Division I recruit shuts down Rams
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — South Side Beaver was rolling right along on its trip to what it hoped would be a first PIAAtitle.
That was until it drove rightinto a Marsh.
Lancaster Catholic ace Dillon Marsh, a senior lefthander who will play at Kentucky next season, scattered five hits and struck out 11 in leading the Crusaders to their first PIAA title by defeating South Side Beaver, 5-1, in the Class 3A championship Friday at Penn State’s Medlar Fieldat Lubrano Park.
For South Side Beaver, a surprising run to a first PIAA final came to a disheartening end. The Rams (17-6) had never won a PIAA playoff game prior to this season but qualified for the tournament after winning the WPIAL third-place consolation. The Rams then eliminated three district champions — WPIAL champ Brownsville included — and racked up 29 runs in theprocess.
AgainstMarsh and District 3 champion Lancaster Catholic (20-5), offense was hard to comeby.
Marsh’s fastball was consistently in the mid- to upper 80s mph and reached 90 a handful of times. His changeup was very effective, too. Marsh improved to 9-1 and finished the season with 133strikeouts in 68⅓innings.
“We knew coming in he’s a verygood pitcher,” South Side Beaver junior second basemanJake McDougal said. “He comes after you. And he’s very confident with his fastball.He didn’t throw much offspeed at the beginning of the game. So I was telling everyone, ‘First pitch to each batter he’s throwing fastballs. Jump on that first pitch.’ If you get behind in the count with him, you don’t have too much of a chance,right?”
Preparing for Marsh has to be difficult to begin with, but even more so for a South Side Beaver team that had faced only one lefty all season and doesn’t have any southpaws onits roster.
“That makes the odds against you a little bit more,” South Side Beaver coach Chip Huntersaid.
Lancaster Catholic put pressure on South Side Beaver early by going ahead, 1-0, in the top of the first. With runners on first and third and two outs, Lancaster Catholic pulled off a double steal, and shortstop Luke Woodard’s throw home sailed over the head of catcher Nate Statler, allowinga run to score.
“For them to jump out, 1-0, with the pitcher right there, that’s a big lead,” Hunter said. “One run for them with him onthe mound, it almost seems like five or six to another team. We put ourselves into a little bit of hole and he kept us there.”
The lead grew to 5-0 when Lancaster-Catholic scored two runs in both the fourth and fifthinnings.
Meanwhile, Marsh was cruising. He struck out two batters in each of the first five innings.He had retired 13 of 14 hitters heading into the seventh, the only South Side Beaver hits to that point coming on a McDougal double in the first and singles from Alex Jonesin the second and fifth.
South Side Beaver ended Marsh’s shutout bid in the seventh when Bishop McCoy doubled and pinch-runner Danny Luketic scored on MarshalWindsor’s single.
Senior right-hander Casey Jones was the loser for South Side Beaver. He gave up eight hits and struck out four over six innings. He was the winning pitcher in each of the team’s three PIAA victories. Like Marsh, Jones was pitchingon three days of rest.
Even in defeat, Jones said he and his teammates were proudof what they achieved.
“We wish we would have had a better outcome, but we’re still happy,” Jones said. “We had a great season. We did something that no other SouthSide team had done. We won a first state playoff game and eventually made it to the state championship game. It wasjust awesome.”