UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Indiana held a three-run lead in the fifth inning of Thursday’s PIAA Class 4A championship game.
Not only that, but the team’s starting pitcher was working on a one-hitter at the time.
That’s when its opponent decided to use a big ending to silence the Little Indians’ title hopes.
In walk-off fashion, Matthew Riendeau hit a run-scoring double in the bottom of the seventh to help District 1 champion Holy Ghost Prep rally for a 6-5 win against WPIAL runner-up Indiana at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
In a matchup of teams seeking their first titles, Holy Ghost Prep (18-8) squeaked out the win two years after losing a 10-9 heartbreaker to WPIAL foe Montour in the final. Indiana (16-11), which had never won a PIAA playoff game prior to last season, was appearing in the final for the first time. Following a 10-9 regular season, Indiana went 6-2 in the postseason, both losses coming in championship games.
“It was a tough ballgame,” first-year Indiana coach Dan Petroff said. “They’re hurting, but it’s a heck of a journey for our guys. I don’t want to put one game on the whole season because I think we had a great season this year. I feel bad for the senior players, but I’m happy for the younger guys because we have a lot coming back, as well.”
Speaking of comebacks, Holy Ghost Prep produced an impressive one Thursday after Indiana took a 5-2 lead in the top of the fifth courtesy of Andrew McGee’s sacrifice fly and Charlie Manzi’s two-run single. But Holy Ghost Prep, which had only one hit at the time, came alive in the bottom of the inning.
Despite allowing just the one hit, Indiana starting pitcher Greg Minnick was a bit wild. A junior right-hander and Texas Tech recruit, Minnick walked three and hit three batters, and after plunking Holy Ghost Prep leadoff hitter and Virginia Tech recruit Jake Keaser for the second time to lead off the bottom of the fifth, he was pulled. In came Ryan Okopal, who gave up two hits in the inning — the second being Tyler Bergkoetter’s RBI single — before striking out the final two batters to escape the jam. But the Firebirds were fired up to score some more in the sixth, and came through to tie the score at 5 following an RBI triple by Matthew Evans and a Keaser sacrifice fly.
Indiana threatened in the top of the seventh. With one out, Ben Ryan was intentionally walked for the second straight at-bat, obvious retribution for homering in his first two plate appearances.
“It’s pretty frustrating,” Ryan said. “It’s a tie ballgame and you know you can do the job. To get the bat taken out of my hands, it hurts.”
Charlie Manzi then hit a two-out single to put runners on the corners, but Mark Collinger grounded into a force out to end the inning.
Holy Ghost Prep, which put up a total of 42 runs in three previous PIAA games, then scored the final of its four unanswered runs in the bottom of the seventh. Colin Davis singled with one out and Riendeau followed by ripping a double just inside the left-field line that scored Davis and gave the Firebirds their first title.
“We made a lot of good pitches, but we weren’t as sharp as we’ve been,” Petroff said. “I think we hit a few guys and walked a few guys that got us in trouble, but they battled right to the last pitch. I’m proud of them for that. We did our best and it just didn’t go our way.”
The game played out similarly to the WPIAL championship when Indiana coughed up a 5-1 fourth-inning lead before losing to North Catholic, 7-5. Indiana pitchers walked six and hit a batter in that game.
“We were just there grinding out at-bats. [Minnick] has electric stuff and he’s going to have a successful career, but I think our game plan was to try to sit on that off-speed and sit on a fastball,” said Holy Ghost Prep coach Greg Olenski, who had seven sophomores in his starting lineup.
Olenski went on to say that Ryan was the only Indiana player who he thought could really hurt them, and the senior third baseman and Quinnipiac recruit certainly did that by hitting his ninth and 10th home runs of the season. Ryan, who also homered in the WPIAL championship, hit solo homers in the first and fourth innings Thursday, the first of which staked Indiana to a 1-0 lead.
“I was thinking about this before the game,” Ryan explained. “Anything in, I’m just going to fire my head on it and send it for a cannonball, and that’s what I did.”
Added Petroff, “Those balls went by my head. I don’t hear very many balls, but I heard both of them. The exit velo on both of those had to be 115 [miles per hour]. Those balls were hit as hard as any human being, I don’t care if it’s the MLB or Japan. Those are two of the hardest hits I’ve seen in a long, long time.”
Ryan’s second long ball tied the score, 2-2, after Holy Ghost Prep had taken a brief lead after scoring a run on an error in the second and getting an RBI single from Bergkoetter in the third.
Ryan, Manzi and Collinger all had two hits for Indiana. It was Manzi’s fourth two-hit game of the PIAA playoffs.
While the final result wasn’t what Indiana was striving for, it didn’t take away from a historic season that saw the Little Indians get within a win of claiming their first WPIAL and PIAA titles.
“This opportunity we had today playing in the state championship, it felt good to finally be the one team to do it in our school history,” Ryan said. “Coming up short, it hurts a lot because we came this far, but there are so many positives to look at within our season.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.