South Side falls just short of Neshannock in WPIAL 2A baseball semifinals

HARMONY — Heading into the WPIAL Class 2A high school baseball semifinal matchup, No. 3 South Side was eyeing a trip to its first WPIAL baseball championships game when it took on No. 2 Neshannock at the AHN Baseball Complex on Wednesday, May 20.

Despite South Side giving Neshannock everything that it could handle, the team fell 1-0 after a pair of two-out triples fell into the gaps in the sixth inning. “Ryan [Shaw] has been a dawg for us all year, goes out throws strikes and we play great defense around him,” South Side head coach Craig Campbell said. “That is what we did today as a team, kept them [Neshannock] off balance.

We just ended up being one-hit short. ” Despite losing some of his command in the bottom of the fifth inning, throwing eight straight balls, Shaw battled back and got out of the inning unscathed. That also carried into the sixth, setting down the top two players down in the Neshannock order with a groundout and a flyout.

Even with two outs, Neshannock (18-3) rallied and drove in the lone run of the game, with shortstop Nathan Rickel and third baseman Ryan Cameron hitting back-to-back triples into the right-center and left-center field gaps to take the lead. “Ryan is a competitor and I knew that he was going to be okay in that moment. I just went out there to give him a little breather,” Campbell said.