Carns' home run rallies Unity to sweep of Yough in District 31 playoffs

Landon Carns probably hasn’t had a better two days playing baseball.

Tuesday, Carns used his glove to carry Unity past Yough in Game 1 of the District 31 American Legion playoffs.

Wednesday, he used his bat.

Carns clubbed a three-run homer in the top of the seventh inning, part of a five-run inning, to rally Unity to an 8-5 victory and a sweep (2-0) of the best-of-three series. All five runs in the seventh inning were unearned.

“We just never gave up,” Unity coach Glen Stott said. “I didn’t know how we’d react after the rain delay, but we took advantage of their mistakes.”

It was the third consecutive game that Unity had rallied to defeat Yough. Two weeks ago, the Bulldogs scored eight runs in the top of the seventh inning in an 11-10 victory.

The game was delayed for more than an hour in the top of the sixth inning because of heavy rain. But because Latrobe High School has turf, the game was resumed after the rain stopped.

Yough grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI hit by Allen Novacek.

The Cougars increased their lead to 3-0 in the third inning on a solo home run by Jack Sampson and RBI hit by Gavin Roebuck after a double by Vinny Martin.

Carns drove in a run in the fourth inning on a ground out, and the Bulldogs made it 3-2 in the top of the fifth inning on Zach Stott’s hit.

Sampson led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a triple and scored two outs later on a wild pitch.

After the rain delay, the teams exchanged runs on wild pitches to make the score 5-3.

In the seventh, Riley Smith walked, and Owen Miele dropped a single to right. After Yough pitcher James Shoman struck out Stott, Chase Sickenberger reached on an error to load the bases.

After Shoman fanned Tony Massari, Matt Macey’s tapper got past Shoman for an infield single, and a throwing error allowed the tying to score.

That’s when Carns stepped to the plate and launched a drive over the center-field fence.

Shoman and Roebuck had two hits each for Yough, and Miele, Macey and Cole Zezzo had two hits for Unity.

Young Township 10, Hempfield East 4: Young Township got two hits and four RBIs from Braden Staats to defeat Hempfield East and sweep the best-of-three series, 2-0.

Hempfield East was leading 4-2 in the fourth inning when Young Township scored eight runs in the bottom of the inning.

Hayden Brink and Nick Reeping also had clutch hits in the fourth inning

Zach David tripled, and Jacob Smith had two singles for Hempfield East.

Brad Felix picked up the win in relief of Staats for Young Township. Jacob Fairbanks also pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

The other two games were halted by rain.

Latrobe leads Mt. Pleasant, 5-0, heading to the bottom of the seventh inning, and Bushy Run and Murrysville were scoreless after an inning. Both games will resume Thursday.