Playoff Bound

By: Travis Sanner

The Laurel Auto Group Baseball team completed their regular season today with a 3-2 victory in 9 innings against First Commonwealth. Starting pitcher Travis Sanner went 6 innings for Laurel while giving up 1 run on 1 hit and 4 walks, to go along with 9 strikeouts. Other notables were Matt Marrone who went 1-2 with a double, Nico Pecora, who scored a run and had a stolen base during his 1-3 contest, and Cole Shaffer who had a solid day at the plate. The conclusion of this game brings LAG’s final record to 21-11, and they’ve secured the second seed in the upcoming playoffs.

As a whole, the LAG baseball squad had a very successful season, after beginning the season with 7 straight wins, the team hit a dry spell. Since that slight road bump the team has rebounded nicely, putting up over 20 wins for the 3rd straight season, an impressive streak in the tough AAABA. Also, a congratulations to Head Coach Pat Smith, who lead his team to the number 2-playoff seed in just his first season at the helm.

The playoff semifinals feature two separate series, one featuring Martella’s and Opthalmic Associates, the other being Laurel Auto Group and Paul Carpenter’s Capital Advisors. This will be the first AAABA playoff experience for many of LAG’s players, and they’re all looking forward to an exciting set of games.

I spoke with first year player Josh Keefe about how it felt being a first year player with LAG and how he feels about his teams chances in the playoffs, he said “The guys definitely made the transition easy for the incoming players. It’s always nice joining a group of guys that are willing to make each other better, as well as competing for a chance to win a championship. The little things are going to dictate our run through the playoffs, as long as we play solid fundamental baseball, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win. We just have to take it one game at a time.” Keefe is currently tops on the pitching staff with 45 strikeouts in 29 innings pitched, and is tied for the team-lead in wins with 3. It is safe to say that Laurel is ready to make a run for the top of the league.

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