Penns Valley baseball loses to Central in District 6 Class 3A championship
Penns Valley began its season with a number of new goals in mind.
One of which was to continue marching toward a District 6 Class 3A championship victory with new head coach Rich Sweitzer.
On Saturday, the Rams got close by making an appearance in the district championship, but they couldn’t get over the hump of a 22-0 Central team, losing 7-1.
Sweitzer watched his team jump back from an 0-5 start to the season and watched his team finish 10-12. While Saturday’s game wasn’t emblematic of their fortitude for much of the year, he was pleased with their ability to fight back throughout.
“Obviously, we’re a little disappointed,” Sweitzer said. “You expect to come in and play a little better than that. Central is a good ball team, but we’re also better than what you saw. We had a rough inning there — kicked the ball around a little bit.”
At the forefront of his team’s resurgence were pitchers Ty Houtz and McClain Welshans.
Houtz received the start in Saturday’s game, pitching 5.2 innings, allowing seven runs and striking out four batters. He took the loss for the Rams and reflected on their 2022 season.
“We started off rough, but I believed in my teammates,” Houtz said. “When I go out and pitch, I trust everyone behind me and after we started to string things together, I knew we were going to get here.”
Devon Boyles got the win for Central, pitching three innings, allowing three hits and one run while striking out three. Tyler Helsel threw four innings in relief out of the bullpen.
Welshans led the team in hits by going 2 for 4 from the plate at the district championship, while also scoring a run. With his last opportunity to play in a Penns Valley uniform, he looked to make the most of it.
“It’s amazing to get here, but it’s a rough start,” Welshans said. “I just think with the little errors, we had to work together and just take a deep breath because we were stressed in this big moment. This was big for us.”
Central got off to a strong start with Jonah Snowberger singling to score Ty Heisel in the second inning. Penns Valley was able to notch one run in the third inning when Houtz drilled a two-out single to score Welshans to trail 2-1.
The Dragons continued to breathe fire onto the Rams with a 1-2-3 inning defensively in the top of the fourth. Parker Gregg drove in Griffin Snowberger to give Central 3-1 advantage, and then Hunter Smith scored Devon Boyles for the 4-1 lead at the end of four innings.
Central put the icing on their championship cake when Jonah Snowberger singled to score three runners. Jonah Snowberger advanced on an error to second and the Dragons took a 7-1 lead, where the score would remain for the rest of the game.
Penns Valley will play in the PIAA Class 3A playoffs and await their opponents.
