A four-run sixth inning and a surprising bout of wildness sealed the fate of the Beaver Falls High School baseball team.

The Tigers saw their WPIAL title hopes come to an end with a 6-3 loss to North Catholic Tuesday afternoon in a Class AA semifinal.

"Our pitchers combined to walk 10 batters and hit another," Beaver Falls coach Mike Kirschner said. "You can't give a playoff team that many runners and expect to win.

"It was very surprising, because finding the strike zone has not been a problem for our pitchers this season. In our previous 22 games, our pitchers walked only 87 batters in 140 innings pitched."

Sophomore Tyler Schuster started and walked six batters in four innings, but allowed only two runs. Junior Marlo Cleckley took over in the fifth inning and struck out the side, but ran into problems in the sixth.

"The sixth inning was the difference in the game," Kirschner said. "We were trailing 2-1 when North Catholic put together a four-run rally. The big hit in the inning was a bases-loaded triple by Mike Mulvey. We scored twice in the seventh, but it wasn't good enough."

Christian Wolosik, a junior right-hander, tossed a four-hitter for North Catholic, striking out 12.

"It's very disappointing to get this far and lose in the semifinals, but we still have a chance to qualify for the PIAA playoffs if we can win the consolation for third place next week," Kirschner said. "We just need our hitting to come around. We're only hitting .279 as a team."

Beaver Falls (17-6) will face the loser of yesterday's semifinal between top-seeded Shady Side Academy and No. 5 seed South Fayette in the consolation final at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Washington & Jefferson College. North Catholic (17-5), the No. 2 seed, will face the winner of the Shady Side Academy-South Fayette.

"I'm a little surprised that we got this far when you consider how young this team is," Kirschner said. "Eight of our nine starters are underclassmen. We only have three seniors on our roster and only one starts. I expected next year would be our year. We're actually ahead of the curve."

Beaver Falls earned its WPIAL playoff berth by placing second in Section 5-AA. The unseeded Tigers advanced to the semifinals with a 3-2 win against No. 6 seed Seton-LaSalle in the first round, and a 4-3 win against No. 3 seed Freedom in the quarterfinals.

"Both of our playoff wins were by one run," Kirschner said. "We are 8-2 in one-run games this season.

"This is the fifth time in six years we've qualified for the WPIAL playoffs. It's the furthest we've gone since winning the WPIAL title in 1985. My goal is to keep us at this level every year."

Cleckley, Schuster, and sophomore Aaron Ramirez shared the pitching duties for Beaver Falls this season. Cleckley had a 6-2 record, a 0.97 ERA with 81 strikeouts going into Tuesday's game. Schuster had a 6-3 record, a 2.37 ERA, and 59 strikeouts. Ramirez had a 4-0 mark in only 20 innings pitched.

"Pitching was the key to our success this year," Kirschner said. "We had a 2.45 team ERA and had 181 strikeouts in 140 innings pitched."

Cleckley plays left field when he's not on the mound, while Ramirez plays second base. Schuster is just a pitcher.

The only senior in the Tigers lineup is third baseman Rob Stuart, who has a .264 average. Designated hitter Max Reda and backup catcher Joe Omogrosso are the other two seniors.

Sophomore shortstop Evan Chiappetta, the Tigers' leadoff hitter, leads the team with a .406 average and 18 stolen bases. He committed only three errors in 23 games. Junior first baseman Dave Ginand had a .333 average.

"Marlo, Evan, and Dave have been starting since they were freshmen," Kirschner said.

The outfield consists of: junior Admire Carter in center field, sophomore Mike Stevenson in right, and either Cleckley or junior Tony Omogrosso in left. Omogrosso, a transfer from Blackhawk, also plays second base.

The catcher is junior Antonio Allegra. He threw out three of three runners trying to steal in the playoffs.