Eagles ready for familiar foe

By ASHLEY CHASE
MVI Sports

It’s been a budding playoff rivalry in recent years.
There isn’t a lengthy history between Serra Catholic and Seton LaSalle’s baseball teams but the matchups from 2019 until now have been storied and meaningful.
In the last season played back in 2019, Serra Catholic split with the Rebels in the regular season and lost to them in the WPIAL championship game before avenging that loss in the PIAA semifinal en route to a fourth state championship appearance.
The teams square off in the PIAA Class 2A quarterfinals at Latrobe on Thursday, a rematch of the WPIAL semifinal which resulted in a 12-0 defeat for the Eagles at the hands of the Rebels.
It was a result Serra Catholic hopes to reverse this time around.
“We’re hoping for a better showing,” said head coach Brian Dzurenda. “It was the sloppiest game we played all year. We definitely didn’t execute defensively.”
That game was a struggle early and often. The Eagles walked eight batters, hit two batters and recorded four errors.
“You’re not going to beat anybody in the playoffs with those type of statistics,” Dzurenda said. “Something we need to clean up if we want to be competitive this time around.”
Since that WPIAL semifinal, the Eagles, now 20-4 overall, have battled through the consolation game to earn the third seed out of the WPIAL and persevered through a wild back-and-forth game in the PIAA opening round, a 13-11 extra-inning victory over District 6 champion Southern Huntingdon on Monday.
“Past games don’t predict future results. We know we need to clean things up and see where it takes us. Every game is unique and every game is separate from each other,” Dzurenda said.
The 22-year coaching veteran knows his opposing head coach well.
The WPIAL runner-up Rebels are led by Mike Wagner, who played with Dzurenda’s brother, Trevor, and was coached by Brian for a year in the Palomino League in 1997.
The Eagles expect to face Seton LaSalle’s top pitcher, Sam Georgiana, the same starter they faced in the WPIAL semifinal.

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