Shover will return for a 10th year

Speaking with veteran Camp Hill coach Brad Shover on Wednesday night for the forthcoming All-Sentinel Baseball Coach of the Year story, the conversation turned toward the future.

With the bulk of his team already graduated, the question was whether Shover would tuck his two state titles in his back pocket and ride off into the sunset -- the Lions beat Serra Catholic, 7-4, June 12 at Blair County Ballpark in Altoona to become only the fifth team in the 32-year history of the PIAA baseball playoffs to go back-to-back. Camp Hill beat Carmichaels, 2-0, in 2008.

"To be honest, at the beginning of the season I thought this might be my last year," Shover said moments after his team joined him at the Doubleday Farm in Elliottsburg to celebrate their most recent title together. "By the time the year was over, there was no question I wanted to coach.

"We're going to be young and make mistakes (next year) but we have a lot of talent coming through the system."

In nine full years guiding the state power, Shover compiled a record of 135-74 (.645 winning percentage) and led the Lions into the PIAA playoffs five times.

Camp Hill boasts two District 3 titles (2002 and 09) and two state titles (2008 and 09) under Shover. In his first year, Camp Hill fell to DuBois Central Catholic, 8-7, in the 2001 state final.

Shover was also The Sentinel's Coach of the Year in 2002. Only Mike Whitehead Jr. of Cumberland Valley, who owns three, has more Coach of the Year honors than Shover.

Kuntz the talk of the town

Among those preparing for the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association East-West All-Star game at Mansion Park on Friday are two record-setting running backs.

Jeremiah Young of Steelton-Highspire holds the career rushing record among Pennsylvania backs while Schuylkill Haven's Zach Barkett set the single-season record last year.

Despite those names and achievements, the player commanding the most attention this week in Altoona is Trinity running back Christian Kuntz.

One of the reasons has to be that Kuntz will suit up at wide receiver this fall for Penn State University. If you've ever been to Blair County, it's all Penn State all the time.

Earlier this week, the Altoona Mirror ran a feature story on Kuntz and Wednesday night, local television station WTAJ in Altoona aired a 63-second feature on Kuntz.

Friday night at 6 p.m., Kuntz will step on a football field in a game situation for the first time since suffering a season-ending knee injury Oct. 11 at Middletown.

Problems and respect at CWS

Let's take a break from high school sports for a moment and pay tribute to the NCAA Division I College World Series.

This event has blown up recently and while we love the fact that ESPN televises all of the games, the network has made two changes we don't care for. First off, the CWS now begins on a Saturday instead of a Friday. We can live with that but the second is the worst of the two.

There is no longer an 'Elimination Day' at Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium. Until last year, each Tuesday four teams in the losers' bracket took the field in a do-or-die day. Unfortunately, they've split these two elimination games over two days. We miss the drama of an elimination doubleheader.

Speaking of elimination games, that Arkansas-Virginia matchup was insane. If nothing else, Virginia has earned our respect. An SEC snob, yours truly isn't one to give props to any team outside of the conference, but what the Cavaliers did this postseason was amazing.

First, Virginia won the 'Regional of Death' by beating San Diego State and eventual No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg. From there, the Cavs beat No. 1 UC Irvine twice on the Ant Eaters' home field to reach the Super Regionals against SEC co-champion Mississippi.

In Oxford, the Cavs rallied after losing the first game in extra innings to win the next two and reach Omaha. To start things off, Virginia took the other SEC co-champion, LSU, to the brink before falling, 9-5. Then, in an elimination game Tuesday, Arkansas took advantage of a lack of clutch hitting from Virginia to win, 4-3, in 12 innings and send the Cavs back to Charlottesville.

There won't be a national title this year but here's our respect, Virginia. You've earned it.

Serra Catholic awaits Camp Hill

It's not Carmichaels but it's close.

Serra Catholic, the District 7 champion with a 22-2 record, will face Camp Hill on Friday at 10:30 a.m. in the PIAA Class A final at Blair County Ballpark in Altoona.

The Eagles beat Carmichaels, 7-1, in the WPIAL final and beat Bishop McCort, which eliminated Carmichaels in the opening round, 5-4 Monday to punch their ticket.

The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat tells the story of Serra's dramatic victory.

(Pictured: Chris Miller (left) celebrates with Oliver Girman after beating Carmichaels for the WPIAL Class A title on May 29. Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Historical look at Old Forge

We're not even six hours removed from Camp Hill's thrilling 2-0, eight-inning win over Williams Valley in the PIAA Class A quarterfinals yet it's time to check out the next foe: Old Forge.

