Now that they’ve won WPIAL championships, it’s on to the PIAA playoffs for baseball teams from Hopewell and Riverside.
Both the Vikings and Panthers begin their quest for state titles on Monday.
While both teams played exceptionally well in the WPIAL playoffs – Hopewell won the Class 4A crown while Riverside won in 3A — they will have to play even better if they want to bring home state titles.
Since 1977, when the PIAA first staged a championship tournament for baseball, through 2022, teams from the Beaver County area won 31 WPIAL titles. But only nine times have local teams won a state title.
Riverside, led by the ageless wonder Dan Oliastro, who’s 79 and in his 55th season as coach of the Panthers, has won four state titles. No other WPIAL team has won as many.
In fact, the Panthers are a perfect 4-0 in state finals.
Meanwhile, Moon has won two state titles while Hopewell, Center and Ellwood City have each won one.
Those nine state championships by local teams were made possible thanks to some of the most clutch performances by players in Beaver County area history.
Following are capsule looks at those nine state titles.
1986: Hopewell 2, Montoursville 0
(Fairchild Field, Shippensburg University)
The Vikings (23-5) came up short in the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs by losing in the semifinals. But they earned a spot in the state tournament by winning the third-place consolation game. In the PIAA playoffs, Hopewell took advantage of its opportunity. It was the first sports team at Hopewell to ever win a state title and the first Beaver County area baseball team to do so.
With pitchers Don Morris and Keith Flinchum leading the way, Hopewell won four games in the state tournament.
Morris, a two-way left-hander who also led the team in hitting, was named Most Valuable Player in section games. He finished the season with a 9-3 pitching record. But in the state championship game, it was Flinchum, a senior right-hander, who pitched a 3-hit shutout over Montoursville, the defending state champs.
Flinchum only had a 4-3 record during the regular season but went 5-0 in the WPIAL and PIAA playoffs.
“I will never forget this experience,” Hopewell coach Joe Colella said. “I will relish this for the rest of my life.”
1990: Center 9, Montoursville 6
(Fairchild Field, Shippensburg University
In 1989, Center won the WPIAL championship but lost to Bellwood-Antis in the state semifinals, 4-3. But a year later when the Trojans repeated as WPIAL champs, they became the second Beaver County team to win a state title. They won 23 straight games after a season-opening loss to Hopewell.
“What brought us here got us the gold – hitting,” Center coach Ossie Signore said.
In the state final, Center was actually out-hit by Montoursville, 12-to-10. But the Trojans got those 10 hits at just the right times.
Senior catcher Scott Morrison, who hit .625 as a junior and .500 as senior, had an RBI single in a 2-run first inning. Then in the fifth when the Trojans scored five runs, Morrison delivered the exclamation point of Center’s first state title by blasting a two-run home run that made the score 9-3. It was Morrison’s eighth HR of the season.
That 9-3 lead was more than enough support for winning pitcher Sean Carroll, who finished the season with a 12-1 record.
2001: Moon 2, Central Dauphin 0
(Bowman Field, Williamsport)
Brian Holliday, a junior left-hander, pitched one of the best games in PIAA baseball championship history. He allowed only two hits, struck out 11 and did not walk a batter.
Thanks to a double play the Tigers (21-4) turned in the third inning, Holliday faced only 28 batters, only one over the minimum for a seven-inning game. Against Holliday, Central Dauphin only hit five balls out of the infield.
Holliday was the first pitcher to throw a shutout in the Class 3A championship since 1985 when Bethel Park beat Montoursville, 5-0. The only other shutout in 3A before that came in 1977 when Hatboro-Horsham defeated Penn Hills, 4-0.
Holliday’s shutout against Central Dauphin was his second straight in the state tournament. In the semifinals, he blanked Altoona, 2-0.
“My goal has been to take my game to another level, like everyone does in the playoffs,” said Holliday, who finished the season with an 8-2 record.
2002: Moon 3, Liberty 2
(Bowman Field, Williamsport)
Four days after rain postponed the state championship games, Moon became the first 3A team to repeat as state champs. The Tigers (20-6) accomplished that feat even though they lost in the semifinals of the WPIAL playoffs. They entered the state tournament as the WPIAL’s No. 4 seed but still went on to win back-to-back state titles.
To do so, the Tigers relied on the arms of pitchers Derek Blyzwick and Holliday.
Blyzwick (9-2), a senior right-hander, allowed two runs (one was unearned) in six innings before he was relieved by Holliday in the seventh.
Holliday, who was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 12 round of the Major League a week after the state final, allowed a leadoff walk in the top of the seventh. But he got the last three outs on a pop up, strike out and another pop up.
Kevin Lovely went 3-for-4 for the Tigers while Ryan Rinaldi’s solo homer in the sixth inning gave Moon a 3-0 lead.
“The kids are so resilient,” Moon coach Tom Hoffman said. “No matter what happens, they are going to fight, fight, fight until we come out on top. They just don’t want to lose.”
Ironically, when Moon won their back-to-back state titles, they didn’t win a WPIAL championship either year.
