Beaver Sees Dream Season End With Loss to Loyalsock in PIAA AA Baseball Finals

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, June 14, 2013 | 9:59 PM

Bailey Young singled inside the first base bag to score pinch-runner Caleb Robbins to give the Loyalsock Lancers their second PIAA baseball championship, defeating the Beaver Bobcats 5-4 at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park in the Class AA title game.

It was the second trip to the state title game for Beaver, falling 2-1 to Reading in the 1983 Class AAA championship, the Bobcats were led by future major leaguer John Burkett.

Beaver had tied the game in the top of the seventh when Nick Hineman singled home Austin Logan with two outs. Logan led off the inning with a marathon at-bat, finally being hit by the eighth pitch from Kyle Datres.

Beaver took the lead in the opening inning on back to back singles by Ben Herstine and Austin Ross, Hineman brought home the first run with a groundout to deep short, scoring courtesy runner Anthony Keriotes. Loyalsock tied the game in the second, Luke Glavin’s single to left brought home Young.

The Lancers got two runs in the third to take a 3-1 lead. Datres doubled to right and went to third on an error by Anthony Fidurski. Jimmy Webb followed with a double to right center on the first pitch to score Datres, he was brought home by a Tommy Bagget sac fly to center.

That lead did not last long, the Bobcats answered with two runs of their own in the top of the fourth, set up by a Loyalsock error. Hineman led off the inning with an infield single and would have been stranded at third but shortstop Ethan Moore’s error allowed him to score, Jon Hill to reach and the inning to continue. Matt Rose followed with another infield single, then Alex Rowse singled to left field to score Hill, but Rowse was caught trying to take second base on the throw to third.

Beaver returned the favor to Loyalsock, committing two errors of their own to allow the Lancers to take a one run lead in the fifth. After one out, Robbie Kline singled, then Ethan Moore reached on a Matt Rose error at third. Bagget drove in his second run of the evening with a single to tie the game. Ross committed the second error of the inning on a pick off attempt  but struck out both Young and Glavin to keep it a 4-3 lead for Loyalsock.

The Bobcats had the tying and go-ahead runs on in the sixth as Jalen Lawson and Hill both singled. But the sophomore pitcher was up the challenge, Datres struck out both Rose and Rowse to end the inning and set up the dramatic seventh inning.

Datres, who has verbally committed to Duke, was the winning pitcher, allowing two earned runs on nine hits, he struck out six and did not walk a batter. He goes to 4-1. Kline scored two runs for the Lancers, Bagget drove in two. Loyalsock saw their preseason dream come true, the Lancers had shirts printed up with the letters QC, for quiet confidence and 68.8, the exact mileage between home plate in Loyalsock and home plate at Medlar Field. The District 4 runner up finishes the season at 22-3.

Beaver coach Jeff Mullen, who did a wonderful job running the on field coaching for Bruce Herstine, who was restricted to the dugout after undergoing surgery earlier in the season said the Lancers capitalized on every opportunity, every mistake the Bobcats made. Herstine said it was a great season for the Bobcats, winning the WPIAL championship, but this wasn’t the way he wanted it to end. He said Beaver didn’t play their game, they had played error free baseball thru the bulk of the playoffs.

Ross and Hineman were both 2 for 4 at the plate, Hineman drove in two runs. Ross took the loss, ending his season at 10-2. The Radford recruit allowed six hits and struck out four, he also walked four. Beaver ends the season at 20-4 and lose eight of the ten starters to graduation.The Bobcats also saw an eleven game winning streak come to an end.

BEAVER BOBCATS  1 – 0 – 0 – 2 – 0 – 0 – 1 = 4 – 9 – 3
LOYALSOCK LANCERS  0 – 1 – 2 – 0 – 1 – 0 – 1 = 5 – 6 – 1
(WINNING RUN SCORED WITH ONE OUT)
 

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