Fannett-Metal junior pitcher Wade Appleby has been stellar on the mound all season long for the Tigers.  In Tuesday’s quarter final playoff game against Berlin BrothersValley, Appleby threw another complete game gem.  The right hander fired a three hitter on only 68 pitches. Appleby pounded the strike zone rarely falling behind hitters.   He had 3 k, no walks and hit one batter.  With a solid defense behind him, Appleby sat the Mountaineer’s down in order of seven innings.  

The Tigers defense had one error in the game and that was in the first inning.  The Mountaineers capitalized on the mistake to take an early 1-0 lead.   

The Tigers answered immediately in the bottom of the first.  Drew Goshorn singled to lead off the inning and moved to third on Jake Coffman’s single.  Landon Arnold walked to load the bases.  Wade Appleby hit a sacrifice fly scoring Appleby and moving Coffman to third.  Coffman scored on a double steal with Arnold to make it 2-0.  

The Mountaineer’s tied it up in the fourth when Pace Prosser was hit by a pitch.  Prosser swiped second and moved to third on a groundout by Craig Jarvis.  He scored on a groundout to tie the game.  

With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth the Tigers pushed two runs across to regain the lead.  Drew Goshorn walked to lead off the inning.  He moved to second on a single by Jake Coffman.  Landon Arnold’s sacrifice bunt moved both runners and Wade Appleby’s 2 run RBI single scored both runners to make it 4-2.  

Appleby would set the Mountaineers down in order in the 6th and 7th innings.  The Tigers middle infielders Landon Arnold and Broc Hostler turned a nice 6-4-3 double play in the 6th to kill any momentum. Shortstop Arnold had 6 assists in the game.  Third baseman Logan Hall had a nice game on the hot corner. 

Offensively, Goshorn and Coffman had a pair of hits each.  Daxten Detweiler, Adam Hammond and Appleby all added hits.  Appleby had 3 RBIs.  Coffman had a pair of stolen bases.  

“Playoff baseball is about survival and advancing to the next round.  Today, we got solid pitching, made a lot of plays defensively and manufactured some runs”, Coffman said.

The #3 seed Tigers(16-4) will travel to #2 seed Southern Fulton Indians(17-4) on Thursday evening for a 4:30 semi final match up.