Worthington-Kittanning falls to Youngstown in Palomino playoffs

By Matt Grubba

Published: Friday, July 12, 2013, 11:18 p.m.
Updated 15 hours ago

If Worthington-Kittanning is to make it back to Sunday of its sectional tournament, it will have to do it via the losers' bracket for a second straight year.

The Mustangs fell behind early but rallied before Youngstown closed them out with an eight-run sixth inning for a 13-3 win Friday in the winners' bracket semifinal of the Quad County North Palomino Sectional Tournament at Highfield Park in Butler.

Worthington-Kittanning (11-11) will face Kiski in an elimination game at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Highfield Park, and the winner will advance to a second elimination game at 3 p.m.

The Mustangs fell behind, 4-0, in the bottom of the second but worked their way back into the game.

The chance at a comeback was hindered, however, by the team scoring only one run each time in bases-loaded, one-out situations in the third and fourth innings.

“We left a lot of runners on base today, and we gave them four or five runs with walks and errors, too,” coach Terry Steffy said. “That's baseball. The kids know what they did, but they're going to try and come out here tomorrow and win two.”

Tim Crytzer and Andrew Scholl hit sacrifice flies with the bases loaded, and a pinch-hit RBI single by Sam Keibler cut the lead to 5-3 in the sixth.

But Youngstown, which has players from Columbiana and Mahoning counties in Ohio, had seven hits and two walks off three pitchers in the bottom of the inning to invoke the 10-run rule.

Worthington-Kittanning won two games on Saturday of last year's tournament to reach the losers' bracket final, but it will have to try to repeat that feat without Friday's starter, Crytzer, who tried to pitch as many innings as possible before leaving this weekend for military reserve drills.

“I was gassed out there, but under the circumstances, I wasn't going to pull myself out,” Crytzer said. “It's tough to leave the team with the bond you form during summer baseball, but these guys have won without me before, and I hope they can do it again.”

Matt Grubba is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at mgrubba@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Grubba_Trib.

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