The weather warmed up Thursday afternoon and so did the Hawks as they defeated Peters Township 8-7 on a walk off single by senior Justin Meis. With the win, Bethel Park continued their hot start in section play moving to 3-0 and 3-2 overall.

Starting pitcher Magdiel Cotto gave the Hawks a quality start on the mound going five innings on 85 pitches, giving up two earned runs.

With the Indians leading 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth, senior Adam Malecki took matters into his own hands hitting a solo homerun to tie the ball game heading into the seventh inning.

Peters Township snagged the momentum right back in the top half of the seventh, busting out four runs to take a 7-3 lead.

The Hawks still didn’t panic. Senior leader Korey Patterson, who was part of the rally in the seventh was still confident in his team.

“No one was panicking on the bench. We all were positive and were saying ‘we’re winning this.’ Especially after having a comeback win the night before at USC, we were comfortable in the situation.”

After a few walks and a hit, the Hawks narrowed the lead to 7-6 with two outs and runners on second and third. You couldn’t have drawn it up any better for senior Justin Meis who was coming to the plate. Meis delivered in the clutch with a nice base hit to right field to allow the base runners to score and win the game.

This was a big come-from-behind win for the Hawks to continue their hot start in section play. Patterson agreed that it’s key to get off to a strong start in the section part of the season.

“It’s everything. The season can get long and if you don’t get off to a good start, it can mess up your season later on and it turns into a real grind when playoffs roll around.”

The Hawks will look to keep the momentum going in another rivalry match up with Mt. Lebanon at home on Friday, April 13. The first pitch is at 4 p.m.