Derry baseball coach Tom Kelly said his team could beat anyone if it played well.

No. 4 Beaver Area (15-5) found that out Monday in the opening round of the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs.

The No. 13 Trojans were the only team in the 4A WPIAL playoffs with a losing record at 8-9.

But it did not matter against Beaver.

Junior pitcher Max Doherty drove in two runs and baffled the Bobcats offense with a mixture of pitches for six innings in leading the Trojans to a 2-1 upset at Deer Lakes High School.

Now the Trojans (8-9) advance to the quarterfinals to face Belle Vernon or Hampton on May 18.

“When we play like this, we can beat anybody,” Kelly said. “We finally put together a complete game.

“Many of these players were in last year’s playoffs. We learned from that game and our early-season disappointments. This was a great win for us.”

Doherty stymied the Section 1 champions until the seventh inning, when the Bobcats scored their only run.

After Doherty retired the first two batters, he allowed a walk, a single and two more walks to cut the lead to 2-1.

Senior Cason Long, who is committed to Shippensburg to play baseball, struck out Joshua Derringer to end the game.

“We did not take them lightly,” Beaver coach Michael Mabin said. “You cannot take anyone lightly in the playoffs.

“They were able to scratch out a couple runs, and we were unable to get the key hit.”

Derry loaded the bases in the first inning against Beaver starter Jackson Reese with no outs.

But the junior right-hander struck out Doherty and Donovan Trimble before getting Nathan Stough to foul out.

The Trojans took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Long singled to center field with two outs and scored on Doherty’s double to right.

Beaver stranded 10 runners, including two each in the second, fifth and sixth innings.

“My defense was outstanding,” Doherty said. “They kept making plays,”

Derry extended its lead to 2-0 in the top of the seventh inning Cam Ferri singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Parker Petrosky.

Anthony Sacco walked, and Mabin decided to intentionally walk Long to load the bases.

Doherty made them pay by hitting a sacrifice fly to score Ferri.

In the bottom of the seventh, Doherty got into trouble, but Long came in to close out the game.

“I did a good job mixing up my pitches,” Doherty said. “My changeup worked the best. Later I mixed in my slider.”

Doherty had two hits for the Trojans. Maddox Tanner was 3 for 3 for the Bobcats.