First there were four Centre County District 6 baseball champions. Then three of those teams advanced through the first round of the state tournament and into the PIAA quarterfinals.
Philipsburg-Osceola, unfortunately, was upset in its quarterfinal game by powerful Punxsutawney, 6-1, but Bellefonte and BEA dramatically won their games and advanced to the semifinals.
And on June 12 in the semifinals, both the Raiders and the Bald Eagles were victorious again, and both will be playing for the PIAA championships at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park on Friday, June 16.
Here’s a look at how each team qualified for the finals and a glimpse at who they’re up against.
6-1 Bald Eagle Area vs. 6-2 Mount Union
PIAA AA State Championship
Friday, June 16, 10:30 a.m.
Penn State University
Bald Eagle Area ace Tyler Serb has been nearly unhittable in the second half of the 2023 season, and he was again in the Eagles’ PIAA semifinal game against Sharpsville on June 12 in DuBois.
But in this game, he needed a little help from reliever Wyatt Coakley because Sharpsville pitchers Stephen Tarnoci and Jack Leipheimer were equally unhittable.
Serb, it turned out, did more than just pitch in this game.
The two teams struggled through nine innings of intense baseball without scoring a run and entered the 10th with the score still at 0-0.
Coakley, on the mound since the ninth inning, allowed Sharpsville to put the go-ahead run on second base before getting the final out on a ground ball to second base.
In the bottom of the inning, with one out, BEA finally struck. Singles by Cameron Watkins and Kahale Burns put runners at the corners with Serb coming to the plate.
Serb did not miss, and he stroked the game-winning hit into right field, scoring Watkins and giving the Eagles an improbable 1-0 win and a trip to the state championship game.
None of this is to say that Serb was not his typical self. He pitched eight innings of shutout baseball, giving up just three hits and striking out 14. In 15 innings of work so far in the state tournament, Serb has given up no runs and a total of six hits, and struck out 23 batters.
With Serb at his pitch limit, Sharpsville must have been happy to see Coakley walk to the mound in the top of the ninth. Coakley, however, was no step down. He gave up only a single hit, struck out three, issued one walk and took the win in the Eagles’ biggest win of the year.
It was another BEA success, like so many others this season, laid squarely on the performance of its outstanding pitching staff.
For the game, the Eagles managed just six hits — two by Watkins — and they committed two errors.
But Serb and Coakley allowed nothing, four hits altogether, and waited for their team to finally string three hits together and snare BEA’s stepping stone to the championship.
Now, the Bald Eagles will drive down the road to Penn State’s Medlar Field for the PIAA state championship game against District 6 archrival Mount Union. The game is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at Penn State University’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
6-1 Bellefonte vs 2-1 Dallas
PIAA AAAA State Championship
Friday, June 16, 1:30 p.m.
Penn State University, Medlar Field
The Bellefonte Raiders committed five errors against District 7 champion Hopewell in the PIAA, AAAA semifinal game on June 12, gave up three unearned runs and fell behind by five runs in the fourth inning.
Not exactly a roadmap for getting to the state championship.
But Bellefonte didn’t get to this point by giving up, and it didn’t on this day.
The Raiders pushed across a run in the bottom of the fourth and then rallied for five more in the bottom of the fifth to take a one-run lead with two innings to play.
The rest was up to reliever Peyton Vancas and the Raider defense, and they delivered two shutout innings and a dramatic come-from-behind, 6-5 win.
Hits by Josh Brown, Vancas and Braedyn Kormanic; a two-run double by Triston Heckman; and a sacrifice fly by Levi Purnell powered the five-run, fifth-inning rally that lifted Bellefonte into the lead.
And then Vancas retired six of the final eight Hopewell batters, sealing the win and setting off a wild celebration of Raider players, parents and fans.
The comeback win was the team’s 18th of the season, against five losses, and it set up a PIAA state championship game against either 2-1 Dallas on Friday, June 16, at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
