Getting those horses across the finish line still remained a task to be accomplished, however.

The Bulldogs pulled off that feat Wednesday afternoon on the Mount Aloysius College baseball field, mercy-ruling Homer-Center, 10-0 in six innings in the district championship game, bringing Claysburg-Kimmel its first district baseball title since 2007.

“This is something that we talked about in the first week of practice — winning the district championship,” Claysburg-Kimmel coach Kyle Glass said. “And now we’re here.

“We had 17 guys on this team who were willing to put in the work needed to win a district championship,” Glass added.

Claysburg-Kimmel third baseman Paydden Knisely watches shortstop Brayden Haney pull in a pop up from Homer-Center's Collin Dunn. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Among them was four-year standout Mason Campagna, who is headed to Penn State on a baseball scholarship.

“We’ve put in a ton of work as a team since last September, and it has paid off,” Campagna, who was also an all-state football player, said about the C-K baseball squad on which he plays catcher. “Everybody was excited to play today, and we came out and played good baseball.”

Junior right-hander Dustin Slowik pitched a complete-game shutout win for Claysburg, scattering seven Homer-Center hits, striking out three batters, and walking just two.

“He’s a great pitcher, and we knew that we wanted to give him the ball today,” Glass said of Slowik. “He likes to throw to contact a lot, and he kept pounding the strike zone today.”

Slowik smiled exuberantly in the aftermath as the players were awarded their district championship gold medals.

“It’s crazy, just wild,” Slowik said. “We’ve only made it to this game twice in the last 20 years, and our main goal was to win districts this year. I was just trying to throw strikes today, and I felt that I got stronger as the game went on.”

Sophomore center fielder Gavin Treon drove home four runs with a pair of two-run singles for Claysburg, and senior third baseman Paydden Knisely also had four RBIs, including a bases-loaded, bases-clearing three-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning that brought the 10-run mercy rule into effect and ended the game.

“It feels great,” Treon said of his team winning the district championship. “It’s definitely the biggest game of my life to this point. We got great pitching today and a lot of hits. I’m excited to be going to states.”

Claysburg (16-7) opens PIAA state tournament play Monday by hosting WPIAL runner-up Greensburg Central Catholic.

The Bulldogs broke open a scoreless game with four third-inning runs against Homer-Center starting pitcher Nash Budner.

After Nathan Cox and Campagna both drew walks, Brayden Haney hit a ball that took a crazy high hop over the infield and into right field for a single, scoring Cox and moving Campagna to third base. After Haney stole second base, Treon followed by lashing a two-run single into center field, scoring both Campagana and Haney.

Slowik followed with a single to right field, and after Ayden Soler laid down a good sacrifice bunt and reached on a throwing error to load the bases, Treon scored the fourth run of the inning when Knisely bounced into a forceout.

Homer-Center coach Scott Bauer, whose team dipped to 13-10 on the season and will go on the road to play the District 5 champion — either Northern Bedford or Southern Fulton — in a first-round state playoff game Monday, gave appropriate credit to Claysburg.

“Hats off to them, they got the timely hits when they needed to get them and made the plays in the field when they needed to make them,” said Bauer, whose team made four errors, stranded seven baserunners, and issued nine walks. “We had too many errors and (issued) too many walks, and we had our opportunities to score, but the Slowik kid made some good pitches, and they made some good plays behind him.”

Claysburg added an insurance run in the fifth inning when three batters drew walks, another reached on an error, and Slowik scored from third base when Fee drew a bases-loaded walk.

A five-run sixth inning highlighted by Treon’s two-run single and Knisely’s gap shot three-run double to right-center field put the finishing touches on Claysburg’s win.

And now it’s on to the state tournament for a Claysburg program that hasn’t been there often.

“We’re excited for this opportunity,” Glass said. “We haven’t been there since 2007, and we wanted these kids to get this opportunity this season, because they deserve it.”

HOMER-CENTER (0): Rado c 301, Budner p-ss 302, Shimko ss-p 201, Turk rf 301, Fisher lf 300, Dunn 3b-dh 300, Deyarmin cf 301, Zerfoss 1b 301, Sharer cr 000, Shoup 2b 100. Totals – 24-0-7.

CLAYSBURG-KIMMEL (10): Campagna c 221, Haney ss 411, Treon cf 422, Slowik p 221, Soler rf 310, Knisely 3b 201, Fee lf 100, Claar 1b 000, Lehman dh 300, Cox 2b 120. Totals – 22-10-6.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Homer-Center 000 000 X — 0 7 4

Claysburg-Kimmel 004 015 X — 10 6 1

E–Budner, Shimko, Zerfoss, Shoup, Knisely. 2B–Zerfoss, Knisely. RBI–Treon 4, Knisely 4, Haney, Fee. SAC–Knisely, Soler. SB–Soler 2, Haney, Campagna, Treon. CS–Budner (Slowik to Haney to Knisely); Campagna (Rado to Dunn). HBP–Cox (by Shimko). LOB–Claysburg-Kimmel 7, Homer-Center 7.

PITCHING

Homer-Center: Budner (L) 4 2/3IP, 5R, 3ER, 8BB, 5SO, 96 pitches; Shimko 2/3IP, 3H, 5R, 4ER, 1BB, 1SO, 30 pitches.

Claysburg-Kimmel: Slowik (W) 7IP, 7H, 0R, 0ER, 2BB, 3SO, 93 pitches.

Records: Homer-Center (13-10); Claysburg-Kimmel (16-7).

Umpires: Brian Burns (plate); Sam Brunatti (1b); Andy Brown (2b), Tony Sottile (3b).

Time of game: 1:44.