Evan Holewinski tosses shutout to lead Bethel Park to back-to-back PIAA baseball Class 5A state titles

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania – The old adage in baseball is that good pitching beats good hitting.

That was certainly the case on Friday in the PIAA Class 5A state championship game, as Bethel Park beat Selinsgrove 5-0 to collect its second state title in a row.

Junior pitcher Evan Holewinski was masterful on the mound, going the distance and allowing just three hits and striking out five while not walking anyone. He finished the game with just 77 pitches.

“Evan Holewinski is a guy that a lot of people say isn’t overpowering because he doesn’t get a lot of strikeouts, but he is a guy who can strike everybody out if he wanted to,” Bethel Park head coach Pat Zehnder said. “He is a pitcher, also. He understands he has a really good defense behind him, and we are best if he can throw all game.”

Holewinski and Selinsgrove pitcher Ryan Reich were locked in a scoreless pitcher’s duel through three innings when Bethel Park broke through.

Cody Geddes took a 1-2 Reich curveball that was up and inside and turned on it, sending it over the left field fence for a home run.

“I was sitting fastball the entire game and then I noticed he was throwing me breaking balls a lot more,” Geddes said. “I just sat on one pitch, and I took it.”

The offense gave Holewinski more support by getting three runs in the sixth and tacking on one more in the seventh.

David Kessler singled in the sixth and later scored on an error, and Ben Hudson added a two-run single to score Ray Altmeyer and Geddes to make it 4-0. Geddes added an RBI single in the seventh.

The extra runs allowed Holewinski to relax a little more as he tried to finish the job.

“When you are up 1-0, one swing can tie it,” Holewinski said. “But when you have a five-run cushion, you know you can trust your defense even more.”

The Bethel Park offense was able to score five runs against Reich, something no team had done this season to the Seton Hall commit. He had pitched two games so far in the PIAA playoffs and had given up just one run in 14.2 innings.

But knowing Reich was on the mound for the other team gave Holewinski even more incentive to pitch well, especially against a team that had not been shut out all season.

“I think with a pitcher like theirs and how good he is, I like getting into pitcher’s duals,” Holewinski said. “It gives you the chip on your shoulder that you just have to be better than him.”

If one state title is good, two state titles is even better, but the repeat still had not sunk in for the coach after the game.

“It might hit me on the way home,” Zehnder said. “Right now, I am still fully taking in the moment. The best part is just seeing the jubilation on the kids and seeing them pile up like that. This is something special.”