Bellfonte baseball takes home PIAA Class 4A baseball state title with win over Dallas

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania – Bellefonte pitcher Dominic Capparella pumped his fist and skipped off the Medlar Field mound after the top of the fifth inning of the PIAA Class 4A state championship game.

The senior 6-foot-4 left-handed hurler had just worked around giving up back-to-back singles to lead off the inning with the 2-3-4 hitters in the Dallas order coming up. Capparella retired the next three batters on a fly ball and a pair of groundouts to preserve a 5-1 lead that eventually turned into a 7-1 victory.

“With me on the mound, for some of our guys it might influence how we are all acting,” Capparella said. “Showing energy on the mound, that gets guys into it and amped and ready to go.”

The Red Raiders offense gave its pitcher some breathing room in the third inning, as they scored three runs to add on to what had been a 2-1 lead.

With one out in the bottom of the third, Bellefonte loaded the bases as Alex Ebeling drew a walk, Triston Heckman was hit by a pitch and Braedyn Kormanic lined a single to left field.

After a popup to short led to the second out, Levi Purnell laced a fastball to right center for a single to plate a pair of runs. Ethan Tomasacci, who was running for Kormanic, took third on the throw to the plate.

“I was just sitting there, me and the pitcher, that's all I can think about,” Purnell said. “Just think about BP and hitting the ball hard. I was thinking fastball straight from the beginning.”

During the next at-bat, Purnell took off for second and drew a throw from the catcher, enabling Tomasacci to score to make it 5-1. It was the first stolen base of the season for Purnell.

“My coach one day at practice says 'I am never going to give you the steel sign ever,'” Purnell said. “I go 'alright, I agree with that.' But today was the day.”

Bellefonte tacked on a run in the bottom of the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Purnell and another in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly by Heckman.

Dallas took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Dylan Geskey hit an RBI single to score Zach Paczewski.

Bellfonte answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning when Trevor Johnson led off with a double, moved to third on a single by Peyton Vancas and then scored on a wild pitch. Vancas scored one batter later on a sacrifice fly by Heckman.

Capparella went the distance, allowing just the one run on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts. It looked like he might have to come out of the game with two outs in the seventh, as the team was waiting for clarification on his pitch count.

Head coach Jon Clark went to the mound and was joined by the rest of the team as he waited for the actual number. When the announcement was made over the PA system that his lefty was indeed at 104 pitches and could throw to one more hitter, the head coach turned around and headed back to the dugout.

“That would have been a terrible way to lose a game,” said Clark of making sure his pitcher had not hit the pitch limit yet. “They would have run me out of town for that.”

Instead of running the head coach out of town, the Bellefonte fans gave him a rousing standing ovation as his name was called to go get his championship medal.