CENTRE COUNTY — It was not a good day at the PIAA baseball quarterfinals for the Bellefonte Raiders and the Philipsburg-Osceola Mounties.
Both teams, after winning their first round games on June 1, moved into the quarterfinals, but both saw their seasons end in tough losses to highly ranked teams.
The Raiders took on Philadelphia District 12’s No. 2 seed Archbishop Wood from Warminster, and could not rally from a two-run deficit and fell, 3-1.
Wood is a perennial D12 contender and was edged in the title game by Conwell-Egan Catholic, 4-2, but the Vikings went on to eliminate undefeated Northern Lebanon in the PIAA first round, 2-1.
Against Bellefonte, it was the same kind of tense, close game that ultimately came down to one swing of the bat.
Playing at Memorial Field in Hershey on June 4, the Raiders took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning after consecutive singles by Alten Howell, Braeden Fortney and Zach Lehman.
Lehman’s hit drove in Howell and gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead, but Wood pitcher Andrew Unrath was able to get the final two outs in the inning to escape any further damage.
Two innings later, in the top of the fifth, the Vikings put two men on with one out on a walk and a single.
That brought up center fielder Chase Cavallaro, and he took the first pitch over the right field wall for a three-run home run and a 3-1 lead for his team.
That was it.
Neither team scored again, although the Raiders put their first two men on base in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Wood reliever Jack Coughlin was up to the task however, and he retired the next three batters to give the Vikings their 18th win and a trip to the semifinals.
For Bellefonte, the loss ended what was a tremendous season.
The team finished 18-5 with a District 6 championship, a regional final win over Obama Academy, and a strong showing in the PIAA Tournament.
And with a majority of their players coming back for 2027, including all-star pitcher Zach Lehman, the Raiders will be primed for another run.
On the same day at Norwin High School, the Mountiesmet up with District 10 champions Fairview in the Class 3-A quarterfinals.
P-O took an early three-run lead in this game, but Fairview rallied past the Mounties and held on for a 7-5 victory.
With the game tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the third inning, Mountie first baseman Fischer White lofted a two-run home run that scored Archer Baughman ahead of him and gave P-O a 4-2 lead.
Then following a walk to Parker Lamb and a double by Zach Yoder, Nick DeSimone hit an RBI single that scored Lamb and made it 5-2.
Unfortunately, the Mounties were unable to add any more runs although they did put men in scoring position twice more.
Fairview was able to take advantage.
The Tigers scored two runs in the fifth inning and closed to 5-4, and then they added the winning runs in the top of the sixth.
The big hit was a two-out, two-run triple by Robert Benford that put the Tigers ahead 7-5 with just two innings to play.
After P-O came up short with men on base in the sixth, Benford pitched a perfect seventh inning in relief, and Fairview took its 18th win of the season.
For the Mounties, the loss ended what was a very successful campaign for the Mounties. They finished with 15 wins and were the No. 2 team in District 6 Class 3-A.
Fairview will now go on to face 7-2 South Park, winners over Tyrone, in the semifinals at Slippery Rock University.
The state 3-A final is on Friday, June 12 at Medlar Field.
