Canton wins back to back District IV, Class A titles.
By: Bill Albright | Towanda Daily Review | May 29, 2014 | Photo courtesy Bill Albright
2014 NTL and District 4 News
WILLIAMSPORT - Going into the 2014 District IV Class A baseball tournament, Canton was accorded the top seed.
After receiving a first-round bye, the Warriors took care of Montgomery 10-0 to advance to the title game.
In the battle for all of the marbles Wednesday night, the Warriors held up to their pre-tournament seeding as they took care of business by riding the strong right arm of Chase Pepper for a 4-1 win and a trip to the state tournament.
"We would like to take that next step and we are going to give it everything we have," said Canton coach Bob Rockwell. "We took care of business today and we knew that is what we had to do. Give credit to St. John Neumann because they have a nice team and they played a great ball game. We knew we had to play a good game to beat them and I feel we did that.
On the heels of his five-inning perfect game in the win over Montgomery, Pepper was again strong as he allowed just the one run on three hits, striking out nine and not issuing a single free pass.
"We have pitching and with that, I always like this group and the way they play," said Rockwell. "John Bowman threw more innings this year than Chase did and Garrett (Wesneski) pitched in the state final last year. Of the three guys we have, you have only seen one here, but we are going to have use all of them if we intend to make a run."
One of the veterans on the squad is Wesneski and following the win, he related to what it meant to repeat as district champions.
"I think that the second one is as good as the first one," said Wesneski. "It might even be a little better because in the game of baseball so many things can happen. If you don't bring your 'A' game you get beat by someone who you shouldn't have lost to. Being able to do this two years in a row is something special."
Wesneski was quick to point out the importance of playing all three aspects of the game.
"The main thing to winning ball games is playing a total game," Wesneski said. "Chase pitched two excellent games in a row. Defensively I do my best to make plays to try and help him out. Beiter just had his number and when he gave up those three hits, he didn't show any emotion and that is what a good pitcher does."
The Warriors jumped on top in the bottom of the first with a pair of runs when Chase Pepper reached on an error, Trevor Route and Garrett Wesneski followed with singles and Kyle Landis chased Route home on an RBI ground out.
Holding the 2-0 lead heading into the fourth inning, the Warriors tacked on another run before salting away the win with another tally in the sixth.
In the fourth, Tanner Machmer reached on a St. John Neumann error, was sacrificed to second by Tyler Cole and scored on an RBI single to center by Mason Martell.
In the sixth, Connor Route singled to right, was sacrificed to second by Tanner Machmer and scored on Tyler Cole's RBI single to center.
With the game well in hand for the Warriors, Neumann avoided the shutout in the top of the seventh when Isaac Beiter, who had all three Neumann hits led off with a booming triple off the boards in left-center field and scored on a sacrifice fly to left by his brother Noah Beiter.
"He hit all fastballs because he was patient enough to lay off the breaking pitches," explained Rockwell. "Some of their other kids swung at pitches that were down. We got a little brave with him and came in on him a couple of times, but it was a mistake. We thought we could sneak one by him inside, but it didn't happen.
"The name of the game is play good defense, get timely hitting and good pitching," said Rockwell. If you do those things you stand a good chance of winning the game and I'll take that every time."
