The Burrell High School baseball team had been making teams work all season. Its 26th game, the PIAA Class AA championship contest, was no different.

Despite losing to Loyalsock Township, 8-3, last Friday, Burrell made the team from District 4 near Williamsport work, specifically the pitchers. The first Loyalsock pitcher, Colin Kelly, labored through 2²/₃ innings throwing 75 pitches and Alex Cillo went the rest of the way and threw more than 100 pitches before the medal were awarded.

"We were making them work out there. We were fairly patient at the plate," Burrell coach Mark Spohn said. "I heard they had pretty good pitchers but I didn't think they would consistently be hitting upper 80's [mph]. We were able to handle it pretty well we just needed a break but we never got one."

Spohn said the two Loyalsock pitchers were the hardest throwers the Buccaneers had gone against all season.

Burrell continued to scatter hits but Kelly and Cillo forced the Bucs to strand runners throughout the game and Burrell could never overcome the early deficit. It was the second trip to a PIAA title game in seven years for Spohn with the same result both times.

The Buccaneers finished the season with a 20-3 record. They lost to Beaver Area in the WPIAL semifinals, 7-4, but bounced back to defeat Redbank Valley, 4-2; Bishop McCort, 4-3; and Sharon, 8-1, to reach Blair County Ballpark in Altoona for the PIAA final.

"After the game the team was bummed out but I tried cheering them. I told them that they were one of only two Class AA teams playing that day, whatever that's worth," Spohn said.

"At that point it wasn't worth a whole lot, but looking back it will mean something. It was just a great group of kids and maybe the funnest group I have ever had. Even the practices heading up to the game, a month after the regular season ended, the guys were always into it. They practiced hard every day and they wanted to be there."

Seth Napierkowski, an 11-game winner started the contest for Burrell and Dave Kunkle finished the last 1²/₃ innings. Burrell fell behind 3-0 in the second inning and was behind 5-1 heading into the sixth inning.

"Things just didn't go well for us," Spohn said. "We missed a couple balls in the outfield that we were real close to making plays on. From that point on it kind of snowballed against us. We were ready to play we just couldn't catch a break. It didn't look like the state title game atmosphere had anything to do with it."

The PIAA Class AA runners-up will return only three starters next season: Freshman pitcher/outfielder Dave Yakopec, sophomore infielder Cameron Nelson and junior catcher Eric McAlpine. McAlpine had a two-run single in the seventh inning to account for the final Burrell runs.

Spohn made sure other players had the same PIAA playoff experience that Nelson, McAlpine and Yakopec were a part of. He brought Devon Doutt and Andrew Peck up from the junior varsity to join the team for the playoff run. Peck is a freshman pitcher/outfielder, Doutt a sophomore pitcher/infielder who pinch ran in the playoffs.

"They got to see what it's all about," Spohn said. "They got to see what the intensity level is like. I was talking to the younger kids after the game and they couldn't believe how intense the teams got for the state playoffs. It was an eye opening experience."

Among the key players that graduated from Burrell's roster are pitcher/second basemen Dan Olszewksi, pitcher Derek Jenkins, left fielder Steven Pish, third basemen Phil Spagnolo, first basemen Shane Welsh, infielder Ryan Wojciechowski, Kunkle, Napierkowski and Dave's older brother, outfielder Steve Yakopec.