Coatesville falls in district opener to CB South

CALN >> Coming into Coatesville’s District 1 Class 6A playoff opener Monday, no local team was hotter than the Red Raiders, who had won eight of their last nine games.
Monday night, Coatesville staked starting pitcher Cam Trego to a three-run lead, but CB South came roaring back to earn a 5-3 victory that ended Coatesville’s special season and sent 17th seeded CB South into Wednesday’s second round to face the top seed, Pennsbury.
Coatesville (13-8) left nine runners on base during the game, and loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, but came away empty. Titans (12-7) pitcher Ryan Reiber got RJ Rickenbaugh to pop out to second base and whiffed Tyler Cazille to end the game.
“It is really frustrating because we hit the ball well tonight,” Coatesville senior shortstop Anthony Boccio said. “And it was really getting to us because we had chances, but we didn’t come through tonight.”
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Coatesville plated three runs on four hits against Titans starter Owen Petrich. Four straight singles by Rickenabaugh, Cazille, Connor Barthwaite and Trey Tobinus did the damage. With the way Trego was throwing it looked like Coatesville would move on to the second round.
But trouble found the Coatesville starter in the top of the fifth inning. CB South got a leadoff single from Connor McKeown that was followed by a double by Petrich. Ryan Reiber drove in a run by grounding out to second base. Zach Steinberg singled and Brock Veit drove in a run with a single to make it a 3-2 game. Jake McKeown tied the game with a ground ball, and suddenly it was a 3-3 game.
Meanwhile, Coatesville had knocked Petrich from the game, but CB South reliever Reiber came in and shut the Red Raiders down in his three plus innings of work.
Coatesville went down in order against Reiber in the fifth inning and the Titans put the game away in the top of the sixth inning. With one out, Ryan Rossi singled to center, then went to third base on a double by Connor McKeown. After Trego got Petrich to ground out for the second out, holding the runners at second and third, Reiber hit a hopper to first base that Coatesville first baseman Ryan Weaver got on an in-between bounce. The ball glanced off Weaver’s glove, scoring two CB South runners to make the score 5-3.
“We just did not do the little things you have to do to win tonight,” Coatesville coach Hal Ziegler said. “That ball to Weaver was an in between hop or we are out of the inning but that is what happens sometimes.”
Coatesville had a chance in the bottom of the sixth but Reiber got Joe Boccio to fly out to left field with two runners on.
In the Coatesville seventh, Anthony Boccio led off the inning by getting plunked by a Reiber pitch. Brendan Reilly, who had three hits, singled to put two men on with no one out. Caleb Hershey came up and laid down a bunt but Reiber got on the ball quick and threw to third base, cutting down the lead runner.
Weaver came to the plate and lined a single to center field to load the bases with one out. Reiber got Rickenbaugh to pop out and rang Cazille out swinging to end the close affair.
“We just did not do the little things you have to do, like get bunts down, but it was not for a lack of effort,” Ziegler said. “These kids turned their season around and they refused to quit. They are used to winning at every level and they came to practice everyday and worked their tails off. If you don’t get the effort you can be mad, but we got effort from these kids all year and we got that again tonight.”