Riverside Ousts South Park In 12 Innings, Advances To WPIAL Championship

In a monumental pitching dual, the Riverside Panthers outlasted South Park in extra innings Friday evening to advance to the WPIAL Class 3A Championship Game for a third consecutive year.

The Panthers earned a 1-0 walk-off victory compliments of a Jackson Barber single in the bottom of the 12th inning.

In the 12th inning, Hunter Garvin and Zach Hare walked before a ground ball by Drake Fox forced an error and loaded the bases with no outs. South Park was able to settle down and get two outs before Barber singled to right field for the game winning RBI.

For the first eleven innings, not much offense was presented as pitching was dominate for both teams and the game remained scoreless.

Panther starter Zach Hare tossed seven innings of no-hit baseball, striking out 10 batters while opposing starter Connor Hochendoner lasted in to the 10th inning for the Eagles, finishing with an incredible 9.1 innings and 14 strikeouts for South Park.

Hunter Garvin relieved Hare and struck out 10 batters and allowed only two hits in his five innings of relief.  Hare has not allowed an hit in 12 consecutive innings after his five inning no-hit performance last week in the Panthers victory over Burrell.

Christian Lucarelli, Hare, and Barber each collected two hits for Riverside but the Panthers were unable to capitalize offensively. Lucarelli and Garvin each doubled in the contest.

On the heels of a Hochendoner complete-game three-hitter with 16 strikeouts last week against Mt. Pleasant in the Eagles first-round game, the lefty added 14 more strikeouts Friday to bring his impressive postseason total to 30 strikeouts.

Hays and Mittleider each collected one hit for South Park. The Eagles turned two double plays in the game.

Riverside will look to face Quaker Valley in the Class 3A Championship game and avenge its loss in last seasons championship game where they fell to Avonworth in extra innings. Quaker Valley knocked off the defending champions in the quarterfinals last week.

The Panthers were crowned WPIAL champions in 2023 and also claimed PIAA championship in 2023 becoming only the ninth team to win a WPIAL title with an undefeated record in the last 50 years.