MASONTOWN - The Charleroi and Masontown American Legion baseball teams each owned a win in their best-of-three playoff series, but their dugouts on Wednesday represented quite a contrast in dispositions.
On the first-base side of German Field, the Masontown/ Point Marion baseball team was subdued and seemingly listless. Across the diamond, the Charleroi Magicians' dugout was strangely relaxed and oozing confidence. Coaches and teammates alike laughed and teased each other as if victory was an afterthought. It soon would be.
A loose Charleroi squad did little wrong while Masontown (15-12) could do little right as the Magicians won an 11-0 laugher in seven innings. Charleroi (13-14) now moves on to play at top-seeded Connellsville Friday.
"I noticed that, too; we did seem confident right off the bat," Charleroi coach Tom Hartman said. "I think when we play away, we don't have any time to goof off between 5 and 5:30. They're hurrying up and getting loose and then they're ready."
The only tense player wearing red and black Wednesday was Charleroi starter Dave Wachinski, who hadn't pitched in nearly a month. As the carefree approach clicked for his teammates, Wachinski's football-like intensity led to a six-hit shutout of Masontown. Wachinski pitched all seven innings for the victory.
"I was hoping for three innings from Dave, then four, then I bumped it up to five," Hartman admitted. "He hasn't thrown for three weeks because he hurt his arm in a football game and every time he cocks his arm back, it hurts."
While Wachinski provided a spark, Masontown was missing theirs: leadoff hitter Chris Buncic, who had reached base in 11 of his previous 12 plate appearances versus Charleroi. Buncic, who hit for the cycle Monday and stole six bases Tuesday, had left for vacation.
"He's their number one guy and it's got to affect them," Hartman said, when asked about Masontown's lethargy. "That's the only thing I can think of - if you take a leader like Frank (McLaughlin) out of this lineup, it will have the same effect."
O'Neil refused to make excuses, citing his team's earlier win this year at Charleroi when the Magicians had starters Rob Ramsey and Dan Thomas in the lineup and Masontown was without Buncic.
"We beat them down there without Buncic, we beat them with nine guys and (Wachinski) pitching," the spectacled O'Neil said, emitting a frustrated laugh. "We played a good game there last night, and tonight, I don't know what the answer is; they get a little down on themselves and it snowballed."
Leading 1-0, after Joe Capelli led off the game with a double and came home on McLaughlin's sacrifice fly, the Magicians sent 12 men to the plate in a fourth-inning outburst.
That six-run frame merited them in a commanding 7-0 lead. Charleroi loaded the bases with no outs and cleanup hitter Jody Wilkerson, who had led of the inning with a double, slid home safely under a low throw from second off Jordan White's fielders choice. Keith Carson followed with a sacrifice fly to center and Charlie Fritch's sacrifice bunt eluded Masontown's big pitcher Alan Smodic to bring home Matt Nelson.
Capelli then reached on another error and Eugene Lancas drove in two more with a line-drive single to right center. Capelli and Lancas advanced when center fielder Brian O'Neil overran Lancas' hit, and after McLaughlin received an intentional walk, Nelson drove in another with a single to left. All six Charleroi runs were unearned.
"We couldn't catch a cold if we were standing in a rainstorm naked," O'Neil said of his defense. "That was ridiculous, we couldn't pick up a ground ball in the outfield, we couldn't field a ground ball we couldn't (get to) a line drive."
Masontown, which committed five errors in that inning and six overall, was a step too slow on several balls hit through the infield and in front of outfielders. Even cleanup hitter Sean McCahill failed to run out a double-play grounder that he could have beaten out in the sixth inning.
"They've been in this situation before and just in the last two years, they've come back from farther behind than that," O'Neil said. "We can bunch a bunch of hits together, but offensively and defensively, we couldn't get anything going."
Masontown had at least one runner reach base in five innings, but could not string together hits as Wachinsky changed locations and mostly hit Fritch's catcher's mitt. He walked three but struck out three and induced nine ground balls - five to McLaughlin at short.
"We already beat him once this year and we hit the ball hard the first inning but didn't hit the ball hard after that," O'Neil said. "Both pitchers were throwing well and I really thought we'd be on (Wachinski) the second time through the lineup. He's a nice pitcher, but he's not overpowering."
Charleroi added a run in the fifth on White's towering home run into a tree in left center and sealed the shortened game with three runs on five hits in the seventh. McLaughlin gapped a two-run double and scored on Wilkerson's single off the glove of McCahill at third base. It was icing on the cake after the fourth-inning feast.
"Yesterday, that happened to us and we had the same kind of inning when they batted around," Hartman recalled. "It was nice to see the shoe on the other foot."
The win gave Hartman and crew yet another reason to laugh and smile. They travel Friday to play idle Connellsville.
On the other side, the Masontown dugout was once again quiet, as only O'Neil remained, searching for answers.
"We have some young guys, but this game-three situation is not foreign to them and they've been in this situation before," O'Neil said with a shrug. "There must have been a graduation party to go to tonight or something."
NOTES: Other than a possible exhibition game, Masontown's season was finished with the loss ... All six hits from the powerful Masontown lineup were singles ... Despite being visibly irritated, O'Neil was quite gracious to reporters and the Charleroi staff ... Lancas shined at the plate for Charleroi with four singles, two runs and two RBI ... McLaughlin knocked in three runs, while White went 2-for-3 with the home run, Capelli doubled twice and Nelson singled in his final three at-bats ... Masontown shortstop Craig Hriblan (two singles and a walk) reached base in all three plate appearances ... Charleroi did not commit an error and first baseman Keith Carson made several nice scoops of low or bounced throws, including a short-hop from McLaughlin to end the game ... Of the 11 runs Smodic was charged with, only five were earned ... After Charleroi was trounced Tuesday, 11-6, a parent yelled out his prediction for Wednesday's game: 10-0, Magicians. In the end, he was very biased but only slightly off.
