Riverside’s players discuss WPIAL baseball playoff opening round win
Hear from Riverside second baseman Logan Young and pitcher Zach Hare after the team’s win over Shady Side Academy in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs.
Riverside defeated Shady Side Academy 4-3 in the first round of WPIAL Class 3A playoffs.Logan Young’s double and successful squeeze bunt proved crucial for Riverside’s comeback.Relief pitcher Zach Hare threw 5.1 scoreless innings, securing the win for Riverside.
HARMONY — Riverside found itself in unfamiliar territory in the first round of the WPIAL Class 3A baseball playoffs Thursday, May 15, after Shady Side Academy struck ace Christian Lucarelli for three runs in the opening frame.
But thanks to an unlikely source of offense at the bottom of the order from Logan Young, Riverside defeated Shady Side Academy, 4-3, to advance to the WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinals.
Top-seeded Riverside produced just three hits from John Bowser, Zach Hare and Christian Lucarelli before the fifth inning.
That’s when the tides changed as Young smoked a double into the right-center field gap to get the offense kickstarted.
“I was just trying to get on base any way that I could,” Young said. “The Shady Side gave me a great pitch to hit, and I put it into right field and didn’t miss it.”
After Riverside struck for two runs to tie the game, Young found himself back up an inning later with Jackson Barber on third base.
Riverside’s 81-year old head coach Dan Oliastro pulled out one of his old plays, the squeeze play which Young executed and popped it up just out of reach of Shady Side Academy pitcher Soren Cooper who’s only play was to first base.
“That squeeze play is something that we work on every day in the practice setting. But when it came to executing it in the playoffs, it hasn’t worked in probably five years,” Oliastro said. “Every time we tried it, it has failed. But it worked today.”
Lucarelli only pitched 1.2 innings and was pulled after he grabbed his arm throwing a pitch in the second inning.
The right-handed Duke signee and MLB draft prospect was pulled earlier in the year with the same issue, but he remained in Thursday’s game to play first base and hit the rest of the way.
“When we played against Quaker Valley, almost the same situation happened with Christian’s arm where we had to pull him. Zach [Hare] had to come and wasn’t warmed up,” Oliastro said. “Hopefully he will be okay so that we can make a run because you need pitching.”
Hare was warmed up and ready in the bullpen this time around and came in and shut the door on Shady Side Academy.
The senior right-hander and Slippery Rock signee pitched shutout baseball in his 5.1 innings of work striking out five while allowing just one free pass and no hits.
In his final four full innings, Hare set down 12 out of the last 13 batters he faced.
“I needed to be able to have the trust in my fielders,” Hare said. “I knew that I wasn’t going to be 100% from just coming from playing first base so I trusted them to make the plays every single time. That gave me the confidence to just go out and pitch. Having that group behind me makes my life 10 times easier.”
Riverside will now shift its focus to the quarterfinals as it will face No. 8 Burrell on May 20 at a site and time to be determined.