RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesMartella’s Pharmacy knows how potent the New Orleans Boosters are after the two franchises have frequently met in the All American Amateur Baseball Association Tournament.
The Johnstown Collegiate Baseball League runners-up led by four through four innings and took a two-run advantage heading into the ninth inning of Thursday’s quarterfinal, but the 18-time champion Boosters proved their mettle by tallying three scores in the bottom of the ninth to prevail 5-4 on Frank Randol’s two-run sacrifice fly.
“As a hitter, you’re trying to have a team at-bat, but you come out with a guy on third and less than two (outs), you got to be foaming at the mouth,” Randol said.
“I’m being really aggressive coming up there knowing I’m going to win the game, or at least tie it. I got a pitch, put good enough wood on it to drive it and ended up having a guy tag. The throw didn’t go their way, and we scored two off of it to win.”
Both dugouts were emptied after the emotional game. Teams had to be separated around first base.
New Orleans (4-0) will play 3-1 Maryland State, a 7-6 winner over Butler on Remington Waters’ walk-off grand slam, Friday in a semifinal. New Orleans beat Maryland State 8-0 Wednesday in Pool B play. The Boosters avenged a 5-4 loss to Martella’s Pharmacy in a 2025 semifinal.
“First off, you’ve got to beat New Orleans for nine innings,” Martella’s Pharmacy manager Kerry Pfeil said. “I think we beat them for seven of nine innings.
“They took it there in the eighth and the ninth. They’re a very good team, as always. We fell short of finishing it off.
“Regardless of everything at the end of the game, I think after the fourth inning there, we really didn’t do much offensively to extend our lead.
“Really looking back at this, I think we could have done a better job offensively.”
New Orleans’ Joe Monaghan was hit by a pitch for the third time when facing Martella’s Pharmacy reliever Mason Pfeil to begin the ninth. After a flyout, Connor Micheu drew a walk. Rhett Centanni drove a pitch into the right-center gap.
Right fielder Grayden Gillott covered plenty of ground to make the catch, but the ball popped out of his glove as Monaghan raced home on a two-base error. Riley Rowell was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Randol drove the first pitch he saw to deep center field.
Colby Rearick made a leaping catch and relayed a throw toward second base. Shortstop Cainen Atherton went toward right-center field to retrieve the ball, but Rowell slid into second base to knock Atherton off his feet as the ball trickled on the turf. Centanni raced home for the winning run.
“In my opinion, the way Colby caught the fly ball, it was deep in center field,” Kerry Pfeil said.
“If you know the New Orleans franchise and you know this stadium, anyone’s got to understand that the way that play was made with him moving to the wall, that it’s a great possibility that that runner from second base can tag up and score, too. He throws the ball in. Our defender is going to get the ball to relay it to home, and a runner slides into him. I know it’s a tough call to make.
“It ends up being a judgment call for obstruction. We thought it was obstruction. The umpires didn’t.”
Pfeil stressed that the umpires were not to blame for the local squad’s ouster.
“Regardless of the call, we didn’t do nothing from the fifth inning on, so if we really want to look back at why we lost this game, it was on us. We needed that call, obviously, at that point in time. We had other chances to win this game. I’m not going to sit here and blame this on umpires. We had other chances.”
Martella’s Pharmacy starter Lucas Turner, a Bishop McCort Catholic graduate and Seton Hill hurler, threw six-plus sensational innings.
Turner fanned five batters and threw 51 of his 81 pitches for strikes. He did not allow a runner to reach second base until the fifth.
“I thought their starter did a great job,” New Orleans manager Doug Faust said. “He kept us off the barrel for the most part, kind of hand-cuffed us.
“Fortunately for us, he got tired because he was doing a great job against us.”
“I think he did the best job of all of the years I’ve been watching him play, and he’s been playing with us of working ahead with every single pitch,” Kerry Pfeil said.
“He created a lot of easy outs. He wasn’t fighting back in counts. I thought he was extremely effective. Unfortunately, we put him out there to start the seventh, and you can just tell he was dead-tired. We had to make a move.”
Ben Ryan led Martella’s Pharmacy with three hits. Atherton and Owen McDermott each tallied two knocks as Martella’s Pharmacy outhit New Orleans 10-5.
Everett Denny topped New Orleans with two hits.
New Orleans reliever Bryce Pitts allowed one run in six innings to keep his team in it.
“Pitts was great,” Faust said.
“Pitts was supposed to give us two or three innings, then go to (Robert) Turnage (III) and then (Brady) Schmidt. He just kept getting them out. He was making some really good pitches, staying off the barrel.”
Martella’s Pharmacy jumped on New Orleans starter Blaise Tingstrom, who lasted 12/3 frames, in the first inning.
Lucas Oleksa drove in a run with an infield single to second base. Jack Messina followed with a sacrifice fly.
In the second, Atherton produced a 3-2, two-out RBI double as Martella’s Pharmacy led 3-0.
Martella’s Pharmacy was unable to maximize early innings offensively, however.
The local team stranded 10 runners, including seven in the first three innings.
“If you drive in half of those runs in the first three innings, that extends your lead to 6-0 or 7-0, but we were just not getting anybody on base in the end,” Kerry Pfeil said. “We didn’t do nothing from the fifth inning on, so if we really want to look back at why we lost this game, it was on us. Unfortunately, we fell short.”
Ryan launched a solo homer in the fourth for a 4-0 lead.
Pickup player Coy Martino relieved Turner in the seventh, and induced a double-play...
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