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Errors doom Northwest in 9-2 loss to North Penn-Mansfield in states opener

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<p>HUGHESTOWN &#8212; To the hitters&#8217; frustration, the ball just kept landing in the dirt. And they kept right on swinging over top of it.</p><p>Tyler Yankosky had excelled all season on the mound for Wyoming Valley West, even tossing a two-hit shutout to win the District 2 title a week earlier.</p><p>But this might have been the most vicious his curveball has ever looked.</p><p>The Valley West senior turned in a three-hitter on Monday, striking out 12 without a walk in the Spartans&#8217; 3-1 win over Governor Mifflin in the first round of the PIAA Class 4A tournament at Pittston Area Primary Center.</p><p>Those 12 strikeouts tied a varsity career high for the 6-foot-6 right-hander, matching a total he put up against Tunkhannock as a junior. On Monday, six of them came with a Mifflin batter swinging after the ball had already dropped off the table, with catcher Justin Vought calmly throwing on to first to complete the play.</p><p>&#8220;My curveball was biting hard today and they just couldn&#8217;t lay off,&#8221; Yankosky said. &#8220;They kept going at it in the dirt. So I was just going to keep going back to it until they stopped.</p><p>&#8220;It was moving good all day. I had all the trust in the world back there in Vought blocking everything, two strikes. He did a great job.&#8221;</p><p>It was enough to give the Spartans their fifth straight win in a state opener, sending them through to Thursday&#8217;s quarterfinals against Boyertown, the No. 4 seed out of District 1, which hammered District 12 champ Olney Charter 18-0.</p><p>In three postseason games this season, Yankosky is now 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA and 25 strikeouts to just one walk in 21 innings of work.</p><p>&#8220;He had good control of the plate I thought,&#8221; said Spartans coach John Milius, who won his seventh state tournament game in 11 seasons leading the team. &#8220;Both sides of the plate he was working. But his curveball was outstanding. He broke it off when he had to.&#8221;</p><p>And Yankosky didn&#8217;t tire as the game wound down, striking out five in a row in the sixth and seventh innings before getting a grounder to short to end the game right around the 100-pitch mark.</p><p>At the plate, he helped put the Spartans on top early.</p><p>Ryan Hogan (2 for 3) laced a two-out single in the bottom of the first and Vought reached on an error. Yankosky drove the first pitch he saw for an RBI single before a second error brought home Vought for a 2-0 lead.</p><p>&#8220;Huge, huge,&#8221; Milius said. &#8220;Any time you get a lead your confidence comes up and rises to the top.&#8221;</p><p>The Mustangs got one back in the third, turning a leadoff double into a two-out run-scoring single that cut the lead in half.</p><p>It was the last hit the Spartans allowed. Mifflin only picked up two more baserunners &#8212; both on errors with just one out in the fifth inning &#8212; but Yankosky got two pop-ups to end the threat.</p><p>From there, David McCue added some insurance in the bottom of the sixth, driving home pinch runner Jake Packer to make it 3-1. The Spartans took advantage of Mifflin&#8217;s fourth error of the afternoon to score the final run.</p><p>&#8220;They capitalized on our mistakes,&#8221; Mustangs coach Chris Hole said. &#8220;They were everything we thought they would be. A good, solid team. Their pitcher threw extremely well, kept us off balance the entire time.</p><p>&#8220;Credit to him and the team for what they did.&#8221;</p><p>Despite the errors, the Mustangs twice stole a run from the Spartans as infielders snagged hard hit line drives to end the third and fifth innings.</p><p>All three runs against Mifflin ace Noah Weber were unearned. The righty forced the Spartans to put the ball in play after they had drawn a whopping 20 walks in their last two games. Weber didn&#8217;t issue a single free pass.</p><p>&#8220;We knew going in he had really good command,&#8221; Yankosky said of his mound counterpart. &#8220;We were going to try to sit back &#8212; maybe other teams were a little too aggressive with him. But we tried that, and that wasn&#8217;t working either. He just kept hitting his spots. So we had to adjust off that later in the game.&#8221;</p><p>It was the second straight game without a walk for Yankosky, who only had eight in the regular season.</p><p>On Monday, it helped make the difference.</p><p>&#8220;I think he has very good velocity on his fastball, but it was that curveball in the dirt &#8212; especially with two strikes &#8212; that we just kept chasing,&#8221; Hole said. &#8220;We couldn&#8217;t lay off it. Credit to him for having such great movement on that pitch.