Bethel Park captain restarts surge to 5A title game
CRESSON, Pa. — Did Bethel Park High School baseball coach Pat Zehnder deliver some words of extraordinary motivation after Donegal came back to tie a PIAA Class 5A semifinal with the Black Hawkswith a four-run bottom of the sixth? Did Zehnder offer some special insight?
Black Hawk shortstop and co-captain David Kessler has no idea. He didn’t hear a word of it.
“Since I led off, I was getting my stuff. Coach was talking to the team. I didn’t hear what was in that huddle,” Kessler admitted. “But, as soon as they walked off, I told the guys I needed the same energy we had in the first couple of innings.
“At the beginning of the year, my teammates voted me captain. I had to show up and show why.”
Kessler set the example and the tone. His bloop was the first of four consecutive Black Hawks singles that resulted in a three-run response in the top of the seventh. That sent Bethel Park back to Penn State to try to defend its state title with a thrilling 8-5 victory on a balmy Monday at Mount Aloysius College’s Smith Calandra Field.
“It’s crazy. I remember last year. It was probably the best experience of my life,” Black Hawks co-captain Bo Conrad said. “That I get to live it again? Twice in a row? That’s unheard of.”
In spite of squandering what was a 5-0 lead going into the bottom of the fourth, Bethel Park (20-4) will get the chance to repeat Friday against District 4 champion Selinsgrove.
“To the guys’ credit, they just keep finding a way to win,” Zehnder said. “We were in so many situations like this last year. We don’t have to say, ‘We can do this.’ We can say, ‘We’ve done this.’”
After Kessler’s single, Cody Geddes lined one into left. Then Ray Altmeyer grounded one through the middle of a drawn-in infield. Kessler scored easily and Geddes crossed the plate, too, when the ball skipped past Donegal center fielder Cody Eckinger. Geddes would have scored anyway, because Ben Hudson subsequently lined a single to center.
“I wasn’t thinking of doing too much, just finding the barrel on the ball. Luckily, I got a good pitch and put a good swing on it,” Altmeyer said.
Altmeyer was 0 for 2 with a walk before the hit. Geddes, Bethel Park’s closer, also bounced back after giving up three of Donegal’s four runs the previous innings, retiring the Indians in order in the seventh to end it.
“The first out was hard, especially after the previous inning, because they were definitely swinging away at me,” Geddes said. “I knew if I got the first one, I’d get the other two.”
The fourth-place team from District 3, Donegal (18-9) evened the score on Coy Allman’s two-out, two-run double. A.J. Small led off the inning with a solo homer off of Ryan Walsh, who was in his second inning of relief of Black Hawks starter Nathan Vargo.
“Nobody expected us to do much,” Donegal coach Jeff Hartman said. “They almost pulled it off.”
Bethel Park scored three in the second to build a 4-0 lead. John Chalus and Evan Holewinski set the table with backto-back, one-out doubles. Dylan Schmude then laced a single to center, driving in Holewinski and taking second when the throw in missed the cutoff man.