Indiana played Monday in the PIAA semifinals, but as a tie score remained deadlocked into the late evening hours and had to be suspended until Tuesday, the experience began to more resemble a marathon than a baseball game.
“They’re resilient,” Indiana coach Dan Petroff said of his team. “I knew they were resilient playing one game in one day. To come back a second day, you don’t know how it’s going to go. But they still showed the same resiliency they’ve shown all year. They won’t give up.”
After winning the longest game in PIAA playoff history, the Indians now are a win away from claiming their first title.
Caden Force drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 17th inning to propel WPIAL champion Indiana to a 6-5 win against previously unbeaten District 3 champion East Pennsboro in a PIAA Class 4A semifinal at Governors Park in Bellefonte.
Indiana (25-1), winners of 12 in a row, will play for a title for the second year in a row when it faces District 4 champion Montoursville (20-4) in the final at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The Indians fell to Holy Ghost Prep, 6-5, in the 2024 final. It marked the third year in a row Indiana ended East Pennsboro’s season. The Indians beat East Pennsboro (23-1) in the 2023 first round and the 2024 quarterfinals. Coincidentally, the Indians also won a year ago, 6-5, courtesy of a walk-off walk.
Indiana-East Pennsboro III began at 4 p.m. Monday at Governors Park but was halted at about 7:30 as severe weather rolled into the area. At that point the score was tied, 5-5, as the 14th inning had just come to a close. Petroff said his team arrived back at school at 10:30 p.m. and left school to make the nearly 2-hour drive to Bellefonte at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday. The game resumed at 12:30 p.m.
Having a game extend so long might trouble a lot of coaches, but not so much with Petroff, who said, “The good thing is we have the pitching to do it.” The Indians shut out their first two PIAA opponents and entered the semifinal having given up only four runs in five postseason games. Indiana held East Pennsboro without a run over the final 12 innings, and the quartet of Ryan Okopal, Mark Collinger, Greg Minnick and Brady Oakes surrendered only eight hits. Oakes, a sophomore left-hander, pitched all four innings Tuesday, giving up only one baserunner, a leadoff single in the 17th.
“He’s a competitor,” Petroff said of Oakes. “He plays hockey. He’s a tough kid. He gets after it. I felt like it was his moment and he was ready for it.”
After Oakes got a double play and a groundout to close out the top of the 17th, the Indiana offense closed out the game in the bottom half. The Indians loaded the bases after a walk to Carter Putt, an Ethan Shank bunt single and a Collinger intentional walk. After Sully VanHoose struck out, Force, a senior second baseman, took a 3-2 pitch and was awarded the walk, scoring Putt with the winning run.
“He’s the guy you want up there,” Petroff said of Force. “Some guys shy away from it, but he doesn’t. He said he’s got this, and I believed him. He came through.”
The record for longest game in PIAA playoff history previously was 15 innings, a feat accomplished three times, most recently a season ago when La Salle College defeated Downingtown East, 1-0, in a Class 6A quarterfinal.
Indiana finished with 14 hits. Tim Birch had three of them and drove in two runs. Birch’s run-scoring single with one out in the seventh tied the score at 5-5 and forced extra innings. The Indians also had scored single runs in the fifth and sixth after falling behind, 5-2. Shank, Force and Charlie Manzi each had two hits, while Collinger drove in two runs. Manzi appeared to hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth, but after a meeting of the umpires, his towering drive down the left-field line was ruled foul. Manzi then was forced from the game after an apparent leg injury as he tried to avoid a tag at home plate that ended the 14th.
Class 3A
Christian Lucarelli gave up an unearned run and two hits in six innings to propel WPIAL champion Riverside (20-2) into the final for the second time in three years after a 4-1 win against WPIAL third-place finisher South Park (17-8) at Seneca Valley. Riverside, which won the title in 2023, will shoot for its sixth championship overall when it faces District 4 champion Mount Carmel (20-4) in the final at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Penn State University. After beating South Park, 1-0, in 12 innings in the WPIAL semifinals, Riverside got the best of the Eagles again despite seeing its five-game shutout streak come to an end when South Park tied the score at 1-1 on William Hays’ sacrifice fly in the third. Dylan Meyer had two hits and knocked in two runs for Riverside. He notched RBI singles in the second and fourth innings. Zach Hare also had two hits. Hunter Garvin worked the seventh to pick up the save. South Park starter Cooper Hochendoner surrendered four runs (two earned) and six hits in six innings. South Park was seeking its first appearance in the final since 2017.
Scores
Class 4A semifinals
Indiana 6, East Pennsboro 5 (17 innings)
Class 3A semifinals
Riverside 4, South Park 1
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.