Riverside and Lake-Lehman knocked off higher-seeded teams in the semifinals to advance to the District 2 Class 3A baseball final Tuesday at PNC Field at 4 p.m.
The fourth-seeded Vikings (13-9) and third-seeded Black Knights (14-8) defeated the top two seeds in Friday’s semifinals.
Lake-Lehman is looking for its fourth straight title, all in Class 3A. The Black Knights won in 2019, then, after the year off for COVID, won again the past two seasons.
Riverside is playing in its third straight final. As a Class 2A team in the previous two-year cycle, the Vikings won the 2021 title, but lost to Holy Cross in last year’s championship game.
A recap of the first two rounds:
QUARTERFINALS
Lake-Lehman 5, Lakeland 0
Corey Bean fired a two-hit shutout May 23 to lead the way for Lake-Lehman.
Tyler Uram went the distance for Lakeland, holding the Black Knights to two runs until the bottom of the sixth and finishing with a four-hitter.
Chris Sholtis drove in two runs and Graedon Finarelli hit a solo home run for Lake-Lehman.
Holy Redeemer 13, Wyoming Seminary 2
Holy Redeemer scored six times in the bottom of the first on the way to the six-inning victory in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
Dino Dimauro and Colin Whitman each had two hits and two RBI for the Royals, who had nine players score runs. Dimauro was 2-for-3 with a double.
Cole Whitman had three RBI and Nick Mazzarella had two.
Riverside 9, Carbondale 2
Jimmy Decker went 3-for-4 with two doubles, four RBI and a run scored Wednesday to lead Riverside through the semifinals.
Nicholas Bohenek struck out six and combined with Connor McNally for a two-hitter.
Patrick Higgins tripled, drove in three runs and scored. Trevor Balcerzak homered and drove in two runs. Casey O’Brien was 2-for-2 with three runs scored.
The Vikings bounced back from losing three of their last four in the regular season after appearing to pick up momentum with a five-game winning streak.
Mid Valley 8, Dunmore 7
Mid Valley rallied with five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning then held off a seventh-inning Dunmore rally at the University of Scranton’s Volpe Field Wednesday.
Dunmore scored four times in the second for a 5-1 lead after 1½ innings. The Bucks took a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the sixth.
After Mid Valley claimed the lead, Dunmore scored a run and loaded the bases in the seventh.
Nick Mills was 2-for-3 with two doubles, two RBI and a run scored for Mid Valley.
Mills had plenty of help.
David Magliocchi was also 2-for-3 while adding a run and an RBI. Anthony Balashaitis was 2-for-3 with two runs. Chris Dryer and Doug Pua each had a hit and drove in two runs.
Bobby Hoban drove in three runs while Max Forgione, Jacob Grande, Dale Symons, Nico Ruggiero and Nico Buckley all had two hits for Dunmore. Grande drove in two runs while Forgione scored twice.
SEMIFINALS
Riverside 7, Holy Redeemer 6
Riverside rallied from a pair of three-run deficits to pull out Friday’s semifinal win at Holy Redeemer, breaking a four-game winning streak by the top-seeded Royals.
The Vikings scored a run in the top of the sixth, then three more in the seventh to emerge victorious.
Higgins doubled in two runs to tie the game, then scored the winner on a single up the middle by Decker.
Decker finished 3-for-3 and scored twice.
Chase Taddonio’s three-run homer erased an early 3-0 deficit.
O’Brien held Holy Redeemer to one earned run over the final 4 2/3 innings to get the win.
Luke Kopec singled, doubled and drove in two runs for the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 champion Royals.
Lake-Lehman 9, Mid Valley 2
Will Jenkins drove in two runs and Graedon Finarelli had an RBI double to lead Lake-Lehman to the victory over second-seeded Mid Valley at Volpe Field.
Lake-Lehman scored four times in the top of the first inning and remained in front by at least three runs the rest of the way. The Black Knights broke the game open with two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth.
Cole Kaiser held the Spartans to two runs over the first five innings to get the win.
Pua had three hits for Mid Valley.
