Mon Valley Pony struggles for offense in losing opener of PONY League World Series

After a valiant effort from the Mon Valley Pony baseball team, it was Palmview (Texas) that pulled away to open the 2024 PONY League World Series with a 6-2 victory.

The local squad, which twice took a lead early in the game, couldn’t overcome four errors that kept Palmview in it before their bats eventually got going.

“We, unfortunately, beat ourselves,” Mon Valley coach Jason Plymire said. “You can’t make errors against good teams, and we did. We didn’t take all the opportunities that we needed to. We could have played better and hit better. If they’re giving us first-pitch fast balls, we have to take advantage and be more aggressive.”

Mon Valley starting pitcher Cam Matusik performed well, allowing six hits and three runs over six frames along with nine strikeouts. Offensively, though, Mon Valley mustered only three hits against pitchers Edgar Quintanilla, Noah Cortez and Alex Bocanegra.

“(Cam) did great,” Plymire said. “He did what he had to do. We couldn’t ask for anything more from him.

“As for the offense, maybe we look to switch the lineup a little bit. We’ll tell guys to be confident in their approach at the plate.”

On the other side, Palmview’s Javier Garza went 2 for 4 with a home run and three RBIs, and Alejandro Leon finished 2 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. In all, the Texas team had nine hits.

In the top of the first, Quintanilla took advantage of some early nerves from Mon Valley by reaching on an error. He swiped second before courtesy runner Omar Cantu reached third with two outs, but Matusik came up with his second strikeout on a full count to retire the side unscathed.

After Mon Valley went down 1-2-3 with two strikeouts, Palmview came back with a one-out walk from Axel Pulido before Bocanegra dropped a single to left field that put runners on the corners on the hit-and-run.

Bocanegra took second without a throw before Aroldo Solis grounded into a fielder’s choice at third base. With Pulido going home, Jack Crovak threw to the plate, and Cam Black applied the tag to keep the game scoreless and register the second out.

After another uncontested steal put runners on second and third for Palmview, Matusik came up with another timely strikeout to move the action to the home half of the second.

Mon Valley almost went down 1-2-3 again, but they showed some life after they were awarded another chance. Kennedy Nash had struck out for the final out, but the ball was dropped and rolled to the backstop to provide the squad’s first baserunner.

Demaris Tolliver followed with the first hit of the game off Quintanilla, setting up an RBI double Braylon Schoch to bring Nash home and score the first run of the 2024 PONY League World Series.

Cam Black then drew a walk to load the bases, but he was picked off for the final out.

That made the score 1-0 in favor of Mon Valley, but Quintanilla looked to change that quickly with a leadoff double to deep center field for Palmview. Matusik settled in to register two outs, including a groundout that moved Quintanilla to third, and the visiting Texans took advantage.

Garza ripped a ball down the first-base line that couldn’t be corralled and tied the score 1-1.

Quintanilla forced two quick outs in the bottom of the third before Cortez was called upon in relief to get the final out, and he did just that with a strikeout.

Matusik stayed on the mound for Mon Valley and earned his sixth strikeout of the contest during a scoreless top of the fourth.

Cortez didn’t quite get the same help around him in the bottom half, and it allowed Mon Valley to regain a lead at 2-1.

For the second time in the game, a Mon Valley batter was struck out but reached on a dropped third strike. That put Crovak on first, and an error allowed him to grab second base with Matusik at first.

With no outs and two runners on, Nash grounded into a fielder’s choice and hustled into first to avoid a double play. That moved Crovak to third for Tolliver, who came to the plate with one of two Mon Valley hits.

When Nash took off for second, the throw was cut off as Crovak was breaking for home plate. He hesitated a bit before sprinting for the plate, taking out the legs of catcher Isaiah Olivarez with the slide as the Palmview player was right in the baseline. After the collision, Crovak found home plate and got his hand on it, and he was ruled safe as he was never tagged.

The lead was short lived, however, as Palmview scraped its way to two runs in the top of the fifth.

After a leadoff single for Olivares, Matusik forced two outs, but the second one could have been an inning-ending double play. Instead, the throw to first was offline and allowed Gael Zambrano to reach second with two down. From there, Alejandro Leon doubled to tie the game up before a hard ground ball from Garza took an awkward hop and allowed Leon to score on an error.

The sixth inning was scoreless and marked the end of Matusik’s day as Crovak took over for him on the mound to open the seventh.

Palmview continued to be aggressive on the basepaths and registered the first out on an attempted steal of second. Their second attempt, from Zambrano, was successful, and he scored on a double from Leon. Leon then joined Garza in touching home plate as the latter crushed a home run well past the right-field wall to make the score 6-2 moving to the bottom of the seventh.

With three outs of life for Mon Valley, Palmview looked to Bocanegra’s arm to end it, and he did just that.

The result moved Palmview on to the winners’ bracket, where they will face Chinese Taipei today at 5 p.m. Mon Valley will face the loser of Long Beach, Calif., and Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

“We just need to come out and play how we’ve been playing,” Plymire said. “We can’t make as many mistakes. If we get beat by (our opponent), that’s fine. We just can’t beat ourselves. Not taking anything away from that Texas team, because they’re a good group like we thought. But with a few less errors, things could have been different. We know that moving forward.”