On Tuesday, April 9th, the West Branch Warrior baseball team took on the Hornets of Juniata Valley. Luke Liptak got the start for the Warriors coming into the game 2-0. The Warriors started things off perfectly with Liptak sitting down the side striking out the first batter and then getting a ground out to third and second to retire the top of the first. In the bottom of the first inning, Isaac Tiracorda got things going with a towering home run to right field. Senior Zach Mcgonigal stated, “As soon as he made contact we all knew that ball was gone. He got every piece of the ball and absolutely killed it and it was only the second pitch of the game.” After that, Coby Kephart struck out followed by a Lukas Colton groundout then brought up Tyler Wilson who singled to center. Next up, Brody Rothrock hit an opposite-field triple scoring Wilson from first. Luke Liptak then also singled, scoring Rothrock, followed by a Nick Parks walk and a Gavin Rothrock single scoring yet another run in the first inning. With a 4-0 Warriors lead it was all smooth sailing from there, holding the Hornets to just one run for the entirety of the game which wasn’t scored until the 7th inning. The Warriors scored their fifth run off of a Tyler Wilson single once again in the second. Runs number six and seven then came in the bottom of the 4th with a Luke Liptak grounder to the shortstop, who threw it out of play scoring both Coby Kephart and Tyler Wilson. In the bottom of the 5th, the Warriors wrapped up their scoring with a Lukas Colton sacrifice fly to center scoring Mcgonigal and a Rothrock RBI to 3rd. Luke Liptak finished the game for the Warriors pitching six and two-thirds innings with 7 strikeouts and 2 hits.
The Warriors look to wrap up the week playing Southern Huntington on Wednesday the 10th, and St. Joseph’s on Saturday the 13th.
