PIAA Class 5A Baseball: Shaler’s rally, extra-inning walk-off leaves Strath Haven ‘haunted’

STATE COLLEGE — The five-run lead had vanished, the score was tied and Strath Haven coach Brian Fili didn’t hesitate to call on Sam Milligan to pitch the seventh inning of the PIAA Class 5A championship game Thursday.

The Panthers would win or lose with their captain and star on the hill. It didn’t matter that Milligan was the team’s final option and hadn’t pitched yet in the postseason.

He is Sam Milligan, the Bucknell-bound football player and three-sport high school athlete, whom Fili graciously called one of the best young men ever to walk the halls at Strath Haven.

Milligan struck out Shaler’s Division I-bound jewel, Miguel Hugas, who had clobbered two homers, including a rally starter in the sixth inning with his team down five runs. Milligan attacked the Alabama commit and got him swinging in the seventh.

“The faith Coach Fili showed in me is something that he showed in everyone all year,” Milligan said. “And that’s why everybody on this team will tell you that they love Coach Fili and that he’s the best coach they’ve ever had.”

The high that came with striking out a massive threat didn’t last long for Milligan and the Panthers. In the bottom of the eighth, Shaler’s Connor Hamrick hit a single through the middle to knock in winning run, lifting the Titans to a 9-8 win at Penn State University’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

“It stinks,” Milligan said. “Everybody gave it everything they had and we just came up short. We talked about it out there (after the game), this has been the greatest experience of my life. From top to bottom, everybody played a big part in this season.”

Strath Haven was vying to become only the second Delaware County team to win a PIAA baseball championship. This season, the Panthers captured their second District 1 title in three years before winning the first state tournament game in program history. In its three state tourney wins, Strath Haven outscored the opposition, 26-3.

The Central League champion again got right to work with the bats in the first inning off Shaler starter Derek Leas. Alex Pak (4-for-5, four RBIs) had the first of his two RBI triples to give Haven a 1-0 lead. Jake McDonough singled home Pak, and Zane Malarkey added a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.

The Shaler lineup, which hit four home runs in its 9-3 win over Bonner & Prendergast in the semifinals, responded with three runs in the bottom of the first off sophomore Luke D’Anonca. Hugas smashed the first of his two solo home runs.

D’Ancona needed 34 pitches to make it out of the frame, but he did his job the rest of the way. He ground his way out 4.2 innings, allowing three runs on six hits and striking out six. He escaped bases-loaded jams in the second and third innings. D’Ancona reached his 105-pitch limit and was replaced on the mound by shortstop Zane Malarkey.

“The home run and throwing a lot of pitches in the first inning kind of hurt, but I left it all on the field for my team,” D’Ancona said. “I wish I could’ve given more because these senior deserve it. It’s unfortunate the way it turned out.”

Pak tripled home Ben Milligan in the second inning to put Haven back in front, 4-3. The Panthers tacked on three runs in the third to take a 7-3 lead. Haven’s went up by five in the fifth when Pak singled home Ben Milligan.

Hugas hit his second dinger with one out in the sixth. That seemed to energize the Shaler bench and crowd. As he trotted around third, he cupped his ear at a jeering Strath Haven student section, egging them on. At the time, Shaler trailed 8-4.

Malarkey hit the next batter and issued back-to-back walks. Hamrick drove in two runs with a single and was followed by Brady Alexander, who delivered the backbreaking two-run triple to tie the game. Malarkey retired the next two hitters to strand Alexander at third.

“That lineup is really good,” Fili said. “We felt good turning the ball over to Zane. That was the plan and it was the plan all year. This is a tough atmosphere. We let him ride a little bit, we were going to let him be the guy. They got the big triple, and then Zane got the next couple of guys out.

“It’s tough to take. That bottom of the sixth is going to haunt me for a long time.”

Haven was retired in order in the seventh, and Sam Milligan navigated around Hugas in the bottom half to extend the game to extras.

In the top of the eighth, Shaler brought Leas back into pitch after Colby Weber tossed five innings of relief. Pak led off with a single but was caught stealing second. That ended the Panthers’ hopes of taking the lead again, and Hamrick brought their state title hopes to an end in heartbreaking fashion.

“I took a good hard look when the guys were getting their medals after the game. I didn’t want to dwell on anything that happened in the game … because this team owes me nothing,” Fili said. “They gave me 100 percent, everything that they possibly could do. We were in the state finals and we lost 9-8 in extra innings.

“I told them I loved them all, told the seniors thank you and for the underclassmen obviously the goal is to try to get back here. I’m proud of them all.”