2003: Ellwood City 3, Tamaqua 1
(RiverSide Stadium, Harrisburg)
Kevin Ricciuti sealed his legacy as one of the WPIAL’s successful pitchers in WPIAL history in the Class 2A state finals.
A lean and lanky 6-foot-3 right-hander, he finished his career with a 31-3 record. It was his 31st victory that has arguably gone down as the greatest pitching in Ellwood City history.
Despite being hit by line drives on his left hand in the first inning and on his right shin in the sixth, Ricciuti pitched a five-hitter in leading the Wolverines (21-6) to the state Class 2A title. The only run he allowed against Tamaqua was unearned.
“He’s special, believe me,” Ellwood City Coach Jeff Fotia said of Ricciuti.
In the WPIAL and state playoffs, Ricciuti won eight games. Ricciuti, who went to play college baseball at Akron, was the winning pitcher in five of them — including the WPIAL final and EC’s final three in the state tournament.
Ricciuti won 31 games in high school even though he missed most of his junior season due to an arm injury.
With the Wolverines leading 3-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh, Tamaqua threatened. With two outs, the bases were loaded. But Ricciuti ended the game by getting the final out on a strikeout.
2005: Riverside 8, Halifax 0
(Blair County Ballpark, Altoona)
In his 38th year as coach of the Panthers, Oliastro got to experience the thrill of leading the Panthers to their first ever state title.
It was a history-setting win as Curtis Brown, a right-handed senior, pitched a no-hitter. It was the first time a pitcher from the WPIAL threw a no-hitter in the state championship game.
According to Joe Jurinko, Riverside’s catcher that day, Brown basically dominated Halifax with nothing but his fastball.
“When he was warming up, coach (Oliastro) and I were seeing that he just couldn’t break off his curveball,” Jurinko said. “But he was locating his fastball well, and coach decided he was going to throw the fastball until they hit it.”
Halifax could not hit it. Brown allowed only three base runners, all on walks.
Meanwhile, a potent Riverside offense that averaged nine runs per game in the regular season, gave Brown all the runs he needed.
Fittingly, Brown struck out the last four batters of the game to complete his no-hitter and clinch the championship for Riverside
2006: Riverside 7, Montoursville 4
(Blair County Ballpark, Altoona)
Riverside became only the second WPIAL team to win back-to-back state titles, and it had to do so with a late-inning rally.
Trailing 3-1 going into the bottom of the sixth, the Panthers scored six runs with the big hit coming from a designated hitter who hit ninth in the batting order. That would be Matt Nemec, who stepped to the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning with the bases loaded and the score tied 3-3.
With an 0-1 count, Nemec glanced toward the third-base coaching box where Oliastro gave him the sign for a suicide squeeze bunt. But Nemec failed to execute the squeeze. His bunt rolled foul along the first-base line. But two pitches later, he ripped a bases-clearing three-run double that gave Riverside a 6-3 lead.
The Panthers became just the fourth team in PIAA history to win back-to-back titles, and only the second from the WPIAL to do so. The other was Moon in 2001 and 2002.
One of the keys to Riverside’s win was the fact that Montoursville pitcher Ryan Miller had to leave the game after five innings. Because he had pitched nine innings in a 15-inning semifinal win, Miller was only allowed to pitch five innings in the championship game. He only allowed one run but after he left the mound, Riverside scored six runs.
The winning pitcher was Johnny Elms, who improved his record to 14-0.
By winning back-to-back state titles, the Panthers compiled a two-year record of 50-3.
2011: Riverside 5, Salisbury 2
(Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, State College)
Riverside set history by becoming the first WPIAL team to win three state baseball championships.
“I guess you can say we have good baseball players in Riverside,” said shortstop/relief pitcher Ryan Finnegan, whose three-run inside-the-park home run in the top of the fifth inning helped the Panthers overcome a 2-1 deficit.
Finnegan stepped to the plate with runners on first and second and two outs. He then hit a fly ball to deep center field that Salisbury’s Mike Miller seemed to be tracking the whole way. Miller caught the ball above his head, but when he brought his glove down, the ball squirted out into left-center field. Finnegan never stopped running and scored to make it 4-2.
“I thought he was going to catch it,” said Finnegan. “But as he kept drifting, I thought he would have more trouble with it. Once he dropped it, it was game over. As soon as I saw it shoot out, I knew I was going home.”
2012: Riverside 5, Pine Grove 4
(Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, State College)
Climbing out of an early three-run deficit, Riverside rallied with a four-run fourth inning and got a strong relief performance from Rob Hardy to fuel its historic win.
After throwing more than 100 pitches in the semifinals, Hardy, a senior, came on in relief of starter Blaise McCarty with two outs in the second inning. At that point, the Panthers trailed 3-0.
Although it wasn’t his cleanest out of the season – Hardy walked four and hit a batter – he pitched 5 and 1/3 innings and got big outs when he needed to.
Tyler Falk had the big hit in the fourth inning, a two-run triple to center field.
Not only did Riverside win its second straight title — matching the back-to-back championships the Panthers won in 2005-06 — it became the first and only school to win four PIAA titles.
“Coming into high school, I would have never imagined something like this,” Hardy said. “I watched those guys in ’05 and ’06 and dreamed of being here one day. It really is incredible.”