A kid with the initials R.R. hoped to get some rest and relaxation Tuesday night.
After keeping Norwin off-balance and off the scoreboard for five-plus innings, Seneca Valley right-hander Ryan Rebholz himself became off-balance. Rebholz took a line drive off his right foot, forcing him to leave the game in the sixth inning, putting the Raiders’ hopes of holding onto a narrow lead in serious doubt.
“It’s all right,” said Rebholz, a junior who took a no-hitter into that sixth inning. “I’ll have a big bruise tomorrow. But it didn’t get me in the ankle, so that’s good.”
Of course, winning a WPIAL championship might have taken away some of the pain, too.
Rebholz and Luis Torrenegra combined for a two-hit shutout to lead No. 3 Seneca Valley to its first title since 2014 following a 1-0 win against No. 4 Norwin in the WPIAL Class 6A final at EQT Park in Washington, Pa.
It was the fifth WPIAL title overall for Seneca Valley (17-6), which won three in four years from 2011-2014 but had not been back to the final since. Norwin (14-9) was looking to win its first title since 2016 and third all-time.
Seneca Valley claimed its ninth consecutive win and did it despite collecting only four hits and scoring the one run. The Raiders got all the offense they needed in the bottom of the first inning. After Mason Fisher led off with a double, Danny Drennan’s groundout moved him to third, and Ryan Piekutoski’s ground ball to second brought Fisher home.
“I’m a little speechless,” said Seneca Valley coach Eric Semega, who won his fourth WPIAL title. “What a game. It was definitely a pitcher’s duel. We made some plays and we got a key play early on to get a run in. And that was it. We talked about potentially and realistically at the beginning of the year, and it finally came to reality today. I’m really happy for these guys.”
Pitching fueled Seneca Valley’s run to the championship game, and that excellence on the mound continued Tuesday. The Raiders have now given up only 13 runs during the nine-game win streak. For a while, it looked like this WPIAL Class 6A final might end like the last two — with the winning pitcher throwing a no-hitter. But Nathan Silberman broke up Rebholz’s no-no with a single to right with one out in the sixth.
“Today my slider was working well. At the beginning of the game, they were on my fastball, so I started working backwards. With the slider I was getting a bunch of pop-ups and eventually started getting some swings and misses later in the game,” said Rebholz, who struck out three while improving to 5-0 on the season.
After giving up his first hit of the game, Rebholz quickly allowed his second in what turned out to be the final batter he faced. That was due to the liner Tristyn Tavares smacked off of Rebholz’s foot. The ball went into right field, but Seneca Valley right fielder Owen Voelp picked it up and threw out Silberman, who was trying to advance to third base. As Rebholz lay on the field in discomfort, Semega called in Torrenegra, a junior left-hander who has a 4-0 record this season.
“We told him at the beginning of the game, if it’s an early pull, it’s going to be [Andrew] Malichky. If it’s a late pull, it’s going to be Luis. And that’s what we went with,” Semega said.
It turned out to be the right call. Torrenegra induced a pop out to end the sixth inning before coming back out to close the door in the seventh. He then struck out both Brayden Wardzinski and Jake Sincak before Matt O’Neil flew out to left to end the game.
“I’ve been thinking about this moment since I started with the Seneca Valley program, and it’s great to be the one to finish it off and send us home,” Torrenegra said.
Semega applauded the job done by Rebholz and Torrenegra in helping Seneca Valley become the first team to shut out Norwin this season.
“All year long, he didn’t lose a game,” Semega said of Rebholz. “He just battled and battled and battled. And then when he went out, we had a kid that walked right in and did not even miss a beat, having confidence and handling the pressure of a one-run game with a guy on second. So there’s a lot to be said about that. So both of them, especially Rebby, giving us a chance, having a no-hitter going into the sixth inning. I mean, that’s pretty incredible against a team like that.”
Norwin senior left-hander Ethen Culbertson was very good in his own right, giving up just the one run, four hits and one walk while fanning five in six innings. Culbertson fell to 4-3 on the season.
But this day was about the Seneca Valley pitchers and the program as a whole. The Raiders won their first WPIAL title in over a decade, a good distraction for a certain pitcher with an injured right foot.
“It takes away the pain for now,” Rebholz said. “But the job’s not finished. We start with the state playoffs on Monday.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.