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The Tyrone vs Oley Valley baseball game will air on WRTA-AM 1240 & 98.5-FM on Thursday beginning at 1:15 p.m. with the pre-game show. Dave Shannon will do the play-by-play with commentary from Chuck Banas. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m. The game will also air live on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.
When area baseball coaches fill out preseason questionnaires from local media, goals like winning a league or even districts are pretty common.
Central coach A.J. Hoenstine has included winning a state championship among his goals for years, which also doesn't raise any eyebrows considering the success of the Scarlet Dragons' program.
But recently, Hoenstine hasn't been the only Blair County coach to list winning it all as something he thinks his team could achieve.
Despite never winning a state playoff game in school history coming into this season, Tyrone coach Kevin Soellner has made it clear in each of the last three years that he believed his team could finish the season as the PIAA champion.
Soellner and the Golden Eagles will get that opportunity Thursday when they take on District 3 champion Oley Valley in the Class 3A state championship game at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
"Every year at the start of the season I always say the same thing about our goals never changing," Soellner said. "I always felt like people looked at me crazy when I said 'win the Mountain League, win District 6 and win states.' When you put states in there and you have our history, people are like, 'yeah, right,' but these last couple years we have believed that we could do that. For them to get it would justify all their work toward reaching that goal."
It's hard to blame anyone for wondering if Soellner was just speaking in cliches when he made those preseason comments considering Tyrone had not even qualified for the PIAA playoffs since 1993 and last won a District 6 championship in 1992.
The Golden Eagles were 0-2 all time at the state playoff level coming into this season with a 2-1, 10-inning loss to Northern Bedford and a 2-0 setback to Ridgway in back-to-back seasons.
Tyrone has had winning records, some excellent players and some signature wins since those PIAA appearances, but something has always seemed to go wrong.
Slowly but surely under Soellner, Tyrone began playing more competitive games against Mountain League opponents, and when the Golden Eagles began to stick with Central, which is indisputably one of the better programs in its classification in the state, the history of coming up short started to not matter as much.
"I always talk about A.J. (Hoenstine) having that mentality," Soellner said. "They know they can win states, and that's their expectation. When we started, we kept saying that, but I know they didn't believe it. They were always waiting for that bad inning. They knew something bad was going to happen, because it's Tyrone baseball. Over the years, you hear people talk about it, but now they believe. They expect success now, and I think with beating Central in the semifinals, any doubt that was left is gone."
Tyrone may be just now proving itself on the PIAA level, but it won the Mountain League in 2019 and has won 21 games despite playing that competition this year.
Central is leaving the league for the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference next year, but Hoenstine has credited the Mountain League for a lot of the Dragons' success.
"I have said for years that the Mountain League is the best small-school conference in the state," said Hoenstine after his team's PIAA quarterfinal victory over Hickory last week. "I told our guys this year, the pitching we saw in the Mountain League was hands down the best I have ever seen, and I've been around a lot. Anywhere you go in the Mountain League, they can beat you. That's what gets us ready for the playoffs every year, and I'll sure miss some of those baseball rivalries."
It seems to have worked for Tyrone, too.
The Golden Eagles will be up against a team that has much more PIAA postseason history than themselves.
Oley Valley has won three state championships, including a 1-0, nine-inning victory over Bellwood-Antis at Vets Field in the 1989 final when the Blue Devils had future Major Leaguer Ron Blazier, and the Lynx are now 25-9 all-time in the state baseball playoffs including this year's run.
But those numbers, just like the gaudy batting averages, RBI totals and power numbers Central brought into Monday's PIAA semifinal game, won't bother Tyrone.
The Golden Eagles believe in themselves, even when history seemed to show they shouldn't, and belief and confidence can lead to a lot of success -- and even a PIAA championship.
Michael Boytim can be reached at mboytim@altoonamirror.com or 814-946-7521. Follow him on Twitter @BoytimMichael