Bermudian Springs topples Mifflinburg in PIAA 3A baseball semifinals
· Yahoo Sports
In the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs, Branson Diller was in an endurance battle.
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The Bermudian Springs starter had gone six and two-third innings and was planning on seeing the PIAA Class 3A semifinals through. He and Mifflinburg's Larry Murray had battled through a seven-pitch at-bat. One foul ball had almost landed fair and driven in a run to cut Bermudian Springs' lead to one. But Diller only needed one more pitch to close his day out.
"I was making him chase the fastball," Diller said. "Teegan (Byers), our catcher, came out and said this guy had four home runs this season. To do this feels great. I feel like it's even more special for me and the seniors that I've been playing with our whole lives. This has been the expectation."
On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Murray hit a grounder to Eagles shortstop Lane Hubbard, who completed a quick throw across the infield to first baseman Gavin Reinert.
Cheers rang out from the stands at Earl Wenger Memorial Ballpark. On the field, the Eagles huddled around Diller in celebration. For the first time since 2010, the Eagles had secured a spot in the PIAA final, and Diller took them the distance in a 3-1 win over the Wildcats in the Class 3A PIAA semifinals on Monday afternoon.
Diller, as has become custom for the Eagles' senior ace, never left the mound. He pitched his seventh complete game Monday, striking out four Wildcats and giving up six hits. And he did it all in 88 pitches.
"When (Diller) takes the ball and you rely on him, you know he's going to get the out and you're going to have a low pitch count," Eagles coach Jeff Carpenter said. "Very rarely do you have to make the decision to take him out of the game because his pitches are too high."
Reinert, who completed the final out, had his own part to play. He went a game-best 3-for-4 at the plate, ending the game as one of three players for either team with a multi-hit game.
The junior capitalized on his performance at the plate when Bermudian Springs needed it most. Mifflinburg had tied the game on an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, and the Eagles needed a breakthrough. After Brayden Heller was hit by a pitch in the top of the seventh, Reinert stepped up. On an 0-1 count and with two outs, Reinert slapped a line drive double to right field to score Heller from first base.
He wasn't done though, and neither were the Eagles. Jaxsyn Stottlemyer hit a double right after to bring Reinert home and extend the Eagles' lead. Stottlemyer was the only other Eagle aside from Reinert with more than one hit Monday.
"I'm swinging at anything, and if it's fast I'm hitting it," Reinert said. "It opened the floodgates right there. My double led to another double, and I think if we had less than two outs there we would've had another double and another. We're just that kind of team. We pick each other up, and when one person falls we do our best to bring them up. If one person gets a hit, then the next person is getting a hit."
Bermudian Springs will play for the PIAA Class 3A championship on Friday, June 12 against South Park, the No. 2 seed out of District 7. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m. at Penn State's Medlar Field.
This article originally appeared on Hanover Evening Sun: Bermudian Springs topples Mifflinburg in PIAA 3A baseball semifinals