HS BASEBALL: Montgomery Tops CANTON in District Final (2012-06-02) CanTroSports
Williamsport, PA – The Canton Warriors faced one of the area’s top pitchers in Montgomery’s Garrett Shnyder here Saturday, and, like every other team that Shnyder has faced this season, struggled to get any offense going against the Lock Haven-bound senior. Shnyder ran his record to a perfect 8-0, as Canton fell to Montgomery in the Class A District IV championship game by a score of 4-0.
Canton starting pitcher Garrett Wesneski started off the bottom of the first by hitting the Raiders’ first two batters. Montgomery would put a run across when, on a sacrifice bunt, the runner from second rounded third and scored before Canton could relay the throw from first on the put-out.
Wesneski gathered himself well and breezed through the next two innings. Despite the 1-0 deficit, the sophomore took a no-hitter into the bottom of the fourth inning.
However, Montgomery took advantage of three hits and three Wesneski walks in the fourth to add to their lead, giving Shnyder the 4-0 cushion.
Canton was unable to string together any real scoring threats, as a third inning double by Josiah Bardo provided the Warriors’ only runner to get past first base.
Scotty Rockwell added a single in the fourth, and Connor Route tried to jumpstart a late rally for Canton in the bottom of the seventh with a leadoff single, but Shnyder induced a double-play ball and a groundout to end the game.
Wesneski was tagged with the loss, throwing four innings while giving up four runs on five hits, walking three, hitting two and striking out four batters.
Chase Pepper, coming off of his complete-game win over Sayre in the semifinals, threw the last two innings. He didn’t surrender a hit or a walk and struck out the side in the sixth inning.
After beating Sayre last Saturday in the Class A semifinals, Canton’s players were eagerly looking forward to playing for the District IV championship on the following Wednesday. But with a rain storm having swept through Williamsport immediately following their game, washing out the other semifinal match-up between Sullivan County and Montgomery, the Warriors had no choice but to wait until Tuesday to find out who they would be battling against.
Storms ripped through the area on Tuesday, postponing the SC/Montgomery game once again, to Wednesday, and pushing the championship game to Friday. When Montgomery beat Sullivan on Wednesday, Canton finally had their match-up. And, right on-cue, the worst storm of the week promptly postponed Friday’s game until Saturday, at 7 pm.
In some instances, having the extra time to prepare for the biggest game of their season would be a welcomed advantage for a team. But, the storms didn’t affect only the Williamsport area. Conditions for practicing were obviously less than ideal.
As excited and anxious to play as Canton’s players were, it’s not easy to sustain that enthusiasm on and off again throughout three separate cancellations.
Now, please understand, there is not a single member of Canton’s team, and most definitely not Coach Rockwell, that would even think of trying to make any excuses for losing this game. Additionally, we would not attempt to do so either. We simply would like to acknowledge the players and staff for the effort that they put forth, especially when considering the circumstances that they were forced to contend with.
Congratulations to the Canton baseball team, and check back to CanTroSports for an upcoming recap of the Warriors’ season.
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