CENTRE COUNTY — The Bellefonte Raider baseball team swept past Juniata, 10-0, in five innings on May 20 in the D6 Class 4A final at Bellefonte and will now vie for a berth in the 2026 PIAA Tournament.
The Raiders’ Zach Lehman shut out Juniata on three hits in the game while his team scored nine runs in the last three innings to take the 2026 Championship.
RBI singles by Evan Mattern, Carsen Henry, and Alten Howell, along with a two-run homer by Oliver Thornburg, gave Bellefonte a 6-0 lead after three innings.
Thornburg nailed another home run in the fourth inning for a 7-0 lead, and then the Raiders closed out the win with three more runs in the bottom of the fifth.
In that inning, Henry, Howell and Mattern all had RBIs with Mattern ending the game under the 10-run rule with a two-out double that scored Howell.
Mattern led the offense with three hits and three RBIs, and Thornburg had the two home runs and three RBIs.
Howell and Henry also had two RBIs each.
On the mound, Lehman threw five innings with three hits, no runs, no walks and seven strikeouts.
The win for Bellefonte set up a D6-8 regional final against Obama Academy with the winner advancing to the PIAA Class 4A Tournament.
The game is scheduled for May 26 at 4 p.m. at Greenway Field in Pittsburgh.
Obama Academy is 14-5 for the season and beat Brashear for the Class 4A Pittsburgh City Championship.
The winner will advance to the PIAA Tournament against the No. 2 seed from the WPIAL on June 1 at a site to be announced.
Philipsburg-Osceola 11, Marion Center 1
The Philipsburg-Osceola baseball team advanced to the D6 Class 3A finals with its second, 10-run, five-inning victory in the tournament.
After taking out Marion Center on the May 18 by a score of 11-1, the Mounties matched that with another 11-1 tournament win, this one over Richland in the semifinal at Richland on May 21.
The Mounties’ Archer Baughman threw a complete game two hitter and gave up just one run as his team scored 11 runs on 10 hits to take its 14th win of the season.
Parker Lamb started things for P-O with a two-run double in the first inning, and then Demarcus Law made it 4-0 in the third with a double that drove in Lamb and Zach Yoder.
P-O took advantage of two errors and hits by Fischer White and Baughman to push across three runs in the fourth, and then the Mounties ended things with a four-run rally in the fifth.
Warren Rafferty, Connor Guenot, Baughman and White drove in the four runs with White’s RBI grounder giving his team an 11-0 lead.
Lehman did give up a run in the bottom of the fifth, but he got the final out on a strikeout that finished the game under the 10-run rule.
Since both finalists qualify for the PIAA tournament, P-O had already punched its ticket.
But there is still the D6 championship game to play.
That will be against next door rival Tyrone and will take place on Thursday, May 28 at a site yet to be announced.
Tyrone is 12-9 this season and advanced to the finals with a one-sided, 12-4 victory over No. 2 seeded Bald Eagle Area in the semifinals at BEA.
The No. 6 Golden Eagles knocked out 15 hits in that game and took a commanding 12-1 lead into the fifth inning after scoring runs in every frame.
P-O and Tyrone met earlier in the season, on April 22, in Philipsburg with the Mounties taking a 7-2 LHAC victory.
Behind the pitching of Baughman and Nick DeSimone, P-O rallied for five runs in the last two innings to take the victory.
Baughman also led the offense with a home run and three RBIs, while Lamb and Guenot also had extra base hits.
The winner of the game will advance to play the No. 3 seed from the WPIAL on June 1, and the loser will play the WPIAL Champion on the same day. Both sites have yet to be announced.
Tyrone 12, Bald Eagle Area 4
The No. 6 Tyrone Golden Eagles upset No. 2 Bald Eagle Area, 12-4, in the D6 Class 3A semifinal on May 22 at BEA.
Tyrone scored runs in the first five innings of the game to take a big 12-1 lead and then held on to advance to the D6 Finals against Philipsburg-Osceola.
BEA did creep back with three fifth-inning runs on RBIs by Riley Bucha (2) and Hayden Stimer, but Tyrone was able to end a two-out, bases-loaded threat with no further damage.
And from there, Tyrone relief pitcher Brandon McClure was able to keep BEA off the scoreboard and give his team its 12th win and a trip to the Finals.
The loss ended the Bald Eagles’ season with a final record of 15-6 and a 4th place finish in the LHAC East with an 8-5 conference record.
