WARRIORS TOP RED LAND 7-1, WIN FIRST CROWN IN SCHOOL HISTORY

Dave Byrne was in Hershey on Thursday for the District 3 Quad-A baseball title game. And when the dust settled (dust, baseball field, get it?) Warwick’s players hoisted the trophy high. Here’s Dave’s story from Friday’s New Era:

HERSHEY — Sometimes a perceived calamity can be a blessing in disguise.

When Warwick’s Jason Griffith rolled an ankle playing in the Tri-County All-Star football game last Saturday, things looked grim for Warwick’s baseball team.

But it turned out to be a factor in the Warriors’ first-ever District 3 Quad-A championship.

Warwick defeated Red Land 7-1 Thursday at Hershey High Shool to capture the crown in its first appearance in the finals since 1996.

Up next for the Warriors (17-6) is a trip to the PIAA playoffs, where they will take on District 1 fourth-place finisher Conestoga on Monday at a site and time to be announced.

Warwick’s win on Thursday also marked the third year in a row that a Lancaster-Lebanon League team has won the Quad-A crown.

“It says a lot about how competitive our league is,” Warwick coach Mike Brown said. “It’s fun to be a part of it.”

“Timely hits, great defense and stellar pitching,” said Warwick’s Mike Freeman, laying out Thursday’s winning formula.

The injury to the Warriors’ ace pitcher set in motion a series of events that led to the victory.

When he isn’t on the mound, Griffith is the Warriors’ starting first baseman.

While his ankle seemed stable enough while pitching a complete-game victory over Manheim Township on Wednesday, Brown had his doubts about Griffith fielding first base.

That meant Freeman, usually the Warriors’ No. 2 starter, but also their other first baseman, played first on Thursday and Shawn Steffy got the start.

Steffy has been the Warriors’ reliever par excellence this season, but had made just one previous start — a complete-game win over Conestoga Valley on April 11.

“I felt really good about (starting) Shawn,” Brown said. “That kid is a bulldog.”

Steffy took the bite out of a Red Land lineup that had gone 18-4 coming into the title game, including a 7-5 win over Hempfield in the semis on Wednesday.

He had the Patriots off balance all afternoon, holding them to a run on two hits. And he did it, basically, with just his fastball.

“My main goal was to get outs,” Steffy said.

Throwing just 87 pitches, he got nine ground balls and five pop-up outs. Only six balls were hit hard, and his defense turned four of those into outs.

Steffy walked Nico Delerme — his only walk — with one out in the first before Tyler McKim smoked a ball to left.

Third baseman Dan Ansel leaped high into the air, then looked over his shoulder to see how far into left the ball had gone.

Turns out it was in his glove.

In the sixth, Delerme drove the ball deep to right-center, but Warwick’s Robbie Lessig plucked it off the top of the fence for the out.

In the seventh, with two on, rightfielder Andy Thompson ranged far to his right to track down Carl Sheaffer’s deep fly for the final out of the game.

“When you’ve got great ‘D’ behind you, there’s no way you can go wrong,” Steffy said.

Working over Pats’ starter Kyle Otstot — who threw 111 pitches in 52-e innings — Warwick provided Steffy with room to do his thing.

In the second, Thompson doubled home Skylar Gingrich, who walked, for the first run of the game, and Freeman plated Thompson with a ground ball to second.

Warwick’s third run came an inning later when Mark Stuckey steamed home from second on Zack Shank’s 2-out infield hit.

Thompson led off the Warriors’ sixth with a single to right, and Steffy reached on an infield hit.

Otstot seemed to be pitching around Freeman, but he came inside with a 3-1 pitch, which Freeman fouled back — and the lefty-hitting first baseman knew what was coming.

“He was throwing (me) off-speed all day,” he said. “I didn’t see a lot of fastballs, so I totally expected to get a 3-2 curveball.”

Which he totally hit the heck out of, bouncing it off a retaining wall 10 feet beyond the fence — 375 feet away.

Red Land coach Kyle Wagner, the pitching ace of the Patriots’ 1990 state-championship team, called the 3-run homer, “A backbreaker.”

It was Freeman’s first scholastic 4-bagger, and his first homer since the Junior-Midget championship game of the 2004 New Era Tournament.

“He’s Mr. Clutch,” said Brown, recalling Freeman’s key two-run single that sparked Warwick’s come-from-behind win over Dallastown last week.

That win might define Warwick’s post-season run. The Warriors rallied from four runs down and they were down to their last strike, only to win 8-7 in extra innings.

“We were disappointed when we didn’t get an opportunity to make a run in the L-L League playoffs,” Brown said. “I said, ‘We’re not done. We’re not out.’”