Eagles beat Spartans in walk-off thriller

By JOSE NEGRON

jnegron@yourmvi.com

For six straight innings, Serra Catholic struggled to generate offense against Laurel pitcher Landin Esposito Friday afternoon. 

The Eagles were held hitless through 5 1/3 innings and were kept in check by the hard-throwing right-hander. 

When it mattered most, however, the Eagles found a way. 

In a scoreless game with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning, Michael Schanck hit a ground ball that was fielded cleanly by shortstop Luke McCoy. He stepped on second base for the force out, beating freshman Zach Black to the bag, and then tossed an errant throw to first, allowing Schanck to reach and the game-winning run to score for No. 4 Serra Catholic in a 1-0 WPIAL Class 2A quarterfinal win over No. 5 Laurel at La Roche University’s Baierl Athletic Complex. 

With the win, Serra (18-3) advances to the Class 2A semifinals to face top-seeded Seton LaSalle Monday at West Mifflin. The Eagles have now appeared in the semis every year since 2015. 

“We showed a lot of resiliency and were lucky in a lot of instances today,” Serra Catholic head coach Brian Dzurenda said. “Schanck has been clutch for us all year and Zach showed a high baseball IQ by going in aggressively and helping to break up the double play at second. He knew what to do in that situation because we practice it all the time.”

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