‘We’ll remember this for years’: Bald Eagle Area baseball celebrates 2nd straight state title
Thursday might’ve been the last game together for many of Bald Eagle Area’s baseball players — but they wouldn’t have wanted to end it any differently.
The Eagles claimed their second straight PIAA Class 2A Baseball Championship with an 11-3 win Thursday over District 11’s Tri-Valley at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The victory ended a pressure-filled season defined by high expectations and little room for error.
And, with the final out, BEA (25-2) erupted in both celebration and relief.
Most infielders tossed their hats and gloves in the air like graduation night. Outfielders, with their arms raised in triumph, sprinted to the infield — where the Eagles’ entire dugout and slate of starters dogpiled atop one another. Off to the side, the coaches embraced and high-fived.
They smiled. They hugged. They patted each other on the back. They even dumped Gatorade on fired-up coach Jim Gardner, who saw his players coming but was resigned to his fate.
“I’m not going to run away from that, and I don’t mind that one bit,” Gardner said with a laugh. “I’ll take it twice more today. I love it.”
Last season, Bald Eagle Area cruised past Mount Union 11-0 (5 inn.) to win the state championship. So, this season, the Eagles were widely regarded as the favorite to repeat. Even leading into Thursday, MaxPreps — a division of CBS Sports — ranked BEA as Pennsylvania’s top high school baseball team, regardless of classification.
It was impossible to hide from that pressure. But the Eagles embraced it, and they couldn’t stop smiling afterward — especially after turning a 1-1 game in the fourth inning into an eventual 11-3 win.
“Not everyone even gets to win one, so for us to come back this year and double up on it — and win it back-to-back — that’s just unheard of,” said third baseman Carson Nagle, who finished with two hits, two runs and an RBI. “We’ve been together our whole lives and we’re so close as a group. It almost brings you to tears because it’s such a great group.”
Added winning pitcher Weston McClain: “I’m not really an emotional person, but this really made me emotional. ... It means a lot to our school, to our parents, to our friends, to the whole district. We’ll remember this for years.”
The Eagles’ postgame award ceremony and the smiles from each player, as gold medals were draped around their necks, proved to be memorable. But, for at least a few innings, it looked as if the Eagles had met their match.
The Tri-Valley Bulldogs (21-5), which scored in the double-digits in four of their previous five games, boasted a hard-throwing lefty who could toss in the mid- to high-80s. After opening the game with back-to-back hits and a run, BEA managed just one more hit through the fourth inning.
Nagle acknowledged some players had jitters. And Gardner admitted he had some concerns about going up against the southpaw. But those were all put to rest in the top of the fifth inning, with the score tied at 1-1.
Tri-Valley pitcher Caden Leonard walked the first batter on four straight pitches and hit the next batter. BEA left fielder Gavin Burns then intended to bunt over the two runners — but after a double-steal and a 3-0 count, that strategy changed. Burns knew Leonard needed to come back with a fastball in the zone, so he waited on it.
Two pitches later, Burns connected for a bloop single to left field — one just out of reach from the outfielder, who tripped while attempting to field the ball. Burns drove in two runs on that play, the second of which was unearned. That put BEA up 3-1.
“It was probably the most important hit of the game,” McClain said. “It started momentum, and we just went from there.”
Said Burns: “I had a good feeling it was going to drop.”
The blue-and-gold section of the crowd, at least several hundred strong, stood up and applauded while shouting encouragement at the Eagles. But BEA wasn’t done yet. Burns scored after a wild pitch and passed ball — and a Nagle triple, Kaden Burns passed ball and McClain double helped seal the frame with a commanding 6-1 lead. (Leonard was pulled after allowing the triple.)
The Eagles followed that up with a four-run sixth inning to take a 10-1 lead. The closest Tri-Valley came to threatening was the bottom of that sixth, when McClain allowed two runs before facing a two-out, bases loaded situation — where he escaped the jam with a popout to the first baseman.
“All our kids have ice in their veins,” Gardner added.
McClain reached the pitch limit with just one out left in the game. He hugged his teammates before retreating to the dugout, where closer Brayden Dubbs promptly forced a popout — which he caught — to end the game.
McClain scattered eight hits to complement his five strikeouts and two walks. Kahale Burns and Gavin Burns led the Eagles with three hits apiece — Kahale had four runs; Gavin had four RBIs — while Nagle and McClain each added a pair of hits.
Bald Eagle Area now has three state baseball championships in its trophy case — from 2007, 2023 and 2024. And Gardner said the Eagles won’t soon forget this group, which ended the season on an 18-game win streak.
“This senior class is absolutely amazing,” Gardner said. “They’re going to be extremely hard to replace; the school’s going to miss them greatly. But you get used to winning and a winning tradition — and we have spots to fill — but this is only going to help us for the future.”
BEA will lose about two-thirds of its starting lineup to graduation, so a three-peat next season won’t come easy. Then again, state championships rarely do.
Still, Thursday’s win set a new kind of tone for the program. And if the Eagles didn’t back down from pressure in 2024, one Eagles junior implied it wouldn’t in 2025 either.
“Looking ahead, we don’t want anything other than this,” Nagle said. “When you’re at the top, you don’t want to go back. ... We’re not going to accept anything other than this.”
