Pleasant Hills tops Lincoln Place in Legion ball

With only one 19-year-old player on his roster, Lincoln Place coach Jimmy Forse already knew his ball clubs' place in the Mon-Yough American Legion League coming into the season.

A 13-0 loss at Pleasant Hills Thursday, in which coach Chris Mikolaj's team, loaded with the top-end talent from Thomas Jefferson's 2010 WPIAL co-Section 4-AAA title team, pounded out 17 hits, only reinforced that notion.

"We've got a real young team," Forse said. "We've got one 19-year-old and he hasn't played in two years. So, we've got mainly a bunch of 16-year-olds and some 17-year-olds. We're the runt of the litter in our section."

Quite conversely, after qualifying for the Allegheny County American Legion playoffs last summer, Pleasant Hills (2-0) is out to another fast start to this season behind some solid pitching and timely hitting against the inexperienced Lincoln Place (0-3) squad.

Power-hitting left fielder Rob Nahay led Pleasant Hills at the plate with a 3-for-3, four-RBI performance, while Frank Szubra was 3-for-4 with a walk and RBI. Catcher Tyler Toboz also combined with Matt Warhola, Bruno Natter and Zack Byrne to pace their team's hit parade with two hits each.

"(This game went) as expected," Mikolaj said. "You have a solid group of five that are coming off of the high school season that are all-section. That's the heart, the five of them. They're pretty much stacked from second in the order through six right now."

As good as his teammates were at the plate, Pleasant Hills starting pitcher Joe Shaffer picked up the victory by nearly matching the effort unfurled by his bat-yielding teammates.

Shaffer worked five innings and conceded only two hits with six strikeouts. He did not allow a hit until Lincoln Place lead-off hitter Anthony Scheidle began the top of the fourth inning with a single.

"His arm's fresh," Mikolaj said. "He didn't get a lot of innings in high school, which is kind of understandable, but this is his time. I knew that he was going to handle this team, but to basically shut them out like that, I think, is a confidence booster."

East Allegheny's Kevin Link singled against Shaffer in the fifth inning, while Adam Rzepniak also singled off of Pleasant Hills reliever Sean Saputa in the seventh to round out Lincoln Place's showing at the plate for the game.

While Forse's team failed to find a groove with its bats, Pleasant Hills put Lincoln place and its starting pitcher Paul Phares away with a seven-hit, five-run first inning.

Former TJ two-sport standout and 2008 Daily News Offensive Football Player of the Year, Tyler Wehner, began the first inning with a double, while Szubra doubled in the next at-bat.

The pair was then driven in by a Nahay triple before Toboz added an RBI single, Shaffer plated a run with a ground out and Byrne singled in a run to end the game's initial inning.

Pleasant Hills tacked on another run on a Nahay RBI single to take a 6-0 lead in the second inning before plating five runs on five hits in the fourth and another two runs in the fifth inning.

Phares took the tough loss for Lincoln Place after lasting four innings. He allowed 11 runs on 15 hits with one strikeout and three walks.

Although the outcome was certainly not desirable, Forse was unable to be too disappointed in Phares, who only pitched Thursday because ace Jake Radakovich sustained a concussion in a game against Swissvale earlier this week.

"He's not normally a pitcher," Forse, who returned to coach Lincoln Place this season after leading the team for 11 years from 1993-2003, said of Phares. "He's like our No. 5 guy. He didn't bury himself with walks. He made them hit the ball, that's all I normally ask.

"I guess you could call him the sacrificial lamb."

Although they may have had a disappointing start to this season, Forse is still optimistic about his team.

With Steel Valley pitchers Radakovich and Sean Lyons on his roster, along with East Allegheny's ace Rzepniak, Lincoln Place should be able to win some games behind a solid starting pitching rotation.

"I told them from day one most of these teams it's basically their high school teams," Forse said. "Now they found out I'm not blowing smoke up their (expletive). They're getting tough love and I'm getting the tough love along with them."