PIAA Class 5A baseball championship game preview: Shaler vs. Upper Dublin

By: Don Rebel
Wednesday, June 11, 2025 | 10:23 PM

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This will be the eighth season the PIAA has hosted a Class 5A baseball championship.

Four of the previous seven winners were from the WPIAL.

Latrobe was the first champion crowned in 2017. Bethel Park won back-to-back state gold in 2021-2022 and Shaler won the 5A title two years ago in 2023.

The only time a District 1 team was crowned 5A champion was in 2018 when Marple Newtown needed 10 innings to beat Lower Dauphin.

Here is a look at the third of six PIAA baseball championship games at Penn State that will conclude Day 1 on late Thursday afternoon.

Class 5A

Shaler (20-6) vs. Upper Dublin (17-5)

4:30 p.m. Thursday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park at Penn State

Coaches: Brian Junker, Shaler; Ed Wall, Upper Dublin

Broadcast: Video on PCN-TV

Path to Penn State: Shaler defeated District 3 No. 4 Conestoga Valley, 4-0, in the first round; WPIAL No. 3 Bethel Park, 6-3, in the quarterfinals; District 3 champion Lampeter-Strasburg, 2-0, in the semifinals. … Upper Dublin knocked off District 12 champion Franklin Towne Charter, 11-2, in the first round; District 1 No. 3 Hatboro-Horsham, 4-1, in the quarterfinals; District 3 No. 3 Elizabethtown, 3-2, in eight innings in the semifinals.

District postseason: Shaler eliminated Montour, 8-0 in the first round; Connellsville, 6-1, in the quarterfinals; Peters Township, 2-1, in the semifinals; Pine-Richland, 5-2, in eight innings in the WPIAL championship game. … Upper Dublin ousted West Chester Rustin, 3-2 in the quarterfinals; Chichester, 11-0, in the semifinals; lost to Radnor, 2-1, in the District 1 championship game

Players to watch

Shaler: Senior Colby Weber has been nearly unhittable this season. The East Carolina commit won three games in the WPIAL playoffs and picked up two more wins in the state playoffs, including a semifinal shutout of Lampeter-Strasburg where he allowed three hits and struck out nine. The Titans will likely turn to senior Dante Deleonibus, who went the distance in allowing three earned runs on eight hits with eight strikeouts in the quarterfinal victory over Bethel Park. Deleonibus also was the winning pitcher in the WPIAL semifinals win over Peters Township. Against Bethel Park, Max Saban had two hits and Kaleb Jokel drove in two runs. In the semifinal win over Lampeter-Strasburg, Troy Leas had two hits and Jokel drove in a run.

Upper Dublin: The Cardinals are expected to turn to a freshman pitcher on Thursday afternoon. Thus far in three PIAA playoff games, Luke Caron is 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA in 9⅓ innings pitched. He faced 28 batters and struck out 12 of them. On offense for Upper Dublin, leadoff hitter Eric Berman is 4 for 10 in the state postseason with three runs scored. Sophomore Gavin Litten is 4 for 11, junior Eddie Stoffel is 3 for 9 with four runs scored and senior Austin Dahl is 3 for 10 with three RBIs.

Streaks: Shaler has won seven straight games since losing back-to-back games to close out the regular season to Mars and North Allegheny. … Upper Dublin has won three games since losing in the District 1 championship game to Radnor and the Cardinals have won six of their last seven overall.

Quotable: “Nobody stopped working,” Shaler coach Brian Junker said of his team’s success this season. “We have had hitters struggle to the point we had to remove them from the lineup, but they never gave up. They worked harder and figured it out. Same with our pitchers. This team is all in, which is rare to get all 23 kids to buy in. We are getting better each week. When you make the playoffs, you get another week to get better. When you win a playoff game, you get another week. When we made the WPIAL semifinals, we bought ourselves two more weeks to get better. This team is a lot better than the one in March or April. They are a resilient, hard-working bunch, and I’m proud of them. But the job is not finished. We have our heads down and our blinders on for one more time.”

Factoids

• Shaler is 22-9 all-time in the PIAA baseball playoffs in 12 appearances. The Titans have reached the PIAA baseball championship game four times and are 2-1 in the state finals. Shaler defeated Coughlin 45 years ago to win the 1980 Class 3A state title, 5-2. The Titans fell to Chambersburg in the 1999 3A state finals, 4-3. Then two years ago, they won an epic 2023 championship game in dramatic fashion, coming back to deliver heartbreak to Strath Haven in eight innings, 9-8.

• Upper Dublin has a 4-4 record in the PIAA playoffs all-time, and this is the first time it will be playing for a state baseball championship.

• The Titans have been streaky in the PIAA playoffs through the years. Shaler won its first six state postseason games from 1980-1981. The program has never lost more than two PIAA playoff games in a row, and currently the Titans are on a seven-game state baseball playoff winning streak dating to 2023.

• The Cardinals are enjoying their biggest success in the state baseball playoffs in this, their fifth all-time appearance. Upper Dublin has been one and done in three previous appearances in 2012, 2023 and last spring, losing in the opening round to Monsignor Bonner-Archbishop Prendergast, 5-3. The Cards’ only previous success came in 2022 when they knocked off Exeter Township in the first round of the 5A state playoffs before falling to Selinsgrove in the quarterfinals, 8-7.

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