The PIAA 5A baseball quarterfinal round was postponed on Thursday due to rain in the Hershey area. On Friday, the only thing raining were runs, coming down from Selinsgrove as the Seals earned a 10-2 win over Shippensburg, earning themselves a trip back to Chocolatetown for the semifinal round on Monday against Governor Mifflin.
It was expected that the matchup on Friday night would be highly offense driven, and that proved to be true in the first inning. Ben Gearhart, a Mansfield recruit, let up an opening hit from Troy Chamberlin, heading to Millersville next season. Gearhart went on to hit Kaden Shope, walk Eli Bailey, and in the blink of an eye, bases were loaded for Shippensburg. Gearhart hit Brady Maciejewski and brought in a run for the Greyhounds. It was a rough start for Gearhart and the Seals, but in the end, they only allowed one run from Shippensburg.
What Gearhart lacked on the mound in the top of the inning, he made up for in the bottom, sending a monster blast over way past the right field wall, making the trek up to the Derry Township Elementary playground some 400+ feet up the hill. It brought in Josh Domaracki from his single to score two in the first inning, a go-ahead blast from Gearhart.
“I didn’t start off the best, I wish I could have that back. I’m thankful that my coach trusted me to work through that, and then my first at bat, I’m so grateful that that put me in the right mindset. I had confidence in myself,” Gearhart said postgame. “I felt good going back on the mound, because I gave myself a lead.”
The Seals would never surrender their lead, putting up two runs in the first, second and third inning to hold a 6-2 lead by the mid-way point of the game. Selinsgrove had ten hits by the middle of the fourth, too, with huge contributions all throughout the order.
Brennan Kline, the eighth hitter in the order, put up two hits in the second and third inning, with an RBI single in the third to make it a 3-0 game and spark another RBI single from the hitter right behind him, Gavin Landis, who drove in Owen Santiago to extend the Selinsgrove lead. Overall, the bottom three hitters went 4/9, worked multiple walks, drove in multiple runs, and scored multiple runs themselves.
A deep lineup is needed for playoff success, and that was on display from the Seals on Friday night.
“Typically, our 1-6 is very very strong, 7-8-9 is every now and then. If 7-8-9 start hitting, we’re going to be extremely dangerous and yous saw what happened tonight,” said head coach Brent Beiler.
Throughout the day on the mound, Gearhart finished with eight hits allowed, two earned runs, one walk and two strikeouts. Selinsgrove finished with 12 hits, all coming off of Shippensburg ace Troy Chamberlin.
Selinsgrove advances to the PIAA 5A semifinal round back at Hershey’s Memorial Field against District 3’s runner-up Governor Mifflin. The winner will face the winner of Monsignor-Bonner and Hollidaysburg, which is also Monday at 4 PM at East Penn.
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