The YDL Sports Network is counting down the Top 25 moments, events, performances, games, etc from the 2023-24 school year.
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. – When the 2023 baseball season came to a close for Punxsutawney with a second straight trip to the PIAA Class 3A semifinals, it was presumed to have ended a great two-year stretch for the Chucks, who went to back-to-back PIAA semifinals.
After all, Punxsutawney was graduating six or seven key players from those teams, including ace Jake Sikoria.
While a couple of young guns were returning in Nevin Day and Coy Martino as well as two-year starting catcher Cooper Hallman, six or seven holes is a big ask to fill.
But fill it the Chucks did.
Sophomore Parker Stahlman burst onto the scene and ended up earning both the YDL Sports Network Pitcher and Rookie of the Year going 7-2 with a 0.85 ERA.
Other players also stepped into huge roles including Maddox Hetrick, Brody Stouffer, Luke Miller, and Donnie Bender.
The end result was a third consecutive trip to the PIAA semifinals with some unbelievable moments along the way.
Punxsutawney started the journey by knocking off rival Brookville, 11-1, in the D9 title game behind four RBIs from Martino, who also threw 4 ⅓ innings of two-hit, one-run ball.
Rewatch the D9 title game
Next up was Somerset in a subregional just to get into the PIAA playoffs.
This time it was all Stahlman.
The sophomore tossed a five-hit shutout, and the Chucks scored the game’s only run when Luke Silverstein stole home plate on the back end of a double steal play.
Rewatch the game
As fate would have it, Riverside, the defending PIAA champion, got upset in the WPIAL title game and would be the Punxsutawney opponent.
The Panthers believed that the WPIAL setback was just temporary and another run to the state title was well within their grasp.
Stahlman had other ideas.
Throwing his second consecutive playoff shutout, this time a four-hitter with eight strikeouts, the first-year varsity player lifted the Chucks to a 3-0 win.
Hetrick helped supply the offense with a couple of hits and an RBI.
Rewatch the Riverside game
Next up, was South Allegheny, a team making its first-ever appearance in the PIAA postseason.
With Stahlman not eligible to pitch, Punxsutawney turned to Day.
And while the sophomore didn’t have his best stuff, he had enough stuff to lead the Chucks to a 4-1, five-inning, rain-shortened victory.
Punxsutawney scored all its runs in the first innings with Stouffer driving in a pair.
Rewatch the South Allegheny game
Onto the semifinals for the third straight year, a rough first inning that saw WPIAL champion Avonworth score three times in the frame ended the Chucks’ season with a 5-3 loss.
But it was a season that once again showed that Punxsutawney baseball is more than a team, it is a program.
