Christopher Dock hurt by errors in PIAA A 1st round loss to Marian Catholic

POTTSVILLE >> All season long, Christopher Dock’s baseball team played loose, relaxed and focused.

The pitchers threw accurately and effectively, the bats combined and mashed together and the defense backed up the guys on the hill. Sure, there were miscues here and there, but usually, the Pioneers were able to overcome them by staying relaxed.

Monday, the Pioneers weren’t loose and relaxed and when the mistakes came, they were only magnified.

Dock was bounced from the PIAA Class A tournament in an 8-1 loss to District 11 champion Marian Catholic at Pottsville High School Monday. The Pioneers gave up seven unearned runs on eight errors while managing just one hit on offense.

“We didn’t play our game,” senior catcher Tim DiLoreto said. “We came in knowing we had to stay relaxed. We couldn’t play too tight or too tense and that’s what came out and that was the result, too many errors. That’s how baseball goes sometimes.”

Dock started off the game pretty well all things considered. Against Colts ace Joe Nahas, DiLoreto worked a leadoff walk, moved to third and came in to score on Andrew Walters’ two-out single to right field. While that was all the Pioneers got, they looked good, laying off balls and making the opposing pitcher work.

Then, the Colts came to bat and the game changed. Leadoff man Dante Salerno walked on five pitches from starter Daniel Sabath, then an error set up an RBI double for KJ Snerr. Another error in the infield brought home a second run and an RBI double for Mason Evitts made it 3-1 in favor of Marian Catholic.

“They played really good ball and hit the ball,” Dock coach Ed Melendez said. “We made too many mistakes in the field. Eight runs, eight errors and seven unearned, that showed we relied too much on the pitching staff. It was a day where that came out to the surface.”

Sabath, the team’s junior ace, was tagged for five of the runs, but he also had five errors committed behind him in his 2 1/3 innings of work. Marian Catholic also added two more runs in the third inning, with back-to-back errors allowing a man to score then the second on a sac fly that would have been the third out if the first two plays had been made.

“It was nerves,” DiLoreto said. “We made a few errors here and there and it got the best of us. You know it’s going to be a tight game. You can’t afford to make errors like that in the state playoffs. We knew it wasn’t going to be a blowout game like we’ve had a lot this year. We were tested and we didn’t rise to the occasion.”

After the first, the Pioneers had just two more men reach the rest of the game. DH Ryan Nichols got on via error to start the third, but was stuck at second base. In the fifth, left fielder Elias Gehman was hit by a pitch to start the frame, got to third and then no further.

Nahas was excellent, mixing up his fastball, changeup and an at-times filthy curve ball while striking out eight batters and just the solo walk to DiLoreto. When Dock did make contact, it usually didn’t get very far. The pitcher allowed just three balls past the infield, the first being Walters’ single and the other two long fly outs to center, and everything else was a grounder.

“When you get to this stage, a lot of guys tend to be a little tight, they don’t want to make mistakes, they want to please the coaches,” Melendez said. “When they get to this type of level that is when you have to play more relaxed and the guys understood that. The first inning, we made errors and that was the definition of the game right there.”

Back-to-back errors by Dock started the bottom of the sixth, when Marian Catholic put two more runs across the board after scoring one run in the fifth. Evitts struck for his second RBI double of the game in the sixth before Dock’s final error put the last run across and effectively sealed the deal.

The Pioneers lose a number of key contributors, like DiLoreto and senior Tyler Alderfer, who pitched the last 3 2/3 innings after reliving David Keller two batters after Sabath departed. Gehman and Rashid Saint-Fleur also graduate from the outfield, where Alderfer spent most of his time in center. Isaac Brunk and Logan Moyer are the team’s other seniors.

“We played well the whole season and if we had played our game, I think we would’ve stood a good chance today,” DiLoreto said.