H.S. BASEBALL: Pottsville reigns on North Schuylkill senior day

FOUNTAIN SPRINGS — Pottsville spoiled North Schuylkill’s senior night with a 9-1 Division I clobbering on Monday night.

North Schuylkill (12-6, 7-5) honored seniors Aiden Oliveri, Aaron Brayford, Landen Smith, Hunter Rogers, Cody Osenbach and Shane Butler in a pre-game ceremony.

The Crimson Tide (12-5, 7-3) are almost sure lock for the No. 3 seed in the Schuylkill League playoffs and rank third in the Division I standings behind Blue Mountain and Tri-Valley.

“We’re a long way away from securing a league playoff spot and we have to win at least one more game,” Pottsville coach Michael Welsh said. “To come up here and play a solid game it really speaks to the character of our kids as well because it wasn’t easy to go through this team.”

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North Schuylkill honored seniors Landen Smith, Hunter Rogers, Cody Osenbach, Aiden Oliveri, Shane Butler and Aaron Brayford. QUINN BURKITT/SPORTS REPORTER

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North Schuylkill honored seniors Landen Smith, Hunter Rogers, Cody Osenbach, Aiden Oliveri, Shane Butler and Aaron Brayford. QUINN BURKITT/SPORTS REPORTER

Dominic Rynard put on a clinic for the Crimson Tide (12-5, 7-3) as he pitched 5.1 innings and allowed just one run on four hits with eight strikeouts while also coming through with an RBI groundball single for the 3-1 lead in the fifth.

“It will really give us an advantage coming to league and district playoffs especially playing three good teams this week,” Rynard said. “It will really get us in that mentality that we’ll be able to compete.”

Andrew Allen led the way for Pottsville at the plate with three hits and two RBI’s while the Crimson Tide lineup worked nine walks against four North Schuylkill pitchers.

We knew this was going to be an absolute grind and for us to have any opportunity we had to get this win and we knew how difficult it would be,” Welsh said.

The teams traded scoreless first innings before the Crimson Tide struck in the top of the second, beginning with Max Clews and Harrison Ciavarella walks. Allen stepped up to the plate and delivered an RBI fielders choice bunt back to the pitcher to score Clews for the 1-0 lead.

Tommy Welsh laid down a fielders choice bunt back to the pitcher to score Ciavarella for the 2-0 lead just a batter later.

“I was proud of our guys for getting their bunts down and we were able to steal some bases early and we were willing to do whatever we could to get a runner across,” Welsh said. “The end of the game doesn’t indicate how tight this game was.”

North Schuylkill struck for their only score in the bottom of the second inning, beginning with a Landen Smith triple to left field before Hubler grounded out to second base to score Smith for the 2-1 difference.

Rynard pitched strong into the fourth inning when he kept North Schuylkill’s lineup off balance with two of his eight strikeouts. He also struck out two in the fifth and one more in the sixth inning.