BB closing in on postseason berth
The Penn State Fayette baseball team moved closer to a Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference (PSUAC) playoff spot with a weekend sweep over Penn State New Kensington, and it extended its winning streak to eight games in the process.
Playing a home game Friday, Fayette (11-12 overall, 8-3 PSUAC) downed New Kensington (4-23, 0-12), 10-6, before going on the road Saturday to win 8-7 and 12-7.
"I am so proud of our guys for battling and competing," said first-year head coach Ryan Encapera. "We had a rough start to game one (Friday) with some mistakes in the field and some breaks going their way, but we held it together and stayed with it to win. Once (Chris) Rendulic got dialed in, he carried us on the mound. Our team, one through nine, can really swing it and on Friday, we played 1990s 'Gorilla Ball' to get it done. (Nate) Zimcosky in the third, (Kade) Musgrove in the sixth brought us within one, (Josh) Burns put us ahead in the seventh and Musgrove in the ninth put the game away (with home runs)."
Once Rendulic (Port Vue, PA/South Allegheny HS) settled in after giving up five runs over the first two innings, he only gave up one the rest of the way to earn the shutout win.
Down 5-0 going into the bottom of the second, Fayette scored an unearned run to get on the board. Zimcosky (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands HS) hit a solo homer in the third and after New Kensington scored in the top of the fourth, Zimcosky had an RBI single to make the score 6-3.
Musgrove (Dunbar, PA/Connellsville HS) drilled a two-run homer in the sixth to cut the New Kensington lead to 6-5, and Burns (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands HS) gave Fayette a 7-6 lead with a two-run homer of his own in the seventh. After Musgrove hit a solo shot in the eighth to extend Fayette's lead to 8-6, Cade Warrick (Mill Run, PA/Connellsville HS) followed with an RBI on a sacrifice fly and Fayette closed out its scoring with an unearned run.
Zimcosky (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands HS) finished with his fifth homer of the season and three singles, Musgrove (Dunbar, PA/Connellsville HS) had three RBI to go along with his two homers, Warrick had two singles and Burns (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands HS) had his home run and two RBI.
Encapera spoke about the win in the opener on Saturday.
"In game two, we started off leading 6-0 and hit the ball hard through the first two innings," he said. "They responded in the second with five runs to make it close, but (Kole) Koontz shook it off and cruised after that until (Kaleb) Scott came in to close the door. Our guys responded to their challenge and played sound baseball with a sacrifice bunt (Scott) and a sacrifice fly (Andrew Despot) to go ahead in the sixth. It was a hard-fought victory where we hit the ball hard."
Zimcosky continued his hot bat with two doubles and Warrick had two singles while Despot (Moon, PA/Moon Area HS) finished with four RBI. Koontz (Dawson, PA/Connellsville HS) raised his record to 3-3 after earning the win. He went five innings and gave up seven runs on 11 hits. Scott (Uniontown, PA/Laurel Highlands HS) went the last two innings to earn his third save of the season.
Fayette scored in each of the first five innings of the series finale in the Saturday nightcap and recorded 15 hits.
"We scored in almost every inning in game three and once again put pressure on their pitchers," Encapera said. "Kaleb refused to lose and carried us as he picked up the win and had three hits as well. Our six-run fifth inning put the game away. Kyle Ridley had another great game with three hits, and we had a bunch of guys that had two as well."
Scott had two doubles and a single while Ridley (Connellsville, PA/Connellsville HS) had three singles. Musgrove had a double, a homer run and three RBI, Zimcosky had two singles and scored three times, Despot had two singles and two RBI and Matt Morgan (Eighty-Four, PA/Ringgold HS) finished with two singles. Jorge Palmas (Upper St. Clair, PA/Upper St. Clair HS) went 2.1 innings on the mound and gave up four runs on six hits. Scott (2-4) earned the win in relief and gave up three runs on six hits.
Encapera spoke about New Kensington while also looking forward to a busy week.
"In the series, New Ken played much better than their record and they really wanted to win," Encapera said. "Our guys wanted it more and earned three hard-fought victories. When we needed it most, we outhit them, outpitched them and outscrapped them. In the last week of the regular season, we are focused on one game at a time and our intent is to lock up a spot in the playoffs."
Fayette hosts Penn State Greater Allegheny (9-15, 5-5) Monday. First pitch is set for 3:00 p.m. before closing out conference play over the weekend against PSUAC West-leading Penn State DuBois (17-10, 10-1) with a three-game series. The first game will be played Saturday at DuBois before the teams will play a doubleheader Saturday at Fayette.
Heading into the last week of the season, Zimcosky leads the team in seven statistical categories: .494 batting average (40 for 81), five home runs, three triples, nine doubles, 23 singles, 31 runs and 70 total bases. His 19 RBIs only trail Warrick (25).
For more information on the Penn State Fayette baseball team, go to https://www.psathletics.com/sports/bsb/index or follow the team on Instagram @fayetteathletics.