Karns City to defend District 9 baseball title; Mars girls lacrosse makes WPIAL final: Roundup
Defending champion Karns City will take on top seed Brookville for the District 9 Class 3A baseball championship.
The No. 1 Gremlins scored five runs in the second inning to beat St. Marys 8-3 in the district semifinals Monday at DuBois High School’s Stern Field. It was a rematch of last year’s championship the Gremlins won 5-4.
Tyson Frazer doubled in two runs to start the inning that blew the game open, and KC scored on a hit by pitch, error and a Xavier Bartoe groundout to make it 6-0 early. Frazer finished 2-for-4 and scored, while Colton Christie went 2-for-3 with a double, run and RBI.
Joey O’Donnell fired 6.2 innings, striking out five against seven hits and four walks.
Brookville beat Union/A-C Valley in a wild game that saw the Falcon Knights draw 12 walks, including consecutive walks to load the bases and then drive in a run that got them within a grand slam of tying the game.
Lexan Alworth (1-for-2) and Colbin Elliott (2-for-5) each drove in three runs for U/ACV, and Trent Fleming (1-for-4) scored three times. Connor Langdon went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs.
The championship game is scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday at DuBois’ Showers Field.
Indiana 1, Knoch 0 — Hunter Lang and Zane Pacek combined to pitch a three-hit gem. But so did Indiana’s Brady Oakes and Charlie Manzi, and only an RBI groundout by Ethan Shank dented the scoreboard in a pitchers’ duel in the WPIAL Class 4A quarterfinals.
Lang struck out eight in 4.1 innings and was charged with the run. Pacek fanned two in 1.2 innings of work. Mason Heller hit a third-inning double with no outs but was caught trying to steal third, ending one of the Knights’ best scoring threats.
Indiana will take on the winner of No. 13 Derry vs. No. 12 Hampton in the semifinals.
Canon-McMillan 15, Seneca Valley 1 — The Big Macs walloped the defending champs as Nico Patragas hit a second-inning grand slam to blow the game open.
Danny Drennen went 2-for-2 with the lone Raiders RBI, and Canon-Mac heads to the semifinals against No. 3 North Allegheny.
Mars will play for its fourth straight WPIAL championship after beating South Fayette 14-11 in Monday’s Class 2A semifinals.
It was a tight game throughout, according to the Lions’ social media accounts, with the No. 1 Planets leading just 6-5 at halftime and 10-8 after three quarters.
Mars will play the winner of No. 3 Quaker Valley vs. No. 2 Hampton in the final either Wednesday or Thursday at a time to be determined at Upper St. Clair High School.
