GWA Minors All-Stars edge Kingston/Forty Fort in extra innings

WEST PITTSTON — In an evening full of big swings, Greater Wyoming Area managed to pull out a win in extras not with the bat, but with some gutsy baserunning.

Mark Kondraski came off third base after a two-out, two-strike pitch was delivered, waited for his moment and made a dash for home, catching everybody by surprise and literally stealing a victory for GWA.

The delayed steal worked to perfection for Kondraski and his GWA squad, who improved to 2-0 in District 31 Minor pool play with a 6-5 win over Kingston/Forty Fort in eight innings on Tuesday night.

KFF was potentially one pitch away from sending the game further into extra innings, but Kondraski kept that pitch from ever being delivered, sliding in safely for the win after the throw home was bobbled.

“It was a gutsy call,” GWA manager Eric Speicher said. “It worked out in our favor, but it’s not something we’re going to pull out of the playbook all that often.”

Kondraski started the eighth inning not by reaching base, but as the automatic runner on second base. He took third on a wild pitch, and bided his time as KFF pitcher Nick Space got the next two hitters out.

Space, who was terrific in relief for the visiting team, got ahead of James Joyce but couldn’t prevent Shandra from taking off for the winning run.

The two teams dueled their way through six evenly-matched innings and headed to extras with the game tied 3-3.

KFF took the lead on an RBI single from Jacob Wren, and a few batters Elijah Jackson singled into right-center to make it 5-3.

Critically on Jackson’s single, a potential second run was cut down at the plate after GWA center fielder Aiden Felker fired home to nail the second KFF runner for the final out of the inning.

Instead of a three-run hole, GWA headed to the bottom of the seventh down 5-3, and quickly made it 5-4 after Franco Cavalieri drilled a single to score Timothy Carroll.

The next two batters helped move Cavalieri to third but were both retired, putting GWA down to their final out.

Aaron Pellegrini kept the game going with a walk, and Greyson Speicher stepped up with two on and two out.

Speicher, who hadn’t reached yet in two previous plate appearances, looped a base hit into right field to tie the game 5-5, making Felker’s outfield putout look even more crucial.

Carroll, who’d come on to pitch in the fifth in relief of Logan Wolfe, struck out the side in the top of the eighth to set up GWA’s heroics in the home half.

Wolfe covered the first 4.1 innings and Carroll got the last 3.2, both allowing just two hits apiece while striking out eight hitters each.

“When I’ve got two arms, and I’ve got two arms plus, I could rely on something like that and have those two guys go deep for me,” Coach Speicher said.

GWA took a 1-0 lead in the first inning with Felker drawing a walk and later scoring on a base hit from Gavin Shandra.

Kingston/Forty Fort struck back with three runs in the top of the fourth, only for GWA to answer with two runs to make it a 3-3 ballgame.

Cavalieri had two hits and two RBI for GWA in the cleanup spot. Felker reached base all three times he went to bat and scored twice.

KFF’s top five hitters each drove in one run: Space, Wren, Jackson, Ethan Puello and Matt McCabe.

McCabe and Space went frame-for-frame with GWA’s pitching duo of Wolfe and Carroll, covering 7.2 combined innings with McCabe striking out seven hitters.

GWA (2-0) is done with pool play and has earned itself the top seed in Division 1, sending it through to the District 31 semifinals on Sunday.