On Deck: All-Sentinel Baseball

In the coming days, The Sentinel will release the 2008 All-Sentinel Baseball Team.

Camp Hill junior right-handed pitcher Matt Spiegel, master of the complete-game and owner of a two-hit shutout in the Class A state final, is the Player of the Year.

West Perry coach Jeff Sanno, who kept his team together through thick and thin, is the Coach of the Year after guiding the Mustangs to the District 3 Class AAA quarterfinals. It was the deepest run for a West Perry team since 1996 and came on the heels a tough-to-swallow three-game losing streak to end the season. The Mustangs were seeded 22nd and bounced Northern York and Northern Lebanon.

Later this summer, don't miss The Sentinel's Male and Female Athlete of the Year. The selections will be announced in July.

A ride to remember

It was a cold afternoon in March.

Not many people were around and the trees in the outfield were bare. The players sported long sleeves and sweat pants as they prepared for the 2008 baseball season.

That was the sight at the baseball field at College Park a few days before Camp Hill opened the season by drubbing Oley Valley, 10-1.

Less than three months later, the same players were still on the field but the trees were green, the weather was hot and numerous media members were milling about.

That was the sight two days before Camp Hill captured the PIAA Class A championship by squeezing by Carmichaels, 2-0, at Blair County Ballpark in Altoona.

In the middle there were losses -- eight of them, to be exact -- and a third-place finish in the Mid-Penn Capital, a division home to schools all larger than Camp Hill.

Eventually the Lions entered the District 3 Class A playoffs as the second seed and, in the semifinals, fell behind Upper Dauphin, 4-0, early.

The Lions won that game, 8-4, but fell apart in an 11-4 setback to Reading Holy Name in the district final.

From there Camp Hill took it to another level, plating 28 runs in three state playoff games, including three in the last of the seventh to shock Christopher Dock, 13-12, in the quarterfinals, to qualify for the final, where the team helped coach Brad Shover grab state gold. Shover pulled even with older brother Steve, the coach of the 1999 Lions, for state championships.

It wasn't a perfect ride, but it was sure one to remember.

(photo courtesy of Tom Elling. Check out more of Elling's photos from the state championships)

Emotional rollercoaster in Round 1

In Monday's edition of The Sentinel was a PIAA high school baseball notebook. Tacked onto the end of that were my projections regarding who will wear gold medals around their necks in a week at Blair County Ballpark.

A call to my cellphone early Monday evening labeled "Vets Box" (the number of the press box at Veterans Field in Altoona) brought good news: Seton LaSalle, the WPIAL third-place finisher and my dark horse state titlist, had beaten defending state champ Bald Eagle Area.

Later on, a text message from our writer covering Camp Hill declared that Christopher Dock, my pick in Class A, stomped GAMP 16-1.

So I was feeling pretty good about myself. I figured my pick in Class AAA, Sun Valley, was pretty much a lock. The District 1 champion Vanguards were 22-1 and playing close to home against an upstart Fleetwood team.

In AAAA I had Plum, the WPIAL No. 2 that was opening with District 6 champion Central Mountain. Now, District 6 is a little awkward. The Wildcats had to win one game to make it into the state field, so I figured their stay would be a short one.

A few minutes later word circulated through Bowman Field that Plum was gone, having been on the wrong end of a 9-7 decision.

Then the bottom fell out. Scouring the MSA Sportsnetwork page for the final few results brought a shock: Fleetwood 1, Sun Valley 0. The one pick I had the most confidence in couldn't even plate a single run to force extra innings.

I'd like to say 2-for-4 isn't bad but if I go the route I went Monday, I'll have exactly one predicted state champion remaining as we head to semifinals. Ouch.