Overpowering Devin Sheerin pitches Exeter into PIAA qualifier

Devin Sheerin kept Exeter’s baseball season alive Tuesday, striking out 12 in a 9-3 win over 16th-seeded Gettysburg in a District 3 Class 5A playback game at Reiffton.

The junior right-hander was one out from a shutout but was removed after a two-out error on ground ball because he exceeded the PIAA pitch-count limit.

“He threw another tremendous game,” said Exeter coach Justin Freese.

The win sends the fifth-seeded Eagles (17-7) into a state qualifier Thursday at 4:30 at home against seventh-seeded Red Land (14-9), a 4-3 winner Tuesday over 14th-seeded Lampeter-Strasburg.

A win Thursday will send Exeter to the PIAA Tournament for the first time since 2013. The Eagles would open against the District 1 champ.

“It’s a great opportunity to get back to states,” said Freese. “Not doing it in (so long), it would be special for us, especially with this group of kids; it’s a very senior-heavy team.

“They’re awesome young men. It would just be fun and a great opportunity for the guys to play at that level.”

The Eagles broke the game open with a six-run second inning. Sophomore Gavin Marr squeezed a run home with a bunt single. Nick Sydor and Alex Kelsey also had RBI singles.

Four of the runs were unearned.

Sheerin, who improved to 5-1, ran into trouble in the first inning as the Warriors put runners on second and third with none out. He induced a comebacker to the mound for the first out, then struck out the next two batters.

“That just gave us the little bit of momentum that we needed to get things going,” said Freese.

Marr and Kelsey each had two hits and two RBIs; Sydor had two hits and scored twice. Colin Payne also had two hits.

The Eagles had 11 hits and took advantage of six errors to scored eight unearned runs.

“We took advantage of some mistakes, and had some key hits, and it ended up being a nice day,” said Freese.

The Eagles were beaten 14-7 in the quarterfinals by fourth-seeded Ephrata; that sent them into the playback round. The top five teams in Class 5A reach the state tournament.

This marks the first time since 2014 that Exeter has won multiple games in the same district tournament. It reached the semifinals that season but lost two straight games to be eliminated.

Sheerin has struck out 60 batters over 41 innings. He lowered his ERA to 2.04. He won’t be eligible to pitch Thursday after throwing 107 pitches Tuesday.

Gettysburg pulled off a huge upset in the opening round, beating top-seeded Muhlenberg 8-7 in 10 innings. The Warriors were beaten 12-2 in a five-inning game in the quarterfinals by ninth-seeded Donegal.