The Norwin baseball team failed to qualify for the WPIAL playoffs this year, but a positive can be taken from the season.

The normally senior-laden Knights relied on several underclassmen this year, who by season's end were gaining experience for the future.

The Knights have featured a different lineup in nearly every game this season, and last week against Connellsville, coach Mike Liebdzinski started two juniors and two sophomores.

"We gave the seniors first crack. We always do. Things weren't going well at the beginning of the section season, so we put some young guys in and they performed," Liebdzinski said.

"It's based on performance. If you perform, you stay in there. If you don't, we'll find someone else and try someone else.

"They're still learning. It's going to take some time to develop."

Those young players were key factors in a 3-2 win over Franklin Regional last week and in a comeback attempt that fell just short against the Falcons the following day. Connellsville went on to win 7-5.

The Falcons took a 4-0 lead in the top of the third inning after capitalizing on two wild pitches, a walk, a hit batsmen and two hits off of senior hurler Bob Martin.

Martin recovered, however, to keep Norwin in the game. The Knights offense got its spark in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Senior Matt Griffith started the rally by reaching base on an error. That was followed by junior Ryan Loutsenhizer also reaching on an error and a sacrifice fly by senior Brenden Kollar to make the score 4-1.

Martin then blasted a double to left center field, and junior pinch hitter Nick Yurko came through with a clutch double to bring home two runs and cut the deficit to 4-3.

Junior Keary Hoffman then came up and was robbed on a questionable catch in right field. The Connellsville right fielder appeared to trap a line drive, but it was ruled a catch. He then doubled off Yurko at second base to end the rally.

Connellsville struck again in the top of the seventh with three more runs, but Norwin didn't go quietly.

In the bottom of the inning, sophomore short stop Dylan Brooks led off with a double. Senior Nick Miller followed with a single, and after Griffith reached on an error, Loutsenhizer ripped a single through the hole at short to score two runs and make the score 7-5.

After a pitching change, Kollar struck out, and Martin grounded out to end the contest.

"We didn't play well. We came out flat. An emotional win (over Franklin Regional) gives us a shot to get back in it. We know we have to keep wining, and then we come back and just don't play a good game," the Norwin coach said.

"Aside from the physical errors, we had tons of mental errors throughout the game. We weren't swinging the bats. We were overaggressive and lunging out at pitches. They weren't making plays on the ground, but we still wanted to hit everything in the air."

Brooks and Loutsenhizer each had two hits for Norwin in the loss.

Against Franklin Regional, the Knights gave up two unearned runs in the second inning but then mounted a winning comeback in the fifth.

After stringing together four singles, Norwin pushed across the winning run on an error by the FR short stop. Loutsenhizer got the win for the Knights.

"Ryan Loutsenhizer's been pitching outstanding. He's really on top of his game. In the past few games, he's been throwing his fastball and change up for a strike. (Against Franklin Regional), he threw his fastball, curve ball and change up for a strike," Liebdzinski said.

"When he's throwing three pitches for strikes with movement, and he had some good bite on his curve ball, he's going to be tough to hit.

"We played well. The two runs we gave up were unearned. We played a solid game behind him, but most of it was on him."

Norwin (7-8, 4-5) headed into the final week of play in fourth place, just out of playoff contention. Moving onto the playoffs from Section 1 are Hempfield Area (9-2), Latrobe (8-2) and Franklin Regional (8-3).