Tigers let lead slip against ’Cats

McKeesport second baseman Brady Willochell fields a hard-hit ball during play in Wednesday’s game. Bob Smith / MVI Sports

By JEREMY TEPPER
MVI Sports

The season is young, but Ron Bishop thinks his McKeesport baseball team has reached a critical moment.
Having lost two games in a row to Latrobe — both in the final inning — the Tigers can either crumble or come back and win some games. Bishop is anxious to see what happens.
“It’s up to them. It’s their team,” Bishop said. “It’s how they come out and they respond.”
On Tuesday McKeesport (2-2, 0-2) gave away a 5-0 lead to Latrobe, giving up five runs in the fifth inning and the winning run in the bottom of the 10th to lose 6-5. Wednesday’s loss was even more crushing.
The Tigers blew a 6-3 lead in the final inning, as Latrobe proceeded to score seven combined runs off of Jason Peterson and Jacob Miller. Peterson was charged with five earned runs, while Miller’s two runs were unearned. Bishop questioned his team’s focus in the seventh inning, which he thought resulted in an inability to throw strikes.
Before the brutal seventh, McKeesport rallied against the Wildcats (4-2, 2-0). Having trailed 3-0 after four and a half innings, the Tigers scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take the lead and two more in the sixth to extend it to 6-3.
After previously struggling to figure out the Wildcats’ starting pitcher, Rayce King, the Tigers found some success in the fifth. Brady Willochell drove in a run on a groundout and Brady Boyle walked with the bases loaded before Shaun Kellerman drove in two runs on a line-drive single. Bishop said a change in approach enabled his team’s newfound success.

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