Hempfield's great baseball season came to a close on June 3 at Widener University. The Black Knights were blanked by Neshaminy in the first round of the PIAA Class 6A state playoffs by a 3-0 score.
The Neshaminy nine managed 10 hits, all singles. Senior starter Ty Vaughn managed to escape the big inning repeatedly as he scattered nine singles. He struck out five and walked three. Neshaminy scored an unearned run off reliever Justin Lichtenwalner in the sixth.
The Knights also had plenty of pressure on Neshaminy's starting pitcher Dan Errigo. The junior allowed two singles, hit a batter and allowed five walks in 3.2 innings. Reliever Jake Fehrle was on the ropes too, but escaped trouble, allowing two walks and two singles in 3.1 innings and earning the save for Errigo. In all, Neshaminy pitching allowed 13 base runners but went unscathed through seven innings of perilous pitching, including a bases-loaded opportunity for Hempfield.
Senior Cory Joyce went 3-for-4 with a run scored for Neshaminy while Matt Yaunger went 2-for-4 with a run scored and one driven in. Andrew Mays went 3-for-3 at the bottom of the lineup.
The District One champions move on to the quarterfinals against Downingtown West - the fourth seed out of the same district.
Both Vaughn and Lichtenwalner are among a number of key seniors, who will be leaving a program that finished the 2019 campaign with a 21-6 record. Alec Santiago, C.J. Saylor, Nick Fiore and Seth Constein were among the consistent seniors on the roster. Brandon Husted, Brad Paup, and Jacob Rissmiller will also say goodbye.
Cole Houser, Luke Fiore, Wyatt Hershey and Kyle Jackson will be among the upperclassmen to lead the 2020 squad.
Track
In the PIAA Class AAA state championships, which took place at Shippensburg on May 24-25, Hempfield's Cahsia Page placed 12th in the 100-meter preliminaries with a time of 12.38 seconds. In the semifinals on Saturday, she finished at 12.83.
In the girls' 400, Megan Grube's time of 59.45 was good for 22nd in the prelims. Grube was part of the 4x100 relay team that finished 12th in the prelims on Friday. The foursome of Grube, Page, Ava Hostetler and Alexa Pitts posted a time of 48.95.
In the boys' 1,600, Justin Rittenhouse's 4 minutes, 23.56 seconds claimed 14th in the preliminaries.
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