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Northern Bedford County's high school baseball team was awarded the District 5 Class 1A championship during District 5's meeting at the Bedford American Legion on Aug. 13.
The Panthers originally lost the game, 4-1, to defending District 5 and PIAA 1A baseball champion Southern Fulton in McConnellsburg on Thursday, May 28.
But that Sunday evening, it was ruled Southern Fulton used an ineligible player who no longer had PIAA eligibility, and Northern Bedford was placed into the state playoffs the next evening. The Panthers lost to Homer-Center to end their season, but it wasn't clear whether Northern Bedford would be awarded the District 5 title, because the ineligible Southern Fulton player had played in other postseason games, including a 3-2 eight-inning semifinal win over Berlin Brothersvalley in which the ineligible player had the game-winning hit.
"The discussion was geared toward vacating the title, as it was felt by many that this was the fairest way to handle it, but I had been reminded by PIAA Executive Director Mark Byers that vacating would be a PIAA bylaw violation," District 5 president Jeff Batzel said. "It became a unanimous vote, because we all agreed that as a committee we were not going to violate the bylaws."
Eric Zeznanski made the motion, and Audrey Hall seconded a motion that turned into a unanimous decision to name Northern Bedford as the champions based on the PIAA bylaws Article 13, Section 3C.
That bylaw reads -- "If a forfeiture of a district championship occurs, that title shall be vacant for that year unless the forfeiture is determined prior to the first Inter-District championship contest, in which instance the runner-up shall be declared district champion."
Because the forfeiture was determined prior to the state playoffs starting, this instance fell under that rule.
"It's obviously an unusual way to be awarded a district championship, but it doesn't take away from the season our team had," Northern Bedford athletic director and head baseball coach Ryan Cherry said. "They competed hard, represented NBC with class, and I am extremely proud of what they accomplished. Looking forward to next year."
Batzel said District 5 will be attempting to amend the PIAA bylaw at a future PIAA meeting going forward.
"I am, on behalf of my district committee, working with PIAA staff on a possible change to Article 13 Section 3C," Batzel said. "We will see how that plays out at upcoming state board meetings."