MEADVILLE, Pa. -- The Allegheny baseball team rallied for a 6-4 win in the opener en route to a North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC)-opening doubleheader split with Wooster, before dropping the nightcap, 10-6.
Heading into the bottom of the fifth of game one down, 4-1, a
Seth Reisman (Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius) single to center field brought home
Jacob Budnar (Cleveland Heights, Ohio/Cleveland Heights) and the Gators began to claw their way back into the game. A couple batters later,
Luke Chutko (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) smacked a triple into the right-center field gap that brought Reisman home from first and trimmed the Fighting Scots lead down to one, 4-3. Two batters later,
Brett Heckert (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) tied the game at 4-4 by virtue of a single to left field which plated Chutko home from third. Allegheny took advantage of another Wooster error that scored Heckert and
Ryan Dougherty (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny), putting the lead back in the Gators' favor, 6-4.
After a leadoff double to right center, and a single that put Chutko on third, he would take advantage of a Wooster wild pitch to open the scoring at 1-0 in the bottom of first.
Chutko powered the offense during the matinee with a 3-for-4 day at the plate, including two doubles and a triple. Chutko, Heckert and Reisman all drove in a run.
Conor Deasy (Pittsburgh, Pa./Pittsburgh Central Catholic) earned his first win of the 2021 campaign. Through five innings of work, Deasy struckout five batters and only surrendered four hits.
Daniel Morgano (Allison Park, Pa./Vincentian Academy) picked up his first career save in game one. In two innings pitched, Morgano struck out three batters and did not concede a hit or run to seal the win.
In the nightcap, Heckert led the offensive effort with a multi-hit game going 2-for-4 at the plate.
Dalton DuBois (Bemus Point, N.Y./Maple Grove) and
Ben Kosbie (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shady Side Academy) both drove in two runs, with DuBois plating a pair on his second career home run in the third inning.
Allegheny moved to 4-1 with the split and 1-1 in the NCAC, while Wooster, who was receiving votes in the most recent D3baseball.com Top 25 poll, slides to 9-5 overall and 4-2 in conference play. The two teams will be back at it with a doubleheader in Wooster, Ohio, beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 10.
