The PIAA has been crowning Class 3A baseball champions for nearly 50 years.
Either South Park or Bermudian Springs will join the illustrious group when they play for the title on Friday.
The first 3A baseball state champion was Hatboro-Horsham from District 1 in 1977.
A year later, Penn Hills became the first WPIAL team to win 3A baseball gold.
The list of PIAA 3A champions from District 7 includes Penn Hills (1978), Shaler (1980), Hopewell (1986), Bethel Park (1988), Connellsville (1989), Seneca Valley (1995), North Allegheny (1996, 2000), Mt. Lebanon (1998), Moon, (2001, 2002), Pine-Richland (2006), Knoch (2015) and Riverside (2023, 2025).
The first District 3 team to win a PIAA Class 3A championship was Hershey in 1982 and the most recent was Lancaster Catholic in 2018.
Here is a look at Friday’s PIAA Class 3A baseball championship game at Penn State:
Class 3A
South Park (19-6) vs. Bermudian Springs (22-3)
1:30 p.m. Friday, Medlar Field at Lubrano Park at Penn State
Broadcast: Video on PCN-TV; Radio on PIAA Radio Network
Coaches: Corey Fischer, South Park; Jeff Carpenter, Bermudian Springs
Path to Penn State: South Park defeated District 5 champion Bedford in the first round, 6-3; District 6 winner Tyrone in the quarterfinals, 4-1; District 10 champ Fairview in the semifinals, 6-0. … Bermudian Springs knocked off District 12 champion Neumann-Goretti in the first round, 4-0; District 4 runner-up Warrior Run in the quarterfinals, 4-3; District 4 champ Mifflinburg in the semifinals, 3-1.
District postseason: South Park eliminated Keystone Oaks in the first round, 3-0; Freeport in the quarterfinals, 4-1; Avonworth in the semifinals, 5-2; then the Eagles lost to Ellwood City in the WPIAL championship game, 5-2. … Bermudian Springs was the top seed and had a quarterfinal bye; ousted Kutztown in the semifinals, 6-1; then the Eagles lost to Camp Hill Trinity in the District 3 championship game, 2-1.
Players to watch
South Park: Senior Cooper Hochendoner has been a dominant force for the Eagles on both the mound and the batter’s box. The Slippery Rock commit was the winning pitcher in the PIAA quarterfinals and semifinals, allowing one run on six hits and striking out 12 in the two games combined. He also threw a no-hitter in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs, just missing on a perfect game. In the state playoffs, he is 8 for 11 with two doubles, a triple and a homer. Senior Robert Lenzi was the winning pitcher in the state first round and had two hits and two RBIs in the quarterfinals. Senior Ryan Spitznagel was 3 for 4 with an RBI in the semifinal win over Fairview. In that same game, senior Willy Hays and freshman Johnny Parris each had two hits and an RBI.
Bermudian Springs: Senior Branson Diller has been the ace for the Eagles this season. The Hagerstown Community College commit is 13-2 with a 0.61 ERA with only 12 walks and 115 strikeouts. On Monday, he pitched a complete game, allowing six hits, no walks and four strikeouts. Junior Gavin Reinert is batting .348 with 24 runs batted in this season and had a big game in the state semifinals with three hits, a run, RBI and double. Senior Teegan Byers is batting .439 this season with 27 RBIs, senior Brayden Heller is hitting .386 and senior Jaxsyn Stottlemeyer is coming off a two-hit game in the win over Mifflinburg.
Streaks: South Park has won three in a row since losing in the WPIAL finals to Ellwood City, 5-2, on May 27. The Eagles have won six of their last seven games. … Bermudian Springs has also won its last three games after falling to Camp Hill Trinity in the District 3 finals, 2-1. The Eagles have won 19 of their last 21 contests.
Quotable: “The team is super excited,” South Park coach Corey Fischer said. “When we walked off the field against Riverside after the tough loss in the state playoffs last year, this senior group got a taste, and it made them very hungry. I try to make it clear hat and t-shirt games are never guaranteed. You may never get another game with something like this on the line. This group has worked hard to become a June baseball group. I know they’re hungry for the opportunity to cross the finish line.
“I tell our guys, when you get to the state playoffs, every team you play is going to be really good. They’ve earned the right to be here as well. Bermudian Springs has quality wins and their pitcher is very good. They are impressive on offense, defense and especially pitching.”
Factoids
• South Park is 10-7 all-time in the PIAA baseball playoffs in its eighth appearance. This will be the Eagles’ second state championship game. In the program’s only other trip to the finals nine years ago, South Park lost 5-0 to Dallas in the 2017 Class 4A title game.
• Bermudian Springs has an all-time record of 6-1 in the PIAA playoffs in this, its third appearance. This is the second time the Eagles have reached the state championship game. It was 16 years ago when Bermudian Springs beat Central (Martinsburg) to win the 2010 Class 2A title, 5-3.
• In six years since the 2020 season was lost, South Park has qualified for the state baseball playoffs four times. In their eight appearances, the Eagles have only played past the quarterfinals three times — their two title game years in 2017 and 2026 and last year they lost to eventual state champ Riverside in the semifinals. The first PIAA playoff game for the Eagles came 24 years ago when they defeated Huntingdon in the 2002 Class 2A first round, 7-4.
• This marks the second time in three state playoff appearances that Bermudian Springs is playing in the PIAA title game. The Eagles’ only state playoff loss was last spring when they fell in the quarterfinals to Mt. Carmel, 3-1.