Bald Eagle Area and Bellefonte are both headed to the PIAA baseball championships
Offense came at a premium in Bald Eagle Area’s PIAA Class 2A semifinals baseball game against Sharpsville on Monday at DuBois’ Showers Field.
The game featured just 10 combined hits from the teams, but the Eagles strung together three consecutive in the bottom of the 10th inning to secure a 1-0 win over the Blue Devils. The victory clinched BEA’s second ever trip to the PIAA finals. It’s the program’s first trip since 2007, which it won that year.
“This bunch of kids is very resilient. They seem to always rise up, and never get down or nervous,” manager Jim Gardner said. “We were the home team today, so I always felt good about that. Sharpsville’s pitchers just befuddled us. We couldn’t seem to square it up enough. Finally, we were able to put something together there late.”
The Eagles (21-4) will play the winner of Mount Union, who they beat in the District 6 title game on May 30 (11-5), and Kutztown on Friday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park at 10:30 a.m. The Trojans and Cougars were supposed to play on Monday, but rain forced their game to be played on Tuesday at noon.
In DuBois on Monday afternoon, Tyler Serb had the game-winning hit to drive in Cam Watkins.
“It felt pretty good. I was just trying to put the bat on the ball, so it just worked out,” Serb said.
After BEA’s first batter struck out to start the 10th inning, Watkins was nearly the second out. However, his hit was just deep enough in the infield that he outraced the throw to first.
Watkins advanced to third on Kaden Burns’ deep single to left field. Serb stepped to the plate and hit a blooper to right field to score Watkins, who was the lone batter of the game with multiple hits.
“Cam was 2-for-2 and had a sacrifice bunt. He is a super talented athlete,” Gardner said. “We’ve always liked to have an athlete like in our number nine spot to roll the top over. He’s an outstanding centerfielder, the best I’ve ever seen in high school. It doesn’t surprise me.”
Just as Serb came up clutch in the batter’s box, he was astounding on the mound.
The senior pitched eight shutout innings on 105 pitches with 79 on those pitches being strikes. He gave up just three hits, and struck out 14 Sharpsville batters.
Fellow senior Wyatt Coakley came in and pitched the final two innings. He gave up just one hit and struck out three.
“Tyler Serb pitched an awesome game for us. He reached his pitch count,” Gardner said. “Serb was just on the attack. His fastball was overpowering. Wyatt Coakley came in and did a great job also.”
Red Raiders headed to Class 4A finals
Any time a team trails early in a playoff game, that team’s character gets tested.
They can either respond or continue to falter.
For Bellefonte, which trailed by five runs entering the bottom of the fourth inning and had five errors in the game, it responded by scoring six unanswered runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, and held on to top Hopewell, 6-5, on Monday at First Commonwealth Bank Field in Homer City. The Red Raiders are making just their second ever trip to the PIAA finals.
They were last there in 2016, which they won, but in Class 3A.
Bellefonte (19-5) will play the winner of Archbishop Wood and Dallas on Friday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park at 1:30 p.m. The Vikings and Mountaineers were to play on Monday, but Mother Nature had other plans. They’ll now play on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
“It’s exciting being in the backyard at Medlar Field. It’s something you talk about. I think everybody wants that as their goal,” manager Jon Clark said. “At the same time, we keep in perspective that you have to set goals along the way to achieve. Some of them will present themselves during the season and we’ll accomplish them. These guys have done a great job of staying within themselves and keeping their eye on the task at hand. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Dominic Capperella had a tough day on the mound Monday for the Red Raiders by giving up those five runs in four innings of work. However, only two of those runs were earned.
Sophomore Peyton Vancas came in in relief of Capperella and threw three scoreless innings to earn the win.
Lucas Arington’s three-run homerun helped give Hopewell a 5-0 lead after 3.5 innings played.
“It was just, ‘let’s get back to what we do well.’ We needed to be patient at the plate,” said Clark of his message to the team down by five. “Their starting pitcher really had us off balance. We were swinging at bad pitches. I don’t know if it was pressure or nerves, but it was very uncharacteristic ... the errors in the field. We don’t make excuses, we just move on and learn from it.”
Trevor Johnson was big at the plate as the leadoff hitter for the Red Raiders going 3-for-3. Triston Heckman was key in that rally as he had a two-run double in a five-run fifth inning.
Braedyn Kormanic was the only other Bellefonte hitter to have multiple hits as he collected a double during his 2-for-3 day. The Red Raiders 1-through-4 hitters each scored a run.
“It took us a little while to get going. Some of that is a testament to Hopewell,” Clark said. “Hopewell’s record didn’t necessarily reflect the type of team they were, but the fact that they were in the semifinals showed they are a really good team. We came out one run ahead, and that’s all that matters.”
Softball
With all of the rain on Monday, it caused postponements in baseball and softball.
Bald Eagle Area was set to play South Williamsport at Central Mountain High School. However, the teams will now play on Tuesday at 1 p.m.
The Lady Eagles and Lady Mountaineers already know who they will play should they make the Class 2A finals on Friday at Nittany Lion Softball Park at 11 a.m. If BEA makes the finals, it will be the first time in the school’s history that both the baseball and softball teams reach the finals in the same season.
District 5 champion Everett handed WPIAL (District 7) champion and powerhouse Neshannock a 9-6 loss on Monday. The Lady Warriors snapped the Lady Lancers 48-game win streak to make the finals.
