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Decade’s best No. 3: Loyalsock baseball won 22 in a row during 2015 season

SUN-GAZETTE FILE Loyalsock’s Hunter Webb celebrates on second base during a state tournament game in 2015.

I start this latest ranking story with a confession. There was a time when I had this 2015 Loyalsock team ranked No. 1 in the last few weeks … and No. 2 … and finally No. 3.

One gets the point.

Excellent cases can be made for any of the top three teams in this series being ranked No. 1. One will learn why the other two earned higher rankings later, but wherever anyone wants to rank 2015 Loyalsock, it always will be in the discussion as one of the area’s all-time great teams.

This was the culmination of arguably the greatest run by a high school baseball team in state history. A group of seniors who had started and/or greatly contributed since 2012 closed their scholastic careers with 90 victories, two Class AA state championships, three district championships, three league titles and three state semifinal appearances. Loyalsock came closer than any other team in PIAA history to winning three consecutive state championships in 2015, reaching the state semifinals before losing to Neumann-Goretti. Loyalsock romped to HAC-II and District 4 titles, tied the program-record for wins — which was set a year earlier — and lost just two games entering the state semifinals, those coming in the prestigious National High School Invitational against some of the country’s elite teams.

Jimmy Webb, Kyle Datres, Tommy Baggett, Luke Glavin, Evan Moore, Joey Balawajder and Ben Sosa helped Loyalsock win 90 games in four seasons. Think about that. That is 22 1/2 wins per season. The regular season features just 20 games and inclement weather cost Loyalsock three regular-season games over those four years. Included in that 90 total is 11 state tournament wins and a remarkable 22 playoff victories. Loyalsock might have fallen just short of winning a third state championship in a row, but its seniors are among the state’s most decorated class ever.

“The seniors have done it all. You can’t really put it into words,” Loyalsock coach Jeremy Eck said following senior day that year. “They’ll look back at some of the things they’ve done and realize how special it was.”

Their final year together was pretty special, too.

Loyalsock entered the 2015 season with three major Division I recruits and two future Division II players. The Lancers also welcomed freshman Hunter Webb who produced a brilliant scholastic career. They also welcomed back Glavin after the Duke-bound pitcher missed most of 2014 with a blood clot in his right shoulder. So impressive was Loyalsock’s pedigree that it was invited to play in the National High School Invitational, a tournament featuring state powers from across the country. Despite having no outdoor practice time and playing against mostly teams who were well into their seasons, Loyalsock went 2-2 in Cary, North Carolina, beating Horizon, Arizona, and Leesville, North Carolina, by a 12-2 margin.

Once back in Pennsylvania, Loyalsock was unbeatable until its final game. The Lancers rattled off 22 consecutive victories en route to the state semifinals, often overwhelming opponents with one of the state’s best pitching staffs and most balanced offenses. Loyalsock battered opponents, 214-59, beating them by a six-run average. Loyalsock shut out 10 teams and held five others to one run.

Datres and Glavin were the high school equivalent of going against Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Datres went 7-1 with a 1.17 ERA, throwing no-hitters or one-hitters seven times. He also upped his playoff record to 12-0 before taking the loss against Neumann-Goretti. Glavin was just as formidable, coming back strong off his 2014 injury and going 8-1 with 47 strikeouts in 35 2/3 innings. Jimmy Webb had not pitched since his freshman year, but was tremendous as well, earning the win in the district final and going 6-0 with a 0.41 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 29 1/3 innings.

Webb also helped fuel a powerful offense and finished as the program’s all-time hits leader, delivering 151 and hitting .493 with an area-best 31 RBIs in 2015. Like Webb, Datres hit above .400 for a fourth straight year, batting .420 with 29 runs, 19 RBIs and a compiling a .592 on-base percentage. First baseman Baggett again was an elite run-producer, and the future Shippensburg all-star hit .377 with seven doubles and 18 RBIs. Hunter Webb (.364), Moore (.333) and Sosa (.300) also hit .300 or better, and sophomore Larry VanStavoren enjoyed a breakthrough season. Nate Krizan played super defense at shortstop when Datres was pitching. Baggett might have been the district’s best fielding first baseman, and Moore was a weapon behind the plate, effectively stifling opponents on the bases. Future Mount St. Mary’s pitcher Andrew Malone built off a strong freshman season and added a quality left-handed arm to an already stacked rotation.

Obviously, this team’s talent was off the charts. But there was a hidden element to the success that year and over the previous three seasons. Most of these players had been competing together since they first started playing baseball and a family-type atmosphere had been built. That closeness was powerful and took Loyalsock to another level.

“It helps a lot. Maybe people that don’t play the game might not understand it as much as people who have played the game how much being close as a team means,” Datres said that year. “Just knowing when you fall down someone else is going to come and pick you up means a lot and that’s what this team is made of.”

“It’s a lot more special because you care that much more and you don’t want to let the guy next to you down. You want to pick them up,” Jimmy Webb said. “When I’m struggling and they pick me up it makes you feel special and it’s kind of hard to get upset when your whole team is like that.”

Loyalsock was pushed hard in its first district playoff game, but its bond could not be broken. The Lancers scored two sixth-inning runs and Datres threw another shutout as they blanked Southern Columbia, 2-0. The next four games featured Loyalsock at its best with it outscoring four strong teams, 36-2. Glavin threw a five-inning no-hitter in a 10-0 win against Warrior Run, Webb stifled Troy in a 12-1 district championship victory, and both Datres and Glavin mowed through Montrose and Schuylkill Haven as Loyalsock powered its way into the state’s Final Four for a third year in a row. In a sport as unpredictable as baseball, this truly was a run the likes of which the area has never seen and may never see again.

“They have some very talented players, but to win that much you need consistency, preparation, mental and emotional toughness and obviously, some good-old fashioned heart,” Neumann-Goretti coach Kevin Schneider said. “They’ve certainly shown they have all three.”

Loyalsock’s semifinals matchup with Neumann-Goretti was a rematch of a memorable Eastern Final which Loyalsock won, 4-3, a year earlier. The Saints waited a full year to try and exact revenge and played their best game, defeating Loyalsock, 9-1. The game was spread over two days because of storms suspending it in the fourth inning with Goretti leading 5-1. Loyalsock loaded the bases in the fifth inning, but the Saints escaped unscathed and pulled away late.

Loyalsock did not win a third state championship in a row, but it went down fighting and how it defended its titles revealed everything about why it became a dynasty. Another state title would have made the players happy, but they hardly needed another banner to validate themselves as champions.

“Their legacies are secure,” Eck said. “The things they’ve done … there’s a lot of people out there that would just love to win a district championship. To do what they have done is remarkable.”

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