Many of the Derry baseball players like to spend their free time fishing together.
“It’s like a mental refresh down at the creek,” junior pitcher Max Doherty said. “The other day, I caught, like, 20 bass. We love it.”
Doherty and his friends reeled in something much bigger Monday night.
Behind another near complete game by Doherty, who delivered a go-ahead RBI double in a decisive seventh, Class 4A No. 13 seed Derry advanced to the WPIAL semifinals for the first time since 1984.
The Trojans registered a 5-2 victory over No. 12 Hampton in an unlikely quarterfinal between underdogs under the lights at Plum.
The only team with a losing record at the start of the playoffs keeps winning.
“This team never gives up,” said Doherty, who pitched 62⁄3 innings, striking out eight, walking one and allowing five hits before senior Cason Long induced the final out for his second straight playoff save. “That is the difference here from year’s past. We’re never hanging our heads.”
The Trojans (9-9) advance to play No. 1 Indiana (16-4) in Wednesday’s semifinals. Indiana won both section matchups against Derry this season, 8-2 and 10-3.
Hampton (13-9) rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie it in the fifth. But Derry broke out for three runs in the seventh — all with two outs — to take command and advance.
“We knew these kids had it in them,” Derry fifth-year coach Tom Kelly said. “We’re starting to hit the ball. This is the best we’ve hit the ball all year. No quit in these guys.”
The late rally that turned their season from good to great began with a two-out triple by junior Anthony Sacco, who came to the plate 0 for 3.
The second intentional walk of the night followed to Long, a Shippensburg commit, and the Trojans had runners at the corners.
Doherty stepped in and drove a two-run double down the third-base line for a 4-2 lead.
“We knew this would be a dogfight,” Long said. “Coach said the game had ebbs and flows. We kept fighting.”
Senior Donovan Trimble also contributed with an insurance RBI, following Doherty’s big hit with a run-scoring single to make it 5-2.
Doherty struck out two of the first three batters in the bottom of the seventh, walking Junker. Senior Eric Carson then singled to put runners at first and second.
Kelly opted to pull Doherty and, like he did in a 2-1 first-round upset of No. 4 Beaver, he called on Long, who got senior Brody Bruce-Fritz to dribble one to his right before he scooped it up and fired to first to seal it.
Derry took a 2-0 lead in the third after a leadoff single by freshman Mayson Perla, who filled in at third base for regular starter Noah Stough, a junior who injured his shoulder.
Perla went to second on a passed ball and scored on an error. After the first intentional walk to Long, a wild pitch on a third strike to Doherty let another run to score.
Doherty was 2 for 2 with two walks.
Still in the third, Derry left the bases loaded after Hampton made a pitching change: senior Drew Bucci for senior Colin Custer.
Hampton scored its first run in the third. Bucci doubled to center and went to second on a wild pitch. Carson drove him in with a squeeze bunt to make it 2-1.
Hampton ended the fourth with a 1-3 double play with Bucci snaring a line drive by junior Parker Petrosky.
The Talbots tied it in the fifth after a leadoff single by Custer. Pinch-runner Mason Santoyo stole second and scored on an opposite-field single by senior Brody Junker.
Doherty worked out of a jam to end the inning as the Talbots put runners at first and third with two outs following Carson’s single.
Doherty forced two consecutive flyouts to limit the damage.
The top five hitters in the Talbots’ lineup went a combined 0 for 15.
Carson finished 2 for 3.