DILLSBURG — From the opening inning of Tuesday’s District 3 Class AA baseball semifinal, Upper Dauphin served notice that the statement on its pre-game jerseys still has meaning.
Each T-shirt says, “One Team, One Dream.”
That dream — a District 3 championship — is within reach after the No. 8-seeded Trojans used a 17-hit attack to stun No. 5 York Catholic 12-5 at Northern York High School.
“We’ve been joking about it,” Upper Dauphin coach Ryan Lentz said. “I said, ‘We’re just going to put the cape on and keep flying.’ Right now, we’re the underdog. There’s no pressure on us. We knocked off the number-one seed (Lancaster Catholic on Thursday). Now we won here again today.”
Tuesday’s win put the Trojans (14-9) in the District 3 title game for the first time since 2001. Upper Dauphin will face Camp Hill, a 2-1 winner over Oley Valley in 15 innings, in Thursday’s championship game at 7 p.m. at Metro Bank Park in Harrisburg.
The Trojans also secured a spot in the PIAA Class AA Tournament as the top two teams from District 3 qualify for the state playoffs.
Aaron Cleveland got the win for Upper Dauphin, allowing five runs and four hits in 5.2 innings. He struck out 10, walked four and escaped a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the third.
York Catholic coach Joe Gurreri knew the Trojans had arms. It was UDA’s offense that stunned his Fighting Irish (12-6).
“I was more concerned about the pitching than their hitting, and they really hit the ball well today,” Gurreri said. “They really did a great job.”
Casey Wise paced Upper Dauphin’s attack by going 4-for-5 with a double, two runs scored and three RBIs — one each in the second, sixth and seventh innings.
The Trojans did most of their damage off York Catholic ace Jake Krevetski, who was pitching for the second time during the district playoffs.
“We’ve been working all week on the (pitching) machine getting fastballs, so we were all sitting and waiting for fastballs,” Wise said. “He got a little bit predictable with the curveball.”
Krevetski walked Kaleb Hoch with one out in the first inning, the only free pass he allowed over 5.1 innings, and Upper Dauphin made him pay. Hoch scored on Cleveland’s sacrifice fly, while the Trojans added another run on Matt Deitrich’s RBI single to right field.
The Trojans added a run in the second when Wise’s liner to center squirted free of the center fielder’s glove, allowing Tanner Miller to score.
York Catholic cut the deficit to 3-1 in the bottom of the second when Brady Wilking reached on one of Upper Dauphin’s three errors in the game. He scored on Matt Knauer’s line-drive double to the left-field fence.
Upper Dauphin, however, didn’t allow York Catholic to stem the Trojans’ momentum.
The Trojans added two runs for a 5-1 lead in the third when Travis Deitrich’s single knocked in courtesy runner Kolby Bond and Matt Deitrich.
York Catholic trimmed the deficit to 5-3 in the fifth when Wilking blooped a two-run single to right field.
Upper Dauphin again answered, this time in a big way, as Miller opened the sixth with a triple to the right-center field fence.
“Anybody knows in any sport, especially high school sports, that momentum is so big,” Lentz said. “If you can get good old friend Mister Mo on your side, usually you’re going to make some things happen. And I think that kind of helped put the staple back in. We gave them some momentum, and that helped us.”
The Trojans then chased Krevetski with three more hits. By the time York Catholic reliever Chris DeMarco stopped the rally, the Trojans had scored six runs on five hits and one Irish error.
Cleveland and Travis Deitrich finished the game with three hits apiece, while Miller, Kyle Glouner and Matt Deitrich each had two.
After C.J. Burnside hit a two-run single for York Catholic in the bottom of the sixth, Upper Dauphin added its final run in the seventh on a groundout by Wise. His presence has coincided with the Trojans’ six wins in their past seven games following a six-game losing streak that included a no-hit loss to Line Mountain.
“I didn’t have my starting catcher (Dylan Lesher) and I didn’t have my starting center fielder (Wise), who is one of my captains, for probably three-quarters of the season,” Lentz said. “We worked through it with some other guys, and there are times you don’t realize how important some of those pieces are until they fall back into place.”
But now that they are, Upper Dauphin is seeking a championship.
“We kept trying to tell them, ‘Look, let’s see what happens. Let’s see if we can work out of this funk.’ Sure enough, we’ve worked out of it, I’d say,” Lentz said.
Game Summary
District 3 Class AA Semifinal
At Northern York H.S.
UPPER DAUPHIN (12) — Miller ss 5 3 2 0, Hoch rf 2 2 1 0, Schell ph 1 0 0 0, Wise cf 5 2 4 3, Glouner dh 4 1 2 0, Lenker 3b 0 0 0 0, Cleveland p 3 0 3 3, Bond cr 0 2 0 0, Reigner p 1 0 0 0, M. Deitrich 1b 3 2 2 2, Bordner pr 0 0 0 0, Lesher c 2 0 0 1, T. Deitrich 2b 4 0 3 3, Barge lf 3 0 0 0. Totals 33 12 17 12.
YORK CATHOLIC (5) — Hippensteel 2b 3 2 1 0, C.J. Burnside cf 4 0 1 2, Krevetski p-lf 2 0 1 0, Polson cr 0 1 0 0, Kennedy ss 2 0 0 0, Skehan c 0 0 0 0, Wilking dh 4 1 1 2, Catterall 3b 4 0 0 0, Floyd lf 2 0 0 0, DeMarco p 1 0 0 0, Knauer 1b 3 0 1 1, DePorter rf 2 0 0 0, Bankos ph 1 0 0 0, J. Burnside pr 0 1 0 0. Totals 28 5 5 5.
UDA (14-9) 212 006 1 — 12
York Cath. (12-6) 010 022 0 — 5
E — Upper Dauphin 3, York Catholic 2. DP — York Catholic 1. LOB — Upper Dauphin 8, York Catholic 7. 2B — Wise, Knauer. 3B — Miller. SB — Polson. CS — T. Deitrich. S — Lesher, Kennedy. SF — Cleveland, Lesher.
U. Dauphin IP H R ER BB K
Clvlnd W,4-3 5.2 4 5 1 4 10
Reigner 1.1 1 0 0 0 1
York Catholic IP H R ER BB K
Krevetski L 5 15 11 10 1 2
DeMarco 2 2 1 0 0 1
HBP — by Krevetski (Hoch, Glouner). WP — Cleveland, Reigner, DeMarco 3. PB — Lesher. T — 2:05.