Ellwood City shuts down Ligonier Valley in opening round of WPIAL 3A playoffs
Ellwood City's bottom of the order came up huge in its WPIAL 3A baseball first round matchup en route to the shutout win over Ligonier Valley.
BUTLER — Despite Ellwood City’s top of the order only collecting two hits, the team’s bottom third of the order came up big when it mattered most, manufacturing two of the team’s three runs in No. 3 Ellwood City’s 3-0 win over No. 14 Ligonier Valley in the first round of the WPIAL 3A high school baseball playoffs on Tuesday, May 12.
“Playoff baseball is hard. If you think that you are going to come in and overpower people, it is not going to happen,” Ellwood City head coach Chris Weisz said. “I thought that we manufactured runs well and our defense was great.
” Throughout the contest, the top third of the lineup for Ellwood City (16-3) was held in check, going 2-for-9 with a pair of singles. But the bottom third of the order was a much different story, with its No. 8 and No.
9 hitters, designated hitter Geordan Bokor and first baseman Matt Kelly each going 2-for-2, grinding out at-bats and each driving in a run to help flip the order. “I just kept a similar approach to what we have been doing throughout the year,” Bokor said. “The bottom of the order has been an area that has been strong and we kept it going today.