Mount Carmel ace David Yagodzinskie came into Tuesday’s District 4 Class AAA championship game red hot. He threw a perfect game against Troy in the semifinals last Friday to get Mount Carmel to Bowman Field.

Surely that was a standard of performance he couldn’t reach again. 

Forget that. Yagodzinskie backed up his perfect game with a no-hitter, stifling Hughesville’s offense en route to a 1-0 victory over the Spartans to capture the Tornadoes’ second-straight district title. 

Yagodzinskie was in complete command of the game from the first pitch he threw. The senior was routinely in the 90-91 mph range on the Bowman Field radar gun and hit 93. Couple that with a wipeout breaking ball that he both threw for strikes and as a pitch for Spartan hitters to chase, and you had a pitcher that was simply unhittable on Tuesday.

Hughesville’s only baserunner, the only one that Yagodzinskie has allowed in his last two starts, reached on an infield error. Hard-hit balls were few and far between as he struck out 15 on just 88 pitches.

“It’s awesome, I don’t know how to explain it,” Yagodzinskie said. “It’s just hard to explain. I’m at a loss for words.”

Hughesville, who got to the district final and clinched their berth in the state tournament with an upset win over top-seeded Warrior Run in the semifinals, had a plan against the Tornado ace. According to coach Chris Kish, they simply didn’t execute that plan.

“We talked about attacking the first pitch fastball, and we just continued to allow him to throw first pitch fastballs. There were multiple innings when he didn’t throw a secondary pitch,” Kish said. “If you kick out the back line, put get front foot down, and put it in play (you can have success). We didn’t do that today. That’s why you lose.”

Hughesville starting pitcher Nate Beiber went pitch for pitch with Yagodzinskie for much of the game. Though he was some 15 mph slower on the radar gun, Beiber kept the Tornadoes off-balanced all game. He allowed just an unearned run and three hits over 5 1/3 innings, striking out one and walking one. 

“He’s effective. He’s landing pitches. We knew that (Mount Carmel) was struggling offensively to swing it and we knew that they had struggled against guys that were a little bit softer, not as firm,” Kish said. 

It became clear early on that the first team to score would almost certainly win this game. Mount Carmel had a good chance to score early in the game in the bottom of the third, putting two runners on with one out. But Spartan third baseman Trent Wetzel fielded a chopper, stepped on third base, and threw a rocket over to first base for an inning-ending double play.

Hughesville got their first and only baserunner of the game when Wynter Fogleman hit a slow roller to the left side of the infield that was misplayed for an error. But, Yagodzinskie got a strikeout and induced a flyout to end the threat. 
Mount Carmel broke through in the fifth. Gabe Yuskoski had a leadoff walk, Walker McGinley reached on a one-out error that advanced pinch runner Logan Pizzoli to third, and Brody Brinkash hit a sacrifice fly to to left to score the game’s only run. 

Yagodzinskie mowed down the final six Spartan hitters of the game, and struck out the side in a dominant seventh inning to cap off a district playoff performance that may indeed stand alone as the best in the history of District 4 baseball. 

Both teams will play in the state tournament next Monday.