Eight baseball teams from Valley qualify for districts

May 15—Rain mucked up this final week of the high school baseball regular season, pushing several games beyond Wednesday's deadline to qualify for the postseason.

None of the postponements affected the district playoffs, however.

Eight teams from the Valley qualified in District 4, with Danville (15-4) topping the Class 4A field and Selinsgrove (16-2) the No. 1 seed in the Districts 2/4 Class 5A subregional.

The Ironmen have already won as many games in a season as they have in Devin Knorr's 18 seasons as coach. A win today at Shikellamy would give Danville its most regular-season wins since finishing 18-2 in 2003.

"At this point in time in the year, we're trying to get around to playing our best baseball going into the playoffs," Knorr said Monday after beating Class 2A qualifier Southern Columbia. "We'll see. (The District 4 Class 4A tournament) is going to be tough."

This is Danville's third consecutive district playoff berth after winning 11 games last year and 10 in 2022.

"We came into the year knowing we were going to be pretty decent," said Ironmen junior Cole Duffy, "and I think this kind of took off on us, and we're like, 'We can actually be something this year.'

"We know it, and we're chasing it."

Montoursville (13-4) and Mifflinburg (13-4) are seeded second and third in Class 4A, respectively. Their Heartland Athletic Conference-Division II game on Tuesday was halted by rain with the Wildcats up 2-0 in the bottom of the second inning.

Mifflinburg, the defending district champion, qualified in consecutive years for the first time since 2018-19.

Jersey Shore beat Midd-West in the completion of a suspended game Wednesday to finish 10-10 and secure a District 4 Class 4A berth for the first time since 2018. The Bulldogs vaulted Milton to claim the Class 4A fourth seed. The Black Panthers turned around a 3-8 start to also finish 10-10 and qualify for districts for the first time since 2018. That year they were included in an eight-team field at 9-10 and sprung a quarterfinal upset of Athens.

The District 4 Class 3A tournament has Mount Carmel (12-5) as the No. 2 seed behind defending champion Hughesville (15-3). The Red Tornadoes are in line to face No. 3 Central Columbia (10-8) in districts for the third year in a row, having lost the previous two.

Warrior Run (12-8) earned the fifth and final Class 3A berth with its best regular-season record since going 16-4 on the way to a district silver medal in 2016. The Defenders, who won just eight times from 2018-22, earned consecutive district berths for the first time since 2016-17.

Southern Columbia (11-7) qualified for the third time in four years, earning the No. 7 seed in the eight-team Class 2A tournament. The Tigers have won nine of their last 12 games, losing only to district top seeds Danville and Hughesville, as well as Mount Carmel, in that span.

Selinsgrove, the two-time defending Districts 2/4 Class 5A champion, claimed the subregional's No. 1 seed by a slim margin over Abington Heights (17-3). The Seals are scheduled to begin postseason play against Shikellamy (4-14) at home Wednesday.