PIAA baseball: West York pulls big upset, Kennard-Dale loses late to end its season
West York 7, Bonner-Prendergast 3
And, once again, Zach Gettys guided them through.
The senior left-handed pitcher dominated the District 12 champion Pandas on the mound and at the plate in the 7-3 victory.
Gettys, who improved to 10-0 this season, struck out seven and walked one before leaving in the sixth inning after throwing 101 pitches. He also doubled, tripled, walked and scored three times.
"We've been playing the underdog role since the beginning of districts," West York coach Scott Erickson said. "We heard they were aggressive at the plate, so you had to get ahead early. That was (Gettys') success today."
The Bulldogs improved to 11-1 in games Gettys started this spring.
West York, the 10th seed in districts, won this game with one huge inning. The Bulldogs scored five times in the sixth, including a bases-clearing double from center fielder Colton Kubicki.
The Bulldogs will play Thursday against District 2 champ Dallas, a 9-0 winner over District 4 champ Athens. The game time and site are not yet determined.
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Forest Hills 4, Kennard-Dale 3
Four errors hurt the Rams, who gave up an early 3-0 lead to lose at the Iron Horse Complex in Somerset County.
Ben Lowe gave his team the lead with a three-run home run in the third inning — one of only four Kennard-Dale hits.
But Forest Hills hung in and put together the winning rally in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring three times, the last coming home on a safety squeeze bunt.
The Rams went quietly in the seventh to end their impressive 17-5 season in Class 4A.
"I'm proud of our guys for getting to this point. I know our expectation was to have a good season and build off of last year," said Kennard-Dale coach Blake Knecht. "We far exceeded any expectations we could have set in the beginning of the year."
The Rams' Ethan Phillips struck out three and did not walk a batter while pitching into the sixth inning.
"Coming down the stretch our defense got more shaky ... and our offensive production dwindled down," Knecht said. "We just got to the point when you're building something and guys aren't used to ... playing this late in the season, fatigue sets in a little bit. I think guys got a little tired."