Decade’s best WPIAL finals: Baseball No. 10

By: Don Rebel
Monday, May 18, 2020 | 9:26 PM

While it almost became a theme to repeat in WPIAL softball this past decade, it was nearly an impossible dream for district baseball teams.

Wild Things Park in Washington continued to be the home for the WPIAL baseball championships, but only twice in 42 title games was a school successful in repeating as champions. Seneca Valley in Class AAAA and Neshannock in Class A pulled it off the same two years in the spring of 2011 and 2012.

Speaking of Seneca Valley, the 2014 team gave hope for every team that qualifies for the district playoffs as that Raiders team captured WPIAL gold as the No. 16 seed.

So, while the third decade of the 21st century got off to a slow start with the 2020 season wiped away, here is a look back at the last 10 years with a countdown of the top 10 WPIAL baseball championship games.

No. 10 – Freedom fighters

The 2017 WPIAL Class AA baseball championship game saw a familiar title game face taking on a squad that needed GPS to find the site of the WPIAL finals.

California was playing in its fourth district baseball title game in six years while Freedom was in the championship game for the first time.

Pitching was the name of the game as each team scored only one run in the first nine innings.

However, the Trojans scraped home two runs in the 10th inning after needing 11 innings to reach the title game in a semifinals marathon against OLSH.

Click the final score below for a look back at the Trojans’ triumph over the Bulldogs.

California Trojans 3, Freedom Bulldogs 1 in 10 innings

Tags: California, Freedom