the senior righty only needed six pitches to get out of the frame and got the Charleroi’s bats back at the plate.
“The whole defense played good for me,” Henderson said. “My off-speed stuff was only in the 60s or 70s, so I knew I needed my guys behind me. I pitch to contact, and I like fooling the batters with changing the speed (of the pitches). I frustrated them today.”
In the top of the third with two outs, Glasser and Jaxson Klinger reached base with back-to-back infield singles and then Woods launched the first pitch he saw for an RBI double that made it 2-0.
The Vikings’ starting pitcher, Jordan Grieff, limited any further damage with a popout to shortstop.
After the Cougars went down in order in the top of the fourth, the Vikings put together a quality scoring chance by loading the bases with a pair of walks and an infield error, but Charleroi got out of the high-leverage situation with an easy popout to short.
“It stings when you can’t get some runs with the bases loaded,” Firmstone said. “Kudos to their pitcher and their defense. We just couldn’t get anything through the infield. We made the adjustments later, and we were just telling them to be more patient and to keep our hands behind the ball.”
Charleroi garnered key insurance runs in the sixth and seventh. In the sixth, Jaxson Klinger led off the inning with a triple to the right-center gap and later crossed home plate after a perfectly placed RBI bunt single by Henderson. In the next frame, Klinger came up clutch with a two-out RBI single.
“I knew our offense was getting hot down the stretch in the regular season,” Mollis said. “It would have been nice to get more hits, but the guys came through with a lot of timely hits with guys on base. Jaxson and Tristyn are super young, but they elevated their games today for us.”
After Henderson recorded two quick outs in the bottom of the seventh, Mt. Pleasant started its rally as No. 9 hitter Quinn Painter reached with an infield hit and scored on an RBI triple by Dane Firmstone.
Santino Marne smacked an RBI single in the next at-bat, but Charleroi regrouped and secured the victory with a flyout.
Grieff was tagged with the loss for the Vikings after he went 51⁄3 innings and gave up three runs on six hits with three strikeouts and three walks on 84 pitches. Bobby Smithnosky pitched the remainder of the game and tallied a pair of strikeouts.
Henderson went seven innings and allowed two runs on four hits with no strikeouts and three free passes on 92 pitches (54 strikes).
“I didn’t want this game to be my last,” Henderson said. “We have a lot of seniors on this team, and I think that motivated all of us today. It’s huge to get that playoff win and break the streak. I couldn’t have done it with a better group of guys.”