Central handles Penn Cambria's hot start to prevail in District 6 Class 3A baseball playoffs

MARTINSBURG, Pa. – Boasting a lineup that scored double-digit runs in six of its 19 regular season games, Penn Cambria always had a puncher’s chance to do something in the District 6 Class 3A high school baseball playoffs.

As they say, though, in prizefighting parlance, a good boxer will usually beat a good puncher, and Central’s program is probably as meticulous as any in this part of the state.

The seventh-seeded Panthers stunned their hosts under cloudy skies and intermittent drizzle Friday afternoon with five runs over the first two innings. Eventually, though, the fuel was exhausted and Central’s relentless pressure wore down Penn Cambria in a 15-6 Scarlet Dragons victory.

“We came out firing. Stuff happens. We had a couple of mistakes,” said Panthers junior outfielder Derek Hite, who went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI. “It’s playoffs. You lose, you’re done, so we said, ‘Hey, play with everything you’ve got.’ ”

Penn Cambria’s Preston Farabaugh also had two hits, including a double. His ground single with one out in the second highlighted a four-run inning for Penn Cambria and gave his team a short-lived one-run lead.

Central, however, answered the bell with a run in the bottom of the frame to tie it, and then three more in the third and five in the fourth.

Penn Cambria buckled down and never let the 10-run rule come into play, Kyle Conrad drove in Hite on a single in the fifth, but the Panthers just couldn’t muster enough offense after the fast start to really challenge for the upset.

“I was proud of us for just coming out ready to play,” Farabaugh said. “We could have easily said, ‘They’re the two seed. We’re the seven’ and just came in and gave up, but we didn’t,” Farabaugh said. “We scored one in the first and four in the second. We were right in that game.”

Penn Cambria closed the year at 8-12.

“Other than defense, I thought we really came out to play,” said Penn Cambria coach Jim Ronan, whose team committed four errors which resulted in a couple of unearned runs and also issued nine walks while hitting two batters. “You just can’t give these guys any extra outs. That’s just why they’re such a championship-pedigree team year in and year out.”

Central just had beaten Penn Cambria 10-0 two weeks ago, but Scarlet Dragons coach A.J. Hoenstine still respected the danger the Panthers represented.

“I talked to the kids all week (leading up to the game) that they’re an athletic team and we’ve got to play fundamentally-sound baseball because they’re athletes,” Hoenstine said. “You saw how they started. Fortunately, we were able to put some good ABs together. They’re a scary team, for sure, and well-coached.”

Hoenstine’s squad received a welcome – and much-needed – boost from the bottom half of the order. The five through nine spots accounted for nine of the Scarlet Dragons’ final 10 runs after the score was knotted at 5-all. The five slots accounted for eight of Central’s 13 hits and knocked in eight runs.

The bottom two hitters were particularly damaging to Penn Cambria’s upset bid. No. 8 hitter Wyatt Dilling was 3-for-4 with a double, two runs and three RBIs, while Mason Byler, who also pitched the final three frames, was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two more knocked in.

“The last two games, we had a little bit of a slump, but especially at the Curve (Classic), the bottom of the lineup really picked it up,” Dilling said. “I’m glad to see we’re back. We all realize that we have to step up like that to win. We have to play like that to win.”

“They’re definitely a tough team,” Farabaugh said. “They put together a lot of tough ABs. They stick around. They’re hard to strike out. They put the ball in play. They put the ball in our court to make us make mistakes. In high school baseball, that’s what wins you games.”

“Their entire team is so productive,” Ronan said. “Those six, seven, eight, nine guys always find a way to come up with the big hits.”

Easton Semelsberger and Mason Mento also had hits and RBIs for the Panthers. Mento doubled in the second inning to plate a hard-charging Farabaugh with the then go-ahead run.

It was kind of an apropos conclusion of the Panthers’ season in that sense. Penn Cambria was very close to its first winning season since 2018, but three losses by two runs or fewer, another by three and another four left it at 8-12 for the third season in a row.

Farabaugh thought the details created some important distinctions.

“There were games that we were up and lost the lead, games that we couldn’t finish it off,” Farabaugh said. “People will say we didn’t do very well this year, but we all know we’re a different team than our record shows. I think that we’re going to come back even better for next year.”