ERIE — Heading into West Allegheny’s first round PIAA Class 5A state playoff game, longtime head coach Bryan Cornell had a feeling that he needed to tweak his lineup.
“I just had a hunch that we needed to move a couple people up,” Cornell said.
He wanted to move people up in the lineup in order to give junior second basemen Logan Scheider an opportunity to hit with runners in scoring position. On Monday, Cornell’s hunch paid off as Scheider delivered a 4-for-4 game at the plate, driving in four runs with two doubles and two singles. He scored three times as well.
For his efforts, Scheider is this week’s Beaver County Times Boys Athlete of the Week.
His day started off by scoring the West Allegheny’s second run of the ball game. He led off the top of the second inning with a double, advanced to third on an Evan Ferretti groundout and then came storming home on a Cathedral Prep wild pitch to tie the game, 2-2. But that was hardly his biggest impact on the game.
In the top of the third inning, Scheider came up with two outs and two runners in scoring position. Just like Cornell hoped he would, Scheider delivered with a two-out single through the right side of the infield that brought both runners home and gave the Indians the lead for good. He scored one batter later when Ferretti knocked him in with an RBI single.
Scheider struck again in the top of the fourth inning and was a key piece in the Indians' second three-run inning of the ball game. This time, Scheider drove in Austin Hendrick and Logan Malatak to give the Indians an 8-2 lead.
While Cornell’s hunch paid off for the Indians, he wasn’t surprised by the outcome and the success of Scheider on Monday.
“He has been doing it all year for us,” Cornell said. “He started out as an extended one-hitter, hitting in the nine-hole. Then we had a couple injuries and we moved him up to the two.”
The junior second basemen said that he came into Monday afternoon’s game with a certain mindset — to attack the opposite field.
“In previous games, I had been pulling the ball,” Scheider said. “So, I really tried to stay closed and go to the right side, and I was really successful doing that today. I think I had three balls to the right side. Once I got a changeup that I pulled, but that was basically the mindset.”
It was a great mindset coming in to a big game and even better execution. But, the Indians' season isn’t over yet, and Scheider is hoping to keep delivering for his teammates, especially his seniors, who will next play Red Land in the quarterfinals Thursday at Mt. Aloysius.
“We do this for our seniors, they are great all year and they are awesome,” Scheider said. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to play with and to win and help them move on again and play another game with them is great.”