The Bellwood-Antis High School baseball team became the first sports team in school history to win a PIAA state championship when it nailed down the 2003 title with their 2-1 triumph over Eastern representative Elk Lake at the Harrisburg Senators’ Double-A minor league ballpark on City Island.
Beginning with a 7-1 win over archrival Tyrone, Blue Devil pitcher Adam Plummer wouldn’t make it out of the first inning before he settled down and the B-A bats started to boom, until the final out against Elk Lake when first baseman Nate Carlson fielded a grounder and recorded the unassisted out, it was quite a season.
First-year head coach Steve Conlon kept wondering how far his talented Blue Devils would go and what Bellwood-Antis fans would expect of the team next year.
Bellwood-Antis won 10 of their first 11 ballgames to jump out to a two-game lead in the Blair County League Southern Division on pitching performances by Plummer, Carlson and Zach Stere and the hitting of Derrick Miller, Andy Brisbin, Ricky Shannon, Chris Alley, Stere, Plummer, Carlson and the rest of the potent Blue Devil bats.
Stere tossed a no-hitter against Glendale and Carlson came within one strike of pitching another against Moshannon Valley.
A turning point might have been reached when the team lost three straight games in the middle of the season, by a combined total of five runs.
Regrouping, the Blue Devils put their troubles behind them and won their final 12 games to finish 23-4 with a Blair County League title, District VI crown and PIAA Western Championship in addition to the PIAA state championship.
Bellwood-Antis, often a slow starter in 2003, took a quick 4-0 start in the first round of the district playoffs on the way to a 5-1 win, then waded through West Branch 4-0 to reach the finals. There, B-A disposed of Bishop McCort 6-1, after falling in the semifinal round in both 2000 and 2001.
Beginning PIAA tournament play at Altoona’s Mansion Park, the Blue Devils needed to push across a pair of runs in their final at bat to down Conemaugh Township with a heart-stopping 5-4 triumph. Derrick Miller turned from goat after allowing a run to score on an error, into a hero, drilling a base hit to drive in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Traveling to Clearfield High School’s Bison Sports Complex, Bellwood-Antis earned a berth in the Western Finals by carving out a 2-0 shutout victory over Eisenhower, using a tremendous pitching performance by Adam Plummer and timely hitting by Andy Brisbin and Nate Carlson.
Carlson, Plummer and Zach Stere combined to pitch the Blue Devils into the state championship game with a 7-5 win over Chartiers-Houston at the White Township Recreation Complex in Indiana. B-A rightfielder Ryan Myers made a diving catch that saved at least two runs, then drove in the tying runs in consecutive at bats. Chris Alley reached base for the third straight time in the bottom of the sixth and Plummer rocked a triple to score Alley with the go-ahead run and Conlon and the B-A coaches then pulled off a trick play to get Plummer home from third base with what became the winning run.
Plummer, who recorded a 9-0 mark with 108 strikeouts and just 23 walks in 75 and 1/3 innings to go with a 1.39 ERA and opponents batting average of .178 for the season, pitched another gem in the final against Elk Lake. The senior left-hander, who won six of the Blue Devils eight wins along the playoff trail, gave up just one unearned run on two hits while fanning 10 and walking three. With the score knotted at 1-1, Ricky Shannon reached on an error. Plummer banged his second single of the game into right to advance Shannon to second base and catcher Shawn Weiand wasted no time in lining a single to center to get the fleet-footed centerfielder home with the winning run.
“We started to believe we had a chance to make history when we won the districts,” said coach Conlon. “After that, we believed anything could happen.”
