Tyrone senior Clint Wilson will make the second playoff start of his career today at home against Westmont-Hilltop in the first round of the District 6-AA playoffs, and while his start is critical \u2013 it\u2019s always important to win the first one in a single elimination tournament \u2013 the ultimate success of the Golden Eagles may be further down in the rotation than their reliable lefty.
\nWilson, after all, has been a rock this season. At 5-2 with 45 strikeouts and a 2.95 ERA, few pitchers in the area have been as dominant. In fact, toss out his worst start, when he allowed seven earned runs in an 11-9 loss to West Branch in April, and Wilson\u2019s ERA is a sparkling 2.10.
\nBut Tyrone manager Tom Coleman \u2013 who last season led the Eagles to their first postseason victory in nearly a decade \u2013 has made the point on several occasions that the Eagles normally do field and hit well when Wilson is on the bump. They rally around him, and as a result have played their best baseball behind him.
\nBut if Tyrone (11-6) does make it past the Hilltoppers (8-10) and into the second round and beyond, some extra arms will be essential, and if the Eagles can get some help from their second and third starters, along with their bullpen, a run in the playoffs is not unheard of.
\nTyler Gillmen and Ben Gummo, both 2-2, have performed at extremes ends of the pitching spectrum. When they were good, they were very good: Gillmen struck out a team-high 10 in a win over Claysburg and Gummo flirted with a no-hitter against Bellwood-Antis.
\nBut when they were off, things went south quickly. Against West Branch two weeks ago, Gillmen allowed seven runs in one inning. Five days later against B-A, Gummo allowed seven over the first two.
\nThe one constant has been senior reliever Brandon Maceno, a tough right-hander who battles every time he takes the mound. He leads the team with a 0.84 ERA in 16 2\/3 innings pitched and his last two appearances \u2013 cleaning up for Gillmen and Gummo \u2013 have been dominant, with only one earned run crossing the plate.
\nWhether Maceno ends up in a starting role before the playoffs are over remains to be seen, but he could easily hold the key to the stability of Tyrone\u2019s rotation.
\nIf that falls into place, the Eagles\u2019 offense should provide enough pop to give Tyrone a shot against almost anyone. The Eagles average nine runs and 10 hits per game and have scored 10 or more runs in a game eight times.
\nThree starters boast a batting average over .400, led by Brice Mertiff\u2019s .444, and the club\u2019s .544 slugging percentage is bolstered by six players with a slugging average over .500. Wilson leads the way in that category with an .803 slugging average.
\nWilson (23) and Derrick Soellner top seven players who have driven in 10 or more runs, and Brit Mingle leads the team with 12 extra base hits, including 11 doubles.
\nOnly on rare occasions have Tyrone\u2019s bats failed them, and each time it was against a dominant pitcher throwing his A-game.
\nDIAMOND NOTES: Wilson (.428) and Soellner (.404) are Tyrone\u2019s other players batting over .400 \u2026 Wilson has thrown four consecutive complete games \u2026 Tyrone is outscoring its opponents 89-49 over the first three innings this season \u2026 Tyrone\u2019s last playoff appearance was a 12-2 loss to Central last season \u2026 Tyrone\u2019s last playoff win, an 8-7 victory over Westmont, also came last season in the first round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyrone senior Clint Wilson will make the second playoff start of his career today at home against Westmont-Hilltop in the first round of the District 6-AA playoffs, and while his start is critical \u2013 it\u2019s always important to win the first one in a single elimination tournament \u2013 the ultimate success of the Golden Eagles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}