SLIPPERY ROCK — South Park baseball coach Cory Fischer said he got a lot of texts from friends in the days leading up to Monday’s PIAA Class 3A semifinal against District 10 champion Fairview.
Most of them said the same thing: Go get the big one.
The big one is still out there, and Fischer’s Eagles are ready to take it.
Behind Cooper Hochendoner’s gem — and 13 hits — South Park is back in the PIAA title game after a 6-0 win over Fairview at Slippery Rock University’s Messer Field.
South Park (21-6) will take on District 3 champion Bermudian Springs (23-4) at Penn State’s Medlar Field at Lubrano Park at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Bermudian defeated Mifflinburg, 3-1, in the other semifinal Monday.
The title game will be South Park’s first since 2017.
South Park didn’t win the WPIAL title, but the state championship is now within reach.
“There’s two tournaments,” Hochendoner said, “the WPIAL tournament and the state tournament, and we still kick ourselves a little bit. We could’ve won the WPIAL title, but you can’t look in the past because it’s not going to change. You’ve got to look to the future, and that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve been grinding every practice and everyone has bought in.”
The Slippery Rock recruit factored into the outcome early but on the basepaths. In the bottom of the first, Johnny Parris’ grounder was misplayed at second base and on an errant throw, Hochendoner, who typically would ask for a courtesy runner, was told no by Fischer and sped home for a 1-0 lead.
“I waved him,” Fischer said “He likes courtesy runners, and he asked for one at first and I said no because he’s one of our fastest guys. I like to rest him when his legs need it, but in that situation, I kind of knew if that situation occurred, something like that occurred, he was going first to home or second to home on a shallow ball. I was willing to send him, especially early. He just runs hard. He’s a competitor. He does everything 150 percent. When a guy is moving like that, it’s tough to make a play at this level.”
“We’ll take chances early in the game to get runs. That’s what we did,” Hochendoner added. “I didn’t see the throw. I think it might’ve been an errant throw a little bit. I was just running with my head down and thankfully we got that first run.”
South Park added three more in the third on four hits, including Aiden Hays’ RBI single. Ryan Spitznagel’s RBI single in the fourth made it 5-0.
“This is the best we’ve hit since playoffs started, both district and state,” Fischer said. “We hit well against Tyrone, so I think the coaches, we were all kind of saying we’re knocking on the door, hopefully today is the day, and we had 13.”
Hochendoner was spectacular on the mound, striking out eight and allowing just one hit. That coupled with the South Park bats breaking out made life difficult for Fairview (18-2), which got walks from Robbie Benford and Andrew Stevens as well.
The 1-0 lead might’ve been enough for Hochendoner, who has allowed just 19 hits in seven postseason games this season.
“That’s been our thing this playoff run, especially the state run, to score early and punch them in the mouth early and to do that in a semifinal game, it gave us so much momentum. You could tell the crowd was into it. It was a really good moment,” Hochendoner said.
Hochendoner and Spitznagel combined for five hits and reached base a combined six times. Hays went 2 for 4 in the win.
Now that big one is there for the taking.
“That was our goal this year: WPIAL gold and state gold. Obviously came up short in the WPIAL in a tough fashion, so it’s great to earn your way back and have your shot at the bigger one,” Fischer said.