Squires Capture District III Gold

Baseball Wins District Championship

by David F. Salter

The Delone Catholic baseball team proved that theory this spring when it won its second District 3 baseball championship in school history. Not only did the Squires capture the gold medal there, but also battled their way to the final four in the state tournament, the deepest run in that bracket in school history.

“I was just trying to bring them together to gel,” said firstyear head coach Jimmy Smith ’82. “I thought if we had good continuity…our numbers for (off-season) weight lifting were higher than they’ve ever been, and that was a good start because that showed the interest was there. We also had some spots to fill, and it’s all about competition. We had so many players that were team players, they made it easy to coach. They weren’t selfish.”

After finishing the regular season 17-6 and 14-4 in the YAIAA, the Squires also found a little bit of luck in the District playoffs. Delone Catholic earned the second seed by a slim margin over league rival Fairfield. That put Fairfield into the play-in game against sixth-seeded Upper Dauphin, who entered the tournament with a losing record. Fairfield lost and the Squires cruised past UD in the semifinals on the strength of Jake Sherdel’s ‘22 pitching performance. The offense also came alive to score enough runs to achieve the 10-run rule in the fifth inning. Which meant Sherdel could remain under the pitching limit for the week and be eligible to pitch a few innings in the District championship if necessary. In the other half of the bracket, top seed Camp Hill wasn’t having an easy time. Fourth-seeded Kutztown took the Lions to extra innings in the semifinal, which made Camp Hill extinguish the pitching limit for its top pitcher.

That didn’t make things much easier, however, in the championship game. Trailing 3-2 going into the sixth inning, the Squires scored once to tie it and then scored twice with two outs in the seventh inning for the victory.

“Our MO all season was finding a way to do just enough,” Smith said. “Our lineup wasn’t spectacular, but our pitching was really good and our defense was really good. Our offense would find a way to score one more run than the other team. We only had three regulars who hit over .300.”

The other strength of the team was the seasoned coaching staff. While this was Smith’s first year as head coach, he’s been a coach in the program for years. He also could lean on his two assistant coaches, his son Brett Smith ’13 and Tom Collins.

Brett has the distinction of being the captain of the football, basketball, and baseball teams in his senior year in McSherrystown when Delone Catholic became the first school in District 3 history to win all three of those championships in the same academic year. Brett took his baseball talents to Bucknell University where he remains the university’s all-time hits leader. He played some Independent League baseball for a few years before settling in this year with his alma mater.

“There was always talent in the group,” Brett said. “I just felt like there was something missing in how they played the game. They weren’t always focused, not always being in the right spot. But they bought into what we were telling them. And then we had some close wins in the beginning of the season which made them buy in even more. They saw how we were helping them play the game the right way. We encouraged them to continue to get better every day, and to find a way to play their best.

“It’s all with the players,” Brett concluded. “They worked together and they believed in each other.”