Riverside’s Pat Higgins beats the throw to Lake-Lehman’s third baseman Will Jenkins in the fifth inning after an error that scored two runs.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Lehman’s title reign ends with loss to Riverside
Lake-Lehman center fielder Cole Kaiser follows through on a throw to third that the Riverside’s Connor McNally beat during the third inning .
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Lake-Lehman second baseman Jake Naugle field a grounder in the fifth inning.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Lake-Lehman’s Jake Naugle dives back to first on a pickoff attempt in the fifth inning against Riverside.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Lake-Lehman’s Jake Naugle looks to first base as Riverside shortstop Casey O’Brien throws in an attempt to get a double play in the fifth inning.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Riverside players celebrate their 8-5 win over Lake-Lehman in the District 2 Class 3A championship game.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
MOOSIC — Lake-Lehman’s bats awoke at the very latest time possible Tuesday.
Too late, though, to overcome the damage already created by Riverside.
Lehman scored five times with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but the Black Knights’ improbable comeback bid fell short as Riverside held on for an 8-5 win in the District 2 Class 3A baseball championship game at PNC Field.
Riverside (13-9) will advance to the PIAA Class 3A state playoffs on Monday and will play District 4 champion Hughesville (19-3) at a site and time to be determined. Besides third-seeded Lehman, the fourth-seeded Vikings also knocked off top-seeded Holy Redeemer.
“It is amazing,” Riverside coach Sean Higgins said. “We kind of switched the script from last year where we had a hot regular season and kind of faltered in the playoffs. The regular season ended and I just asked the kids, ‘This is a new season. Just give me two more weeks, two more weeks with everything you got,’ and they absolutely did.”
Lehman saw its three-season reign as D2-3A champion end. The Black Knights finished 14-9, but not without doing everything possible to extend their season in their last trip to the plate.
“Their pitcher (freshman starter Nick Bohenek), he threw a great game. He kept us off balance,” Lehman coach Mike Sholtis said. “It was a game of baseball. They got some of the breaks early. They got the hits that dropped. Their center fielder made a nice diving catch and Cole (Kaiser) lays out for one and it hits off the top of his glove.”
The game tilted Riverside’s way until Lehman was down to its last three outs.
Down 8-0, Corey Bean opened the bottom of the seventh with a single. Jake Naugle then walked, but Riverside reliever Casey O’Brien recorded a pair of strikeouts to put the Vikings’ within one out of their first district crown since 2002.
Make that one very elusive out.
Evan Kaiser walked to load the bases and Chris Sholtis then cleared them by slashing a double down the left-field line to cut the deficit to 8-3. No problem — or so it seemed — when Graedon Finarelli lifted a routine infield pop. It was dropped, giving the Black Knights a pulse.
Cole Kaiser then hit an RBI single and Sam Finarelli followed with an RBI double to score the fifth run. O’Brien got a strikeout to end the game with runners on second and third.
“That’s been all season for us,” Higgins said. “We have about six one-run losses so we’ve been making things interesting all year.”
Until the seventh, Lehman had four hits and only two runners reached second base. One was erased trying to steal third and the other was stranded.
Riverside missed a chance for a big inning in the first as it loaded the bases with no outs. The Vikings came away with one run. They made it 2-0 in the second on an RBI double by Pat Higgins and added two more in the third on an RBI single by Connor McNally and an errors.
Things unraveled for Lehman in the top of the fifth. Riverside had just a pair of singles, but two walks and an error which allowed to runs to score bumped the lead to 8-0. The Vikings finished with nine hits and also drew 11 walks. They stranded 14 runners.
District 2 Class 3A Championship
Riverside 8, Lake-Lehman 5
Riverside`AB`R`H`BI
O’Brien ss-p`3`2`1`0
Higgins 2b`2`1`2`1
Decker 1b`5`0`1`1
Balcerzak dh`3`0`0`1
Graff c`0`0`0`0
Bohenek p-lf`2`1`1`1
Taddonio rf-3b`5`1`1`0
McNally lf-rf`2`1`1`1
Hawkins ph`1`0`0`0
Day 3b-ss`2`0`0`0
Sosa cf`3`2`2`0
Totals`28`8`9`5
Lehman`AB`H`R`BI
E.Kaiser dh`3`1`0`0
T.Jones lf`0`0`0`0
J.Jones p`0`0`0`0
Sholtis rf`3`1`1`3
Evans pr`0`0`0`0
G.Finarelli c`4`1`0`0
C.Kaiser cf`4`0`3`1
S.Finarelli 1b`4`0`2`1
Bean p-3b`4`1`1`0
Naugle 2b`2`1`1`0
Jenkins 3b-ss`2`0`0`0
Bucholtz ph`1`0`0`0
Wallace ss-lf-p`2`0`0`0
Totals`29`5`8`5
Riverside`112`040`0 – 8
Lake-Lehman`000`000`5 – 5
2B – Higgins, Taddonio, Sholtis, S.Finarelli.
Riverside`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Bohenek (W)`5`3`0`0`3`3
O’Brien`2`5`5`3`2`5
Lehman `IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Bean (L)`4`6`5`4`6`5
J.Jones`0.1`2`3`1`1`0
Wallace`2.1`1`0`0`4`0
C.Kaiser`0.1`0`0`0`0`0
