Apr 30, 2024 By Jonathan Guth 3 min read

WAYNESBURG — When Clint Hurdle was the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates he used to tell his players to wash it off and get ready for the next day following a loss.

Waynesburg Central coach George Taylor didn’t use Hurdle’s exact quote to his players after a 4-1 setback to Mount Pleasant on Monday at Meadowlark Park, but it was similar, as the Raiders lost their first section and overall game of the season.

Weather permitting, the two were set to play again Tuesday afternoon at Mount Pleasant. The winner will improve to 9-1 in Section 4-AAA play with two section contests remaining.

“We told our guys that this one’s over and to get ready for the next one,” Taylor said. “We should be all right with our pitching tomorrow. We will go to their place tomorrow and see if we can square it up.”

The Vikings (10-4) also are scheduled to play a two-game home-and-home series with Southmoreland (2-8, 2-10) while the Raiders (10-1) have McGuffey (5-3, 5-5) remaining.

“Waynesburg has a very good team,” Mount Pleasant coach Chris Firmstone said. “It’s something to be proud of when you can say you’re undefeated this far in the season. They have a lot of good players out there, and a lot of good sticks in the lineup. Each day is different, so tomorrow, it might be on the other side. You never know in baseball.”

Waynesburg opened the scoring in the fourth inning when Ethan Kiger led off with a double to center field, was sacrificed to third on Kory Taylor’s bunt and scored on Nick Willard’s sacrifice fly to right for a 1-0 lead.

Mount Pleasant responded with four runs in the fifth on three hits, and was aided by an error, for what turned out to be the game’s final score.

With one out, Cole Chatfield and starting and winning pitcher Jacob Kitz hit back-to-back singles and Connor Drzal was intentionally walked to load the bases.

Chatfield scored the game-tying run when Luke Nicotera walked and Kitz scored what proved to be the game-winning run after Brady Painter was hit by a pitch.

Drzal and Nicotera scored when Brady Poole reached on an error for the Vikings’ fourth run.

Raiders starting pitcher Tyler Groves was taken out of the game after Poole’s at-bat and replaced by Alex VanSickle.

“They had a big inning and we didn’t but that’s baseball,” George Taylor said. “A loss is still a loss no matter how it happened or what the score was.”

Groves allowed four runs (three earned) on four hits over 4⅓ innings. He struck out four and walked six.

Kitz allowed one earned run on five hits in seven. He had one strikeout and walked three, but threw 96 pitchers, which enabled Mount Pleasant to save their other pitchers for this afternoon’s game.

“Jacob has been doing well for us on the mound,” Firmstone said. “He has been fairly efficient and keeps the counts reasonable. We preached all preseason that we are not looking for punchouts. If we make them, great, but we are looking to pitch-to-contact and let our defense make the plays behind them.

“The one guy we have lined up for tomorrow is a consistent starter, and the other one has filled in during the makeups because of rain. He has had two very good outings against section opponents, so we are very confident with our pitching.”

Chatfield and Kitz had two hits apiece.

Austin Surber doubled and singled for Waynesburg.