Matt Santillo's masterpiece sends Riverside to WPIAL 3A baseball semifinals

MONROEVILLE — Longtime Riverside head coach Dan Oliastro knew that his squad was going to be in for a fight against No. 15 South Allegheny in the WPIAL Class 3A high school baseball quarterfinals. In a game where hits were hard to come by, an error after the game’s first run scored was all that No.

7 Riverside needed to break through, with Matt Santillo helping his own cause to drive in the game’s deciding run as the Panthers knocked off South Allegheny 3-0 on Tuesday, May 19 at Gateway High School. “We knew it was going to be tough and thought their pitcher was going to be good,” Oliastro said. “We got our hits at the right time and played good defense behind Matt [Santillo].

” Through the first two innings, Riverside (12-7) was prone to strikeouts, with junior shortstop Dylan Meyer accounting for the team’s lone base runner, working a two-out walk in the bottom of the first. But fast-forward to the third inning, and Riverside started to break through on South Allegheny (10-10) pitcher Adam Jackowski. Following a leadoff single by No.

9-hitter Brock James, Logan Young and Meyer worked a pair of one-out walks. Required Reading: WPIAL high school baseball playoffs, Beaver Valley live score updates Required Reading: Ellwood City shuts down Ligonier Valley in opening round of WPIAL 3A playoffs Required Reading: Big sixth inning lifts Ellwood City over McGuffey in WPIAL 3A quarterfinals With the clean-up hitter Santillo up, the junior southpaw lined a single into left field to drive in James and an error by the South Allegheny left fielder allowed both Young and Meyer to score. “We tried to get his [Adam Jackowski’s] pitch count up and wanted to see a lot of pitches,” Santillo said.