ESPY — Schuylkill Haven coach Scott Buffington knew Loyalsock was the two-time defending state champion for a reason.
The Lancers got early offense and sharp defense to back great pitching for a 7-1 win over the Hurricanes in Thursday’s PIAA Class AA baseball quarterfinal at Central Columbia’s Don Engle Memorial Field.
District 4 champ Loyalsock plays District 12 champ Neumann-Goretti in the semifinals Monday as the Lancers go for a third straight trip to the state final.
“They’re not back-to-back state champs because they’re lucky,” Buffington said. “They’re good.”
Just four pitches in, the Lancers proved it.
Kyle Datres smashed a leadoff home run over the left-field fence to give Loyalsock (23-2) the early lead. Hunter Webb’s double two batters later set up Evan Moore’s RBI groundout, while pitcher Luke Glavin’s run-scoring single spotted the Lancers a 3-0 lead.
“It was nice to jump on them early because we just didn’t manufacture runs like we normally do today,” Loyalsock coach Jeremy Eck said. “I don’t know if we sat on that lead early, but we put up three, then scored a couple more in the other innings. I’ll take it.
“Offensively, I thought we could’ve had a little better approach at the plate,” Eck added. “We had some bad (at-bats) in certain key situations. But I’m happy to put seven on the board.”
Schuylkill Haven starter Ethan Conage settled down after the first, allowing two earned runs and striking out four over the next four innings.
Andrew Malone hit an RBI single in the third to increase Loyalsock’s lead to 4-0. Datres doubled to lead off the fourth, stole third and scored on Jimmy Webb’s single. The Lancers added another run on a two-out error to make it 5-0.
It was more than enough run support for Glavin. Falling to a two-strike count was a death sentence to anyone facing the Duke-bound right-hander, who mixed in a knee-buckling curveball with incredible precision.
“A couple kids made comments as they came off that it was a pretty good curveball,” Buffington said. “We could hit his fastball, but when he mixed that in there, he really, really had us off-balance.”
Glavin scattered four hits and struck out seven. His exit after the fourth inning in favor of Malone, a lefty, was scheduled before the game.
The only real jam Glavin got into was during the fourth, when Nick Behm and Blayne Moyer singled and Brad Fryer was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two outs. But Glavin got his final strikeout to strand all three Hurricane runners.
A senior, Glavin was unable to pitch most of last season because of blood clots. But he — and his curve — has been a critical piece to the Lancer’s postseason run.
“He’s come up huge for us here toward the end of the playoffs,” Eck said. “Next year, playing ACC baseball, he’s going to need that (curveball) at the next level, and he did a good job spotting that up today.”
Malone surrendered the Hurricanes’ only run in the fifth inning. Ryan Fink launched a two-out double to the left-center fence and scored on Noah Saul’s single in the next at-bat. Blayne Moyer led off the sixth with a double, but was erased by a 6-3-5 double play.
Haven (21-4) put two runners in scoring position in the seventh with Datres on the mound, but couldn’t get the timely hit.
“We are proud of the kids, the way they battled back and just hung in there,” Buffington said. “We just were not able to bunch the hits. We had guys on, had base hits. We couldn’t bunch them together.
“Give (Loyalsock) a lot of credit. It took a real good team to beat a good team.”
Moyer finished 2-for-3 for the Hurricanes, who had six other batters with one hit.
The loss brought an end to a second straight 20-win season for Schuylkill Haven. This year’s senior class won back-to-back District 11 championships this season and last, and reached the district quarterfinals in both 2012 and ’13.
“When you put together, at our level, back-to-back 20-plus-win seasons, it’s a credit to these kids who played a lot of baseball for us,” Buffington said. “We’ll definitely miss (the seniors), their personalities, their maturity, their contributions, their leadership, you could go on and on and on and on.
“The seniors set the bar pretty high for these guys who are coming after. They have a lot of work to do to uphold what these guys have done.”
Game Summary
PIAA Class AA Quarterfinal
At Central Columbia High School
LOYALSOCK (7) — Datres ss-p 2 3 2 1, J. Webb cf 2 1 1 2, Baggett 3b 4 1 0 0, H. Webb lf 3 2 2 0, Moore c 4 0 0 1, Reamore cr 0 0 0 0, Glavin p-1b 4 0 1 1, Young cr 0 0 0 0, Malone 1b-p 3 0 1 1, Krizan ss 0 0 0 0, Vanstavoren rf 4 0 1 0, Balawajder 2b 3 0 0 0. Totals 29 7 8 6.
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN (1) — Webb cf 4 0 1 0, Blugis c-p 3 0 1 0, Fink 2b 4 1 1 0, Saul lf-c 4 0 1 1, Conage p 0 0 0 0, Schaeffer p 0 0 0 0, Br. Moyer lf 0 0 0 0, Behm dh 3 0 1 0, Handling pr 0 0 0 0, Bl. Moyer 3b 3 0 2 0, Ulsh ss 3 0 0 0, Fryer 1b 2 0 1 0, Browne rf 2 0 0 0. Totals 28 1 8 1.
Loyalsock (23-2) 301 201 0 — 7
Sch. Haven (21-4) 000 010 0 — 1
E — Loyalsock 0, Schuylkill Haven 1. DP — Loyalsock 1. LOB — Loyalsock 7, Schuylkill Haven 9. 2B — Datres, H. Webb, Fink, Bl. Moyer. HR — Datres. SB — Datres, J. Webb, H. Webb, Fink. SF — J. Webb.
Loyalsock IP H R ER BB K
Glavin W 4 4 0 0 1 7
Malone 2 3 1 1 0 3
Datres 1 1 0 0 1 1
Sch. Haven IP H R ER BB K
Conage L,7-2 5 7 6 5 3 4
Schaeffer 1 1 1 1 1 1
Blugis 1 0 0 0 0 0
HBP — by Glavin (Fryer), by Conage (J. Webb). WP — Glavin, Schaeffer. T — 2:00.