&#8221;</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>PIAA Class 4A first round</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Valley West 3, Governor Mifflin 1</strong></p><p><strong>Gov. Mifflin`AB`R`H`BI</strong></p><p>Kleinsmith 3b`3`0`1`0</p><p>Louviaux rf`2`0`0`0</p><p>Szcepkowski 2b`3`0`1`1</p><p>Reeser ss`3`0`0`0</p><p>Kochel c`2`0`0`0</p><p>Weber p`0`0`0`0</p><p>Baker dh`3`0`0`0</p><p>Angstadt lf`3`0`0`0</p><p>Wyrick cf`3`0`0`0</p><p>Henry 1b`3`1`1`0</p><p><strong>Totals`25`1`3`1</strong></p><p><strong>Valley West`AB`R`H`BI</strong></p><p>Montalvo cf`3`0`0`0</p><p>Sott rf`3`0`0`0</p><p>Hogan ss`3`1`2`0</p><p>Vought c`2`1`0`0</p><p>Yankosky p`3`0`1`1</p><p>Bayo lf`3`0`1`0</p><p>Baranski 1b`0`0`0`0</p><p>Pollick dh`3`0`0`0</p><p>Packer pr`0`1`0`0</p><p>McCue 3b`3`0`1`1</p><p>Popson 2b`3`0`0`0</p><p><strong>Totals`26`3`5`2</strong></p><p><strong>Gov. Mifflin`001`000`0`&#8212;`1</strong></p><p><strong>Valley West`200`001`x`&#8212;`3</strong></p><p><strong>2B</strong> &#8212; Henry</p><p><strong>Gov. Mifflin`IP`H`R`ER`BB`K</strong></p><p>Weber (L)`6.0`5`3`0`0`3</p><p><strong>Valley West`IP`H`R`ER`BB`K</strong></p><p>Ynksky (W)`7.0`3`1`1`0`12</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The Wyoming Valley West Spartans celebrate their 3-1 victory over Governor Mifflin in an opening round game of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs in Hughestown on Monday afternoon. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_WVW-MifflinBB_1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>The Wyoming Valley West Spartans celebrate their 3-1 victory over Governor Mifflin in an opening round game of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs in Hughestown on Monday afternoon. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_WVW-MifflinBB_2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley West shortstop Ryan Hogan makes an off-balance throw against Governor Mifflin in an opening round game of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs in Hughestown on Monday afternoon.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_WVW-MifflinBB_2-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wyoming Valley West shortstop Ryan Hogan makes an off-balance throw against Governor Mifflin in an opening round game of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs in Hughestown on Monday afternoon.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_WVW-MifflinBB_3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley West's Jake Packer, right, scores an insurance run against Governor Mifflin in the bottom of the sixth inning as on-deck batter Mark Popson greets him in an opening round game of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs in Hughestown on Monday afternoon.    Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_WVW-MifflinBB_3-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Wyoming Valley West's Jake Packer, right, scores an insurance run against Governor Mifflin in the bottom of the sixth inning as on-deck batter Mark Popson greets him in an opening round game of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs in Hughestown on Monday afternoon.    Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_WVW-MifflinBB_4-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley West catcher Justin Vought throws to first base on a dropped third strike against Governor Mifflin in an opening round game of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs in Hughestown on Monday afternoon.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_WVW-MifflinBB_4-1.jpg</photo3><caption3>Wyoming Valley West catcher Justin Vought throws to first base on a dropped third strike against Governor Mifflin in an opening round game of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs in Hughestown on Monday afternoon.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</caption3><photoCredit3></photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_WVW-MifflinBB_5-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley West starter Tyler Yankosky delivers a pitch en route to a complete-game victory over Governor Mifflin in an opening round game of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs in Hughestown on Monday afternoon.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_WVW-MifflinBB_5-1.jpg</photo4><caption4>Wyoming Valley West starter Tyler Yankosky delivers a pitch en route to a complete-game victory over Governor Mifflin in an opening round game of the PIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs in Hughestown on Monday afternoon.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</caption4><photoCredit4></photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Yankosky strikes out 12 in WVW&#8217;s PIAA-opening win</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wyoming Valley West baseball triumphs in state opener