While we haven't tracked down a ton of information of the District 2 champion Blue Devils, we've located a few nuggets for you to digest.

First of all, Old Forge (11-8) is the three-time defending District 2 Class A champions. While the Blue Devils have enjoyed a nice run in the district, the next level has been unkind to boys from just south of Scranton.

Old Forge will enter Monday's showdown against the Lions with a 1-1 record against District 3 champions during their record three-year stretch of PIAA playoff appearances.

In 2007 the Blue Devils knocked off 3-A winner Holy Name, 8-2, before bowing to eventual state champion Minersville, 4-3, in the semifinals. Last year Holy Name, just days after dispatching Camp Hill for district gold, slid past Old Forge, 6-4.

There's only been one baseball champion from District 2 and that disctinction belongs to none other than Old Forge. It was in 1992 that the Blue Devils claimed the PIAA Class AA crown with a 12-2, six-inning pasting of Ridgway.

The only team from District 2 to have appeared in a state final since was Elk Lake in 2003. In that Class A final, Bellwood-Antis took home a 2-1 victory.

Crimson Crushers live on the edge

We all vividly recall that Cumberland Valley baseball team from 2007. Remember? The one that survived wild extra-inning games with Governor Mifflin and Wyoming Valley West to eventually reach the PIAA Class AAAA semifinals.

Well, there's a team out in Johnstown that is winning in much the same fashion as those let's-give-everyone-one-heck-of-a-show Eagles.

Convential wisdom says Bishop McCort, the District 6-A champion, should not be preparing for a PIAA Class A quarterfinal game tomorrow against District 7 third-place finisher Neshannock at the Burkett Complex in Robinson Twp. outside of Pittsburgh.

In the district final against Homer Center on Friday, the Wildcats loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth before Bishop McCort (19-4) wiggled out of the jam to gain the district's top spot in the PIAA field and avoid District 7 winner Serra Catholic (21-2), which ripped Homer Center, 7-1.

Still the Crushers had a date with District 7 runner-up Carmichaels (18-4), the team that lost to Camp Hill in last year's state final.

In that first-round game, Bishop McCort committed seven errors, stranded 15 runners and fell behind in the eighth inning. After tying it at 5-5 to force a ninth inning, Matt Kastelic knocked in his brother, Mike, with a single to win the game and keep the dream season alive.

“We made enough mistakes, like I told the kids, to choke a horse,” Crushers coach Denny Altimore to the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat. “To beat a quality team like that, in spite of all of those mistakes, maybe that says something about our team.”

Overall, the Class A field provided the most fireworks from the first round. Old Forge worked eight innings to beat Sayre, 10-9, and Berks Christian survived a late-inning rally from Northern Bedford to win, 3-2.

The bottom half of the bracket saw Clarion dispatch Villa Maria, 11-9, in 11 innings. That game lasted over three hours while Neshannock and Coudersport combined for 34 runs in the former's 22-12 victory.

District 3 big schools go splat

Monday was very unkind to big-school baseball teams in District 3.

Chambersburg, Central Dauphin and Warwick were all sent packing in Class AAAA while Manheim Central, Palmyra and Donegal got the boot in AAA. Twin Valley, the 3-AAA, is the lone survivor of the seven to qualify.

What's strange is that the small schools in the district, which are few and far between, all flexed their muscles in the PIAA opening round.

In Class AA, District 3 champion Brandywine Heights bombed District 12 runner-up Nueva Esperanza, 17-2, in three innings while runner-up Tulpehocken took it to District 12 champion Kennedy Kenrick, 8-1.

In Class A, reigning PIAA champion and District 3 winner Camp Hill downed District 12 winner (see a pattern?) GAMP, 6-0, while the magical story of Berks Christian continued with a 3-2 win over District 5 winner Northern Bedford.

As for that pattern, we wonder why in the world District 12 is alloted so many bids in the small school ranks. We're fine with two bids in both AAAA and AAA but two in AA? This was the first year for two bids to 12-AA and it makes numerical sense due to the Philadelphia Catholic League joining the ranks this year.

But history warned against another bid in Class AA. GAMP participated in the AA field in 2005 and 06 and lost both games. In 07 it was Prep Charter, which fell to Pine Grove, 8-0. Last year it was much the same as Prep Charter fell to Pine Grove, 11-0, in five innings.

We simply think that extra bid could be better used elsewhere.