Christian Lucarelli and the Riverside Panthers had everything working on Thursday, winning big over Fairview 9-3 at Jack Critchfield Park on the campus of Slippery Rock University.
Lucarelli struck out 11 batters across his five innings of work while allowing only four hits and one earned run and the Panther offense came to life quicker in the quarterfinal victory.
Just days after having to scratch out two late runs in its come from behind victory over Tyrone, Riverside used a four run first inning to quickly jump ahead and stay ahead in advancing to the PIAA Class 3A semifinals.
In the first inning, Riverside got their offense started when leadoff hitter Evan Burry reached on an error and Ashton Schlosser singled on the first pitch of his at bat, scoring Burry. After Bo Fornataro was hit by a pitch, Hunter Garvin doubled to score schlosser and two sacrifice fly outs scored two more runs to cap the four run inning.
After the team’s exchanged runs in the third inning, Riverside scored four runs in the fifth inning to put the game out of reach.
The Panthers had eight hits in the game. Schlosser (2-4, 2 runs) and Garvin (2-2, 2B, 2 runs) each managed multiple hits for Riverside. Evan Burry tripled and Drake Fox doubled to help power the offense.
Hunter Garvin and Drake Fox entered the game out of the bullpen and helped to close out the game in relief of Lucarelli.
Vinny Campoli took the loss for Fairview. The pitcher allowed six hits and seven runs over four innings, striking out three and walking one. Fairview totaled six hits. Colin Bolla and Campoli each collected three hits for Fairview but succumbed to 16 strikeouts on the afternoon.
Riverside will next play in the PIAA Class-3A Semifinals on Monday, June 12th against District-9 champion Punxsutawney. The semifinal game will be again be played at Jack Critchfield Park on the campus of Slippery Rock University. The Punxsutawney Chucks defeated Philipsburg-Osceola 6-1 to advance to the Class-3A semifinals for the second consecutive year. The victory for the Chucks netted the team a new school record 20th victory of the season.
VIEW VIDEO: Duke recruit Christian Lucarelli strikes out 11 Fairview hitters
source: Tom Reisenweber, Erie Times-News
It was great to see all the fans that went to the game to support and cheer on the ball team.
I Loved to see the young ones there cheering them on. The team did a great job.