Plum Legion meets Monroeville with regional tournament berth on line

The Plum and Monroeville American Legion baseball teams split their two-game Allegheny South season series.

Plum won the most recent matchup 3-1 seven days ago.

The teams meet for the third and final time at 8 p.m. Monday at Gateway High School. The winner advances to the Region 6 tournament Friday through July 23, and the loser’s season is over.

“Both teams have great pitching and make very few mistakes,” Plum manager Greg Foster said. “Just those two things alone make it tough to score runs. But you also know there are really good hitters on each side. Each team has to play their best to beat the other.”

After heavy rain Thursday delayed the quarterfinals, the league got going with its playoffs Friday. Monroeville, the No. 2 seed, topped Highlands, 6-0, and No. 3 Plum picked up an unexpected forfeit when Upper St. Clair didn’t have enough players.

Monroeville defeated Elizabeth Forward, 4-1, in one of Saturday’s semifinals, and Plum outslugged South Allegheny, 11-6.

“Our pitching and defense have been strong throughout,” Foster said. “Our hitting sometimes has been in and out due to the other team’s pitching. I also like the way the guys have been aggressive on the bases.”

Foster said he was impressed with the way the players kept their focus throughout a schedule interrupted by rainouts and other cancellations.

“The guys continued to perform at a high level, especially when we had five days off between games in some cases,” he said. “They were consistent and avoided getting out of rhythm. They came ready to play each time.”

Jared Hoener picked up the pitching win against South Allegheny, and, Foster said, Devin Ranager, Brody Simmons and Logan Schlegel also have pitched well this season.

Simmons delivered what turned out to be the winning two-run double against South Allegheny, and eight of the nine in the starting batting order delivered hits.

“Logan (Foster), Denny (Ayres) and Logan (Schlegel) have been our top hitters in terms of average, but it seems like somebody different has been coming through every game and getting timely hits,” Greg Foster said.

In addition to the winner of Monday’s game, Bethel Park, as the regular-season champion, also will represent Allegheny South in the Region 6 tournament against teams from Fayette and Beaver counties.

Monroeville (13-2) was in first place until the final week of the regular season.

Monroeville’s loss to Plum, coupled with Bethel Park’s doubleheader sweep of Highlands the next day, put the teams in a tie for first in the standings based on points.

Bethel Park got the nod as the top seed for the playoffs based on its head-to-head victory over Monroeville.

Ethan Birckbichler and Joe Schulte earned pitching wins in Monroeville’s playoff games against Highlands and Elizabeth Forward, respectively, and manager Mark Wardzinski, also the coach at Gateway, said the pitching staff overall has been strong.

Monroeville returned to Legion baseball after a three-year hiatus. All of the players come from the Gateway squad that qualified for the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs.

“We’ve had a lot of the younger players get a lot of experience,” Wardzinski said. “Overall, we’ve played a lot of games between the league and tournaments. That’s the most important thing.”

Including the win over Monroeville to cap the regular season and Saturday’s win over South Allegheny, Plum enters Monday’s game 12-2.

“It’s been a great season so far, but we haven’t reached our goal of going to regionals,” Greg Foster said. “There’s more work to be done.”