PIAA-5A: Archbishop Wood looking to stay on historic roll

Fresh off his team’s 7-0 victory over Manheim Central, Archbishop Wood’s Justin MacCain firmly believed the Vikings’ best baseball is still ahead of them.

“Honestly, our whole team has so much more potential,” he said. “There’s a lot more that we can do.”

Wood is in the state semifinals for the first time ever, thanks to its impressive shutout of the Barons in the PIAA-5A Quarterfinals at Muhlenberg High School on Thursday.

The Vikings will aim to stay on their historic roll when they take on Selinsgrove at Walter Stump Stadium in Pine Grove on Monday at 4 p.m.

No one typified Wood’s outstanding play on Thursday more than MacCain, who pitched six innings of shutout, no-hit ball.

“We talked about just pounding the mitt and working ahead. I’m just super proud of him. I really am,” said a smiling Jim DiGuiseppe, who has coached Wood to the state’s final four. “Our entire team…the defense we played behind him…We were no-hit (by Red Land) on this field last year in the quarterfinal and now we turn around and throw a no-hitter today in the quarterfinals. Talk about some sweetness there.”

The Vikings got it done in just about every way.

In addition to MacCain’s mastery, Wood took charge behind the powerful, timely swings of Dariel Tiburcio.

“You can’t say enough about Dariel,” DGuiseppe said. “He came up in some key situations today and did a great job of getting his barrel on the ball. And really came up big for us early in the game.”

Tiburcio’s three RBI helped build the 5-0 lead by the third. He was 3-for-3 and also scored a run, as the right fielder and his teammates excelled in the moment.

“Honestly, we’ve played loose all year,” DiGuiseppe said. “They’re just a pretty cool group. They’re fun to coach. They’re gamers. We talk about playing with a lot of energy and playing with excitement. And we certainly played inspired today.”

And just maybe, the best is yet to come.

“We finally got that monkey off our backs today,” DiGuiseppe said of reaching the semis. “But we’re not satisfied just yet. I can tell you that. We’re not satisfied just yet.”