Joe Cencetti was right at home in the first Baseball U Pennsylvania Collegiate Summer Baseball League championship game.
Playing on the field where he never got to enjoy his senior high school season, Cencetti drove in three runs and Steve Homza drove in one Aug. 9 when Black knocked off first-place Orange, 7-3, for the title at the Pittston Area Primary Center in Hughestown.
Cencetti, a recent Pittston Area graduate, is headed to Thomas Jefferson University to continue his career on the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II level. He finished 2-for-5 with three RBI.
Homza, a Wyoming Area graduate who plays at Division I Central Connecticut State, was 1-for-4 with a double, walk and sacrifice fly.
Orange took a 2-1 lead after one inning.
Homza put the Black ahead to stay with a sacrifice fly in the top of the third, then Cencetti singled to center to drive in the last run of the three-run inning for a 4-2 lead.
Cencetti broke open the game with two out in the top of the ninth when he lined a single to left field to drive in the last two runs.
Homza played right field in both playoff games. He was 0-for-4 the day before when Black shut out Steel, 2-0, on the same field in the semifinal round.
Cencetti played second base in the championship game. He came off the bench as a defensive sub at third base in the semifinal, but did not bat.
Orange reached the final by defeating Gray, 3-2, with the tying run in the bottom of the eighth and the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.
Pittston Area graduates Tyler Jackson (Penn State Harrisburg) and Hunter Ralston (University of Scranton) were pitchers on the Gray team, but neither appeared in the playoff game.
Gray made the league playoffs with a roster made up entirely of Division III players in a league where they were often going head-to-head with Division I and II players.
