In the hours after last Wednesday’s loss to Fort Cherry in a WPIAL Class 2A semifinal at Gateway, disappointment turned to hope for the Riverview baseball team.
A goal shift had the Raiders focused on a new task.
It is a task with which they are familiar.
For the second year in a row, Riverview will play for third place in the WPIAL tournament. A win will put them in the PIAA playoffs.
Last year, they bounced back from a similar semifinal loss to defeat Laurel, 2-0, at Washington & Jefferson’s Ross Memorial Park.
On Tuesday, a familiar opponent stands between the Raiders and another trip to states. The rubber game between No. 4 Riverview and No. 3 South Side is filled with potential drama.
This third meeting will extend one season while bringing another to a sudden end.
Junior Lukas Duncan, the team’s pitching ace and leading hitter, is ready to do anything he can to help keep Riverview’s season going. The rest of the Raiders will have that same mindset when the teams take the field at 4 p.m.
“Everyone is pretty excited,” said Duncan, who shut out Laurel in last year’s third-place game to help clinch the berth to states.
Duncan will get the start Tuesday.
“Going to states last year and facing a really good Mercyhurst Prep team was a lot of fun,” he said. “We know what that feeling was like to come out and win (in the WPIAL consolation game), and we’re ready to do it again. We know it won’t be an easy game, but everyone on this team has played in high-pressure situations, especially in the section and in the playoffs this year.
“We have high expectations that we will come out and be ready for whatever South Side throws at us. We have expectations that we will play good baseball like we’ve done all season.”
Duncan struck out six and surrendered one earned run over seven innings in a 4-2 WPIAL quarterfinal victory against Laurel on May 18 that propelled the Raiders to the semifinals.
Riverview practiced the day after Fort Cherry, and coach Bill Gras said there was a little bit of a hangover from that loss to the Rangers.
But he said his players bounced back after a day off and showed good energy in Saturday’s gathering at Riverside Park.
“I was concerned with how they would come out from the Fort Cherry game,” Gras said. “It took a little bit to get the enthusiasm back. But we had a hitting practice on Saturday, and you could see it come back. They see the importance of what is in front of them.”
Tuesday’s winner will face Mercyhurst Prep in the PIAA first round. The Lakers breezed past Saegertown, 9-1, on Monday to claim their ninth District 10 title.
“These guys know what the intensity is like of playing in an elimination game,” Gras said. “They’ve played in two already in these playoffs.”
In addition to the quarterfinal victory over Laurel, Riverview edged No. 13 Frazier, 5-4, in the first round.
It is the second year in a row Riverview will play a section rival for a third time.
Last year, Riverview suffered a pair of close losses to OLSH late in the regular season before taking a 3-1 setback against the Chargers in the semifinals.
The Raiders split with South Side midway through last month, rallying to win the first game 5-4 behind a pair of RBIs from Rex Roberts and Owen Orbich before falling 2-1 the next day.
“Both games against South Side this year were very competitive games down to the wire,” Gras said. “We were down two runs early in the first game with South Side, but we stayed in it, battled, chipped away, got ahead and got a nice win.”
Owen Metz pitched six strong innings in the 2-1 loss, striking out nine, giving up five hits and just one earned run.
Metz and Roberts will also be available to pitch Tuesday if needed.
Metz pitched well against Fort Cherry in the 4-1 semifinal loss. He helped hold a potent Rangers lineup to just three hits. He worked through five walks and struck out eight.
Riverview collected three hits in the loss.
“We are blessed to have this second opportunity,” Metz said. “We’ve heard about that (1983) team years back that lost in the WPIAL (Class AA) semifinals but came back to win the state title. That is what we are hoping to do here, too.”
The team got in the cage Monday evening to work on some hitting.
“Even at this point in the season, we know that there is always something we can work on to get better,” Duncan said. “We’re never satisfied with where we are.”
Duncan, catcher Miles Duncan, Roberts and infielder Ashton Saunders started in last year’s third-place game against Laurel. Lukas Duncan drove in one of the runs, and Roberts singled and scored the Raiders’ other run.
South Side was the seventh seed last year and lost in the first round to No. 10 New Brighton.
The Rams missed the playoffs in 2024 and were Class 2A quarterfinalists as the No. 5 seed in 2023.
The last time South Side played in a third-place game with a trip to states on the line was 2018 when the Rams defeated Riverside, 7-5, at Ross Memorial Park.
South Side saw its 10-game win streak snapped in heartbreaking fashion last Wednesday in a 1-0 loss to No. 2 Neshannock at Seneca Valley.
Ryan Shaw was the tough-luck losing pitcher as he allowed just the one run on four hits over six innings. Shaw fired a complete game in the 2-1 section victory over Riverview.
Gras said he expects Shaw to start Tuesday with the Rams’ other rotation leader, Dawson Frasier, available to pitch.
“We look at both of them, and they are not big strikeout pitchers or hard throwers,” Gras said. “They are both at about the same velocity. We’ve practiced that. We’ve worked on facing slower-speed pitchers with a good variety of pitches.”