Published: August 12, 2009 09:38 am      

AAABA: Delweld rips Zanesville; Vescovi pitches six shutout innings in blowout

Brett Vescovi is tough to beat on most nights.

When the Delweld left-hander has his changeup and breaking ball working as he did on Tuesday, he’s almost a lock to be on the winning side.

Vescovi pitched six scoreless innings, scattering three hits, as the Johnstown Delweld entry pounded the Zanesville Junior Pioneers 13-0 in front of nearly 5,000 fans at Point Stadium.

The official opener of the 65th AAABA Tournament had been postponed by rain a night earlier, and 13 games already had been played by the time Johnstown and Zanesville wrapped up the game shortened to seven innings by the mercy rule.

“My changeup has been my go-to pitch since Little League,” said Vescovi, who now is 3-0 in three tournament appearances since 2007.

“(Tuesday) it was the pitch to go to. It was getting those guys out.”

Vescovi struck out eight and walked one.

The Cambria Heights graduate who pitches at Slippery Rock was manager Chris DelSignore’s choice as the opening- night starter because of his experience and two previous tournament wins in relief in each of the past two years.

“Brett Vescovi did a great job,” DelSignore said.

“His change was working well. He was able to make those guys chase it in the dirt. He was able to throw his breaking pitch for strikes. You could tell he had a lot of confidence in that breaking pitch. He was throwing it in 3-1 counts and 3-0 counts.”

Johnstown will play Youngstown (2-0) at 7:30 tonight at the Point. Fans bringing a donation of a nonperishable food item will receive $1 off the admission price. Cub Scout Pack 622 and the tournament will sponsor the food drive to benefit the Family Kitchen on Bedford Street.

Zanesville (0-1) will play Schenectady

(0-1) at 10 a.m. today at the Point. The winner of that game will play against Buffalo (1-1) at 3 p.m. today at Johnstown Middle School.

Delweld provided Vescovi with enough offensive support while building a 6-0 advantage through three innings.

“It was important to set the tone early,” DelSignore said. “We were able to score runs in the first three innings and we built off of that. Overall I was pleased with the way we played. We need to sharpen up defensively a little bit.”

Matt Cornetti’s three-run double in the third was the big hit of the night.

The Delweld catcher drove a 3-1 pitch down the right-field line.

“I called time at first and stepped out of the box,” Cornetti said. “The umpire didn’t give me time. I stepped back in real quick. It was an inside pitch and I took it down the line. I think it helped me a little bit. I wasn’t thinking. I just did what I practiced to do.”

Tyler Uphouse smacked a two-run double in Delweld’s seven-run sixth inning. Zanesville used three pitchers in the inning and was hurt by nine walks in the frame, including five given up by reliever Shayne Miller to open the inning.

Five Junior Pioneer pitchers combined to issue 13 walks.

“I thought we did a great job throughout the game of being patient at the plate, getting ourselves into good counts to hit and getting the big hit when we had guys on base,” DelSignore said.

Johnstown reliever John Fees pitched the seventh, allowing a leadoff double to Wade Kaido and a single to Jordan Buchanan. Kaido was thrown out at the plate on Buchanan’s single.

Zanesville coach John Hamilton argued the close call and was ejected.

Moments later, someone in the Zanesville dugout threw a bucket of baseballs on the field, delaying the game.

By then, though, the outcome was inevitable.