Fort Cherry had been an offensive machine this season, averaging a WPIAL-best 10 runs per game and slugging 25 home runs.
The potent Rangers hoped to exit EQT Park on Tuesday after taking a bite of their first WPIAL title in 40 years, but the team was treated to a trip to “Denny’s” instead.
And this meal was anything but appetizing.
Denny Joseph tossed seven strong innings and No. 2 Neshannock benefited from five Fort Cherry errors to roll past the top-seeded Rangers, 11-2, in the Class 2A championship.
With the victory, Neshannock (19-3) became just the sixth team to win seven WPIAL titles, this after capturing its first title since 2015. Fort Cherry (18-2) was seeking its first title since 1986.
“We’ve been grinding since the winter, working on all of this,” Joseph said. “It just feels so good.”
Joseph, a senior left-hander, was very good as he kept Fort Cherry in check. After shutting out South Side in the semifinals, Joseph, just 5-foot-8, gave up two runs and five hits in seven innings, walking two and striking out two. The two runs tied for the fewest the Rangers have scored this season.
“He didn’t pitch a lot last year. I wasn’t content with where he was. But he’s worked extremely hard,” said Neshannock coach John Quahliero, who won his fifth WPIAL title, the first four coming as an assistant coach.
A La Roche recruit, Joseph overcame some adversity in the bottom of the second inning after taking a line drive off of his left heel.
“I was in pain walking off there, limping. I walked it off. I knew I wanted to get back out there and keep grinding,” recalled Joseph, who improved his record to 5-1.
And grind he did. Instead of giving way to another pitcher, Joseph remained in the game, one in which he was extremely efficient. He threw just 67 pitches — 50 for strikes — and retired the final 10 batters of the game, getting Nathan Wolfe to ground out to end it.
“When the line drive went off him, it was over,” Quahliero said. “He went from coming out of the game to finishing a complete game. To me, you can’t teach that stuff. That’s a grind. The kid’s unbelievable.”
What was also unbelievable was how often Fort Cherry got in its own way. Errors and other miscues plagued the Rangers throughout, most of which led to runs. Shortstop Ben Demascal is typically strong defensively, but he committed four errors Tuesday. He eventually was moved to left field, but his replacement at shortstop, Wolfe, surrendered an error of his own.
“It’s hard. They’re out there trying. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out,” said 79-year-old Fort Cherry coach Bob Sawhill. “Anybody that’s ever played the game knows that. People make errors. What are you going to do? Sometimes they come at the worst possible time.”
One of those came when Demascal’s throwing error allowed the game’s first hitter, Nathan Rickel, to reach base. After Ryan Cameron drew a one-out walk against Fort Cherry starter Dom Lueck, Anthony Eakin knocked in Rickel with a groundout and Cameron then scored on a passed ball to propel Neshannock to an early lead.
Ryan Huey’s run-scoring triple got Fort Cherry on the board in the bottom of the inning, a run that Neshannock got back in the third when Cameron scored on an error.
Fort Cherry began to gain some separation in the fourth courtesy of Rickel’s RBI double, Luca Pagley’s run-scoring squeeze bunt and Cameron’s RBI single that made it 6-1.
“When they scored those three, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Sawhill, who is in his 38th season.
But Neshannock wasn’t done. After Blake Merckle’s RBI single in the bottom of the fourth cut the Fort Cherry deficit to four, the Lancers broke the game open by collecting five runs in the seventh. Mason Moroz smacked a two-run double and Cole Hutchison followed with an RBI double before Hutchison and Hayden Tatterson scored on wild pitches.
Lueck, a junior right hander, fell to 9-1 after allowing six runs (four earned), four hits and two walks across five innings.
Seven Neshannock players registered hits, with Cameron collecting two. Fort Cherry standout Colton Temple had one of Fort Cherry’s five hits, the knock coming on a single in the first.
It was the eighth win in nine games for the Lancers, whose three losses have been by a combined four runs.
Both teams qualify for the PIAA playoffs, which begin Monday, and Quahliero said he believes the Lancers haven’t seen the last of Fort Cherry.
“That’s a heck of a team,” he said. “There’s a good chance we’re going to see those guys again in the state playoffs.”