The game mirrored B-A’s season as the Blue Devils made a couple of early miscues to fall behind and then came on strong as the game went on and dominated the Black Knights, 12-2, in six innings.

“We’re playing to our abilities,” Bellwood-Antis coach Adam Plummer said. “We lacked that at the beginning of the season. We’re playing our best baseball right now. This is what we’re capable of, and we have been hitting No. 1 through No. 9. At the start of the season the top of the order would be hitting and the bottom wasn’t, and other times the bottom would hit and the top wouldn’t. We finally put it all together.”

The Blue Devils will play at top-seeded Bishop McCort in the semifinals Thursday. The Crimson Crushers defeated B-A, 8-5, on April 17 during a stretch Bellwood-Antis lost four out of five games.

“McCort is tough,” Plummer said. “They came here and beat us early in the season. We have to get revenge now that we’re playing our best baseball.”

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Bellwood-Antis' Cam Swogger scores from second base on a two-run double by Landon Sneath.

Moshannon Valley took a 2-1 lead in Friday’s game when J.C. Smith had one of the Knights’ three hits in the game, and the ball got away from the outfielder and allowed two runs to score in the top of the third inning.

But B-A responded in the bottom of the third with back-to-back singles by Cam Swogger and Chase Plummer followed by a two-run double by Landon Sneath. Maddox McCall brought home Sneath with an RBI single that made it 4-2.

“All we had to do is put everything together as a team,” Chase Plummer said. “We had to boost our confidence and pick each other up as teammates. Picking up wins, we gained that confidence throughout the season, and we don’t play down to other team’s levels.”

The next inning, Bellwood-Antis got a leadoff single by Bradyn Partner and back-to-back bunt singles by Caleb Plummer and Jackson Dorminy to load the bases. Two Moshannon Valley errors and a Brady McConnell RBI single led to a five-run inning and a 9-2 lead — a far different game than the last time the teams met in a 3-2 Bellwood win in Houtzdale.

“What was different today was that we didn’t make the plays on defense when we needed to,” Moshannon Valley coach Jim Hawkins said. “I harp on that all year. Catch the ball, and you’ll win or keep it close. You can’t give five outs an inning — not against a good hitting team like that.”

Bellwood-Antis added a two-run homer by Chase Plummer in the fifth inning and a walk-off RBI single by Partner in the sixth.

Killian Worthing threw three shutout innings in relief of Eli Moser to earn the victory for Bellwood.

“The pitching has been strong recently,” Plummer said. “It progressed as the season went on. Eli didn’t have his best stuff today, but he battled. Killian came in and did what he did all season. He came in and pitched a few great innings for us. He threw strikes. We have the defense behind our pitchers, they just have to throw strikes and let them put it in play.”

Moshannon Valley finished the season 12-8 and won the Moshannon Valley League for the first time since 2019.

“The pitching was really good, and we had some timely hitting toward the end of the season and we played solid defense,” Hawkins said. “I’m proud of the way they played this season.”

The Black Knights lose just two seniors — Valent Cervenak and Chase Mital.

“There are high hopes for next year,” Hawkins said. “As long as they grow during the summer and put some time in it, sure, but they need to put the time in during the summer too.”

MOSHANNON VALLEY (2): Kephart p-2b 312, Abernethy ss 300, R. Reifer 3b 210, Smith 1b 201, Krause pr 000, Dunlap 2b-p 100, Cervenak rf 200, Dunsmore ph 100, Lovell dh 100, Mital cf 100, Clark c 200, Mihalko lf 200. Totals — 20-2-3.

BELLWOOD-ANTIS (12): Ca. Plummer rf 411, Dorminy cf 422, Swogger c 421, Ch. Plummer ss 332, Sneath 3b 321, McConnell 2b 412, Moser p 000, Worthing p 000, McCall dh 402, McCarthy 1b 301, Partner lf 312. Totals — 32-12-14.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Moshannon Valley 002 000 X–2 3 3

Bellwood-Antis 013 521 X–12 14 2

E–Partner, Ch. Plummer, Mital, R. Reifer, Clark. 2B–Sneath. HR–Ch. Plummer. RBI–Smith, Ch. Plummer 3, Sneath 2, McConnell, McCall, McCarthy, Partner. SF–Ch. Plummer.

PITCHING

Moshannon Valley: Kephart (L) — 3IP, 8H, 2K, 2BB, 9R, 6ER, 60 pitches; Dunlap — 2 1-3IP, 6H, 2K, 0BB, 1HBP, 3R, 3ER, 48 pitches.

Bellwood-Antis: Moser — 3IP, 2H, 2K, 4BB, 2R, 0ER, 73 pitches; Worthing (W) — 3IP, 1H, 4K, 1BB, 0R, 0ER, 44 pitches.

Umpires: Derrick Soellner (HP); Jim Cushion (1B); Jason Oakes (2B); Bill Wolf (3B).

Records: Moshannon Valley (12-8); Bellwood-Antis (11-9).