By JIM MELARO
Special to The Era
ST. MARYS — The Green Wave hit the wall Thursday night.
After 22 straight victories, Oswayo Valley High School’s perfect season ended.
But it wasn’t for lack of effort. DuBois Central Catholic, seeded third in the District 9 Class A tournament, rallied with one run in the top of the sixth and another in its half of the seventh to capture the district championship, 2-1, at Berwind Park.
The top-seeded Green Wave outhit DuBois CC, 10-4.
Coach Brad Buchholz’s squad played nearly flawlessly on defense; its lone mistake, however, proved extremely costly.
Oswayo Valley took a 1-0 lead into the top of the sixth inning, with the only run of the game up to that point coming when Grant West, who would end up 2-for-4, led off the bottom of the second with a single, moved to third on a bunt and a fielder’s choice and raced home when
DCC starter Nick Szczerba unleashed a wild pitch — and that was the only hiccup committed by the Cardinals on defense.
Brandon Brabham had just pitched a baseball rarity in the top of the fifth when he got the Nos. 7, 8 and 9 batters in the DCC order to fly out on three straight pitches — one to second baseman Gage Babcock, one to West in centerfield and, finally, to Jacob Kerr, who ran down Michael Misiewicz’s long foul ball down the right field line.
It was in the next frame when the season unraveled for OV.
First, leadoff batter Justin Miknis, freshman brother of DCC senior Jake, who is a St. Bonaventure University recruit, singled. Jack Frank, the No. 2 batter in the Cardinals’ lineup, then laid down a bunt that bounced high to Brabham. He looked at second and then threw over the head of first baseman Garren Black. Miknis wound up at third and he scored the tying run on Ty Bittner’s sacrifice fly to center.
DCC manufactured the winning run when Austen Cogley led off the seventh with a single, moved to second on a bunt and to third on an infield grounder to second. The younger Miknis followed with a the game-winning RBI-double.
OV mounted a rally when Dylan Buchholz worked Szczerba for a one-out walk and Gage Babcock hit a two-out single putting runners at first and second. But when Szczerba’s 3-2 pitch to West hit the outside corner of the plate, he owned just his second strikeout of the game and the Cardinals owned the district crown.
“I told my guys in our huddle after the game that they had nothing to hang their heads about,” Buchholz noted. “I said, ‘Did we get beat by a better team?’ I don’t think so. They won the game because we had a couple of little things go the wrong way for us.’”
Buchholz then put a positive spin on what happened.
“Look guys, what we’ve accomplished these last two seasons has never been done at Oswayo Valley before,” he said. “No team at OV has ever done what we did this year.
“We went 22 games without a loss and lost a 2-1 heartbreaker in the Class A championship game. Do you guys have any idea of how many other players and coaches out there wish they could do that? A million. So don’t hang your heads.
“Then again, I wouldn’t complain if you let this one sting just a little bit,” he told his players. “We’re still playing.”
Besides West, Black and Kerr each added two hits for OV while Kerr also was credited with two assists from right field, once throwing to shortstop Garrett Babcock, who tagged out Tommy Grecco who attempted to turn a single into a double and then on a perfect throw to catcher Dylan Buchholz, who reached over and tagged out Frank who was trying to score on a deep fly off the bat of Brandon Walker in the top of the sixth.
“What a special group this has been,” Buchholz said. “As for this game today, I knew the Miknis boys were for real and they were every bit a good as you can be.
“If there was anything that caught me off guard, I suppose, it was the speed they had in the outfield. We hit the ball hard and they chased them down and made plays. Usually, there’s a weakness out there someplace. Not today.
“Overall, this was one heck of a ball game, Buchholz said. “It came down to one play … you pick it. Was it one play or at-bat that worked for them? Or was it one play or one at-bat where we failed to execute properly?
“Am I going to stand here and say that Brandon’s throw on that bunt cost us the game. No way. He made a mistake. But we’ve made mistakes in other games and overcome them. DuBois Central didn’t give us that chance today.”
The Green Wave will meet the District 10 champion (Rocky Grove or West Middlesex) in the first round of the PIAA Class A tournament next Monday.
