The nightcap of the WPIAL Championship tripleheader played yesterday at Consol Energy Park in Washington, PA was the AAAA affair between No. 9 Seneca Valley and Mt. Lebanon. A crowd of over 1,000 in attendance witnessed a strong pitching performance from Georgetown commit, Matt Smith, as the senior struck out 10 and led Seneca Valley to the 5-3 win.

Smith touched 90MPH on six occasions in the top of the first.  His velocity sat between 86 and 88 all night long, and was complimented by a hard slider and curve. Mike Duffy was also in control keeping Seneca Valley bats in check until running into trouble in the bottom of the 5^th inning. Zack Bahm, Class of 2014, entered in relief and appeared to be out of the inning before a wild pitch allowed Seneca Valley to push its lead to 2-0.

Ian Happ, a University of Cincinnati commit, led off the top of the sixth inning with a single and stole second base for Mt. Lebanon. Chris Girvin followed with a double to right field to drive in Happ and the deficit was reduced to 2-1.

Happ moved to the mound with a man on first and nobody out in the bottom of the sixth inning, but Seneca Valley was able to plate three runs to take control of the game at 5-1 heading to the seventh inning. Jason Martin and Carson Kessler delivered run scoring singles in the inning for Seneca Valley.

Mt. Lebanon failed to go quietly in the seventh, using a Jack Faett single, a Cory Wuenschell triple and a Luke Hagy sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 5-3.  Clean up hitter Pat Goff came to the plate with one out and runners at first and second with a chance to make things interesting, but hit into a 4-3 double play to end the game. 

Seneca Valley’s win secured them their second consecutive WPIAL AAAA Championship.  Both teams will advance to the PIAA playoffs which begin next Monday.