STATE COLLEGE – It was pretty hard to single out one player for a lede here when the whole Upper Dublin team came to play today.
From 1-9 in the lineup, Upper Dublin brought the bats and freshman Luke Caron rose to the occasion with a complete game as the Cardinals came away from their first ever PIAA State Championship with a trophy to bring back to Fort Washington.
Speaking of that freshman, Luke Caron, he not only turned in a great start, but his RBI single got the scoring started in the second for the Cardinals.
The real damage came in the middle innings, starting with three in the top of the third. Austin Dahl singled but was thrown out trying to get to second on a throwing error.
Next up was Oliver Gill who singled to right center, and Gavin Litten singled again with an error allowing the runners to get to second and third. Following that up was Matt Logerstedt, who delivered a big base hit to extend that lead to 2-0.
More on Logerstedt to come.
Upper Dublin was just getting started in the inning. Ben Wilkins had a very productive second out as his RBI ground out allowed Litten to score, and Wes Gill legged out an infield single to get a fourth run on the board for the Cardinals.
“The plan offensively plan has been the same all season, we just decided to step up and execute on the biggest stage of the season finally,” said Head Coach Ed Wall. “We preach grinding AB’s, spitting on balls and being aggressive on strikes and our boys did exactly that today.”
Shaler responded to that three-spot by getting something going when Landon Schiffhauer crushed a triple to right center and Luke Bauer’s bunt base hit scored him. Luke Caron was able to quickly put that behind him to retire the last three hitters in the inning.
While Shaler had the momentum back on their side a bit with that inning, Upper Dublin was ready to steal it right back.
Eric Berman and Eddie Stoffel both walked to start the inning. Austin Dahl hit what could have been a double play ball but it was thrown away, allowing Berman to score and everyone to be safe.
Upper Dublin followed that up with a suicide squeeze call that was perfection with Oliver Gill getting the bunt down and Eddie Stoffel scoring easily.
After yet another single from Gavin LItten, Matt Logerstedt’s RBI single capped off the scoring for the inning with Upper Dublin leading 7-1.
Next up in this game was Matt Logerstedt’s time to shine both with the glove and with the bat.
First up, Logerstedt made an unbelievable diving catch in right field and fired back to first base for the double play. Fast forward to the top of the sixth, and the Upper Dublin team that had 11 singles saw their first extra base hit when Logerstedt crushed one into the right field seats to make it 8-2 after Shaler got one back on a balk.
“Logerstedt was out of his mind today, he’s one of those guys that has some serious pop for a sophomore and that confidence to boot,” said Wall. “Some of the outfield play there, I haven’t seen that out of him yet and that just made things really exciting. The home run was some power that we’ve seen but not to that degree so he just played out of his mind today and it was a lot of fun to watch.”
At this point, Upper Dublin was six outs away from their first ever PIAA State Championship. They led 8-2, but just two years ago, Shaler erased an 8-3 deficit to take down Strath Haven so nothing was a guarantee.
With that being said, there was an odd sense of comfort that even with a freshman on the mound, the maturity that he had would outweigh anything.
Caron retired the side in order in the sixth, and even with a leadoff double in the seventh, it would not matter. Caron got a pop out, a strike out, then a ground out to second base to make history for a program that only ever had one state playoff win prior to this season.
“Luke has a different mindset for a kid his age, super mature, makeup is elite and he has been doing that literally all season whether that’s a district semi, conference final, he has been exactly that,” said Wall. “He got a little loose there in the middle innings because he’s never actually batted and pitched in a game before so I think he got a little tired there, but he then found his second wind and just settled in and pounded the zone.”
For Upper Dublin, this run will go down in program history. It’s a program that has made three district titles in the last four years, but had never gotten past the state quarterfinals.
Until now.
Eric Berman had a base hit and walked twice. Gavin Litten, Wes Gill, and Luke Caron all chipped in two hits. Offense wasn’t always easy to come by for the Cardinals this year, but they ripped 13 hits to put them down in the history books forever.
“What I’ll remember most is the chemistry and the love that we have for each other,” said Wall. “These guys, a lot of teams are thinking about senior week and the grad parties and stuff like that. They’re here with all their buddies and they don’t want to be anywhere else. They set this goal four years ago watching that 2022 team get as far as our program has ever gotten with the state quarters and they made it a pact that they wanted to get farther and every year we talk about winning conference, districts and states and we got 2/3 this year but we got the biggest one of them all so I’m super proud.”
