Look at most of the teams in the PIAA baseball championships, and a natural reaction might be, "Who are these guys?"

All four championship games will be played tomorrow at Blair County Ballpark in Altoona, and seven of the eight teams in the finals never have played in a PIAA final. Some of them never have sniffed the title game. The only team that has is Camp Hill, which is trying for its second consecutive championship and third overall.

The seven teams that have never made it to the PIAA final are Parkland, North Penn, Abington Heights, Chartiers Valley, Brandywine Heights, South Fayette and Serra.

Three of the seven are WPIAL teams -- Serra, South Fayette and Chartiers Valley. Serra has enjoyed success in recent years under coach Brian Dzurenda, but these championships runs of Chartiers Valley and South Fayette are new.

Chartiers Valley made it to the WPIAL final this season for the first time in school history. The Colts have made the WPIAL playoffs occasionally over the years, but their program started to change when Jim Jaskowski was hired in 2006.

"I think any program can be turned around," said Jaskowski, whose team plays Abington Heights in the Class AAA final. "It takes talented players first and foremost. But I think it takes some structure in the program, the ability to teach kids, but also they have to believe in what you're doing.

"I give so much credit to our kids. They've really believed. In this day and age of private instructors and all these different things on the side, if you can get kids to believe in what you're teaching, and then they see some results, it means a lot."

South Fayette had some baseball success in the 1990s, winning a WPIAL championship in 1999. But the Lions missed the WPIAL playoffs seven consecutive seasons (2001-07) until James Barton took over as coach last year. South Fayette made the playoffs in 2008 and has climbed higher this season. It will play Brandywine Heights in the PIAA Class AA final.

"When I came here, I just tried to change the mentality of how the kids think, how they feel and how much they believe in each other," Barton said. "After we won one of our playoff games this year, one of the kids said to me, 'Coach, we're overachieving.'

"I said to him, 'No, you're not. You guys just don't understand how good you are.' But I could understand why they felt that way because they had never won consistently. I feel so good for these kids and what they've done. I think the kids are all just believing in themselves now. I think that has a lot to do with things."

You have heard of coaches making a game-time decision on a player because of an injury. Barton will make a game-time decision on his starting pitcher.

South Fayette ace Dillon Haviland pitched a two-hitter in the semifinals Monday. Barton is not sure Haviland will be ready to pitch on three days' rest. If not, Zack Fettig will start. Haviland pitched a no-hitter in the first round of the PIAA playoffs.

"He threw 85 percent fastballs [Monday] in the semifinals, so there was not a lot of strain on his arm," Barton said. "What I am going to do is I will get them both in the bullpen before the game starts. If Dillon looks sharp, then I will put him out there. If he's not sharp, I will put Zack out there."

Maybe it should not come as a surprise that Shaler has made it to the PIAA Class AAAA final. After all, the Titans made it to the title game three years in a row from 2004-06 and won two championships.

But, when you consider how young Shaler is this season, the Titans' run to the title game would be considered surprising. Shaler does not have a senior in the starting lineup, and the Titans start one sophomore (third baseman Samantha Montoya) and three freshmen -- catcher Lauren Hackett, first baseman Jamie Roth and second baseman Jess Vannucci. Also, junior Abby Nichter is in her first season as the No. 1 pitcher.

Shaler meets Parkland in the Class AAAA title game tomorrow at Shippensburg University.

Since beginning their season 6-4, the Titans have won 10 of 11 games -- the loss was to Hempfield, 3-2, in the WPIAL championship. Shaler came back and beat Hempfield, 1-0, in the PIAA quarterfinals.

"I think our biggest key was we just had to learn to relax and not be uptight," Nichter said.