FAMILIAR TERRITORY

Serra Catholic’s baseball team will compete in the district semifinals for the ninth straight year after a dominant victory over Laurel Monday evening.

The Eagles (16-1), No. 1 in Class 2A, used a strong outing from pitcher Tyler Skaggs and got contributions from their entire offense in the 9-1 win.

They will move on and play against No. 4 Burgettstown for a chance to appear in the WPIAL title game for the third consecutive season. That game will take place today at West Mifflin, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.

“It feels like we’re supposed to be here,” Serra Catholic coach Brian Dzurenda said about making the district semis. “Today’s win doesn’t win tomorrow’s game, so we have to get ourselves mentally prepared for another game. The big thing here is, now we’re going to be playing after Memorial Day and into June. That’s the goal, to have a chance to play into the state tournament.”

Skaggs allowed five hits and one run in a complete game victory, striking out nine Laurel (12-9) batters. The first three batters in Serra Catholic’s lineup, Isiah Petty, Owen Dumbroski and Zach Black, all had at least two hits. Petty and Zach Black had two while Black added three RBIs and Dumbroski had three.

Collin Holmes chipped in with two RBIs as well.

Skaggs made quick work of the Spartans with three strikeouts before the Eagles opened the scoring in the bottom of the first.

Leadoff hitter Isiah Petty laced a ball to third that forced an error before he got to second on a perfectly placed bunt down the thirdbase line by Dumbroski.

After Petty and Dumbroski pulled off a double steal, another error brought Petty home to open the scoring.

Collin Holmes hit a single to right field to score Dumbroski, and his steal of second base allowed Max Black to steal home and cap off the opening frame with a 3-0 lead.

Laurel had base runners on second and third in the top of the second, but Skaggs managed to get another two outs and strand two Spartans on the basepaths. In the home half of the inning, Isiah Petty singled to score Carmen Chiaverini, and Petty scored on a wild pitch to make the score 5-0 after two innings.

Laurel went down 1-23 in the top of the third but opened its account in the next stanza.

With one out, Kolton Carlson and Jacob McBride each singled before the Eagles made a costly error of their own on a rundown. They had the final out caught between first and second, but threw the ball away and allowed McBride to steal home plate and give the Spartans their only run of the game.

“I’d like to eliminate the three errors, especially the one on the rundown,” Dzurenda said. “You have no idea how much we work on rundowns, and we botched it. You can’t do that in a big game. You can’t give up free runs in the playoffs. I’m happy, but I’m not completely satisfied.”

The Eagles managed to plate four more runs in the sixth as they opened the inning with four singles and the Spartans committed two errors.

With Hunter Kobialka pitching for Laurel, Bodi Reiger, Petty, Dumbroski, and Zach Black all had base hits to make it 7-1. Two straight sacrifice flies from Jake Holmes and Collin Holmes finished the scoring at 9-1.

“We definitely did capitalize on their mistakes,” Dzurenda said. “They’re a young team. I told our guys earlier, ‘They’re a young team, so if we put pressure on them, I think they’ll fold.’ They battled and they competed, but I just felt like we were a little bit more mature as far as having older players.”

The Eagles’ coaching staff watched the quarterfinal matchup between Burgettstown and Greensburg Central Catholic, a 3-1 win for the Blue Devils, so they’ll be hoping to pick up a win today and look to avenge last season’s district championship loss to Seton LaSalle.

They could potentially have a rematch of that championship game, as the winner of Serra Catholic and Burgettstown is set to take on the winner of No. 2 Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and No. 3 Seton LaSalle for WPIAL gold.