Pine-Richland three-peats

When Dan Koller's batting average dipped to "about .130" earlier this season, Pine-Richland coach Kurt Wolfe benched his senior center fielder.

"It hurt," Koller said. "I hit the lowest of the lows."

Koller stuck with it, and on Wednesday, he hit Pine-Richland into the WPIAL record books.

Koller homered twice, capped by a game-winning homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat rival Hampton, 6-5, at Falconi Field and give the Rams an unprecedented third consecutive WPIAL baseball title.

Koller finished 2 for 4 with three RBI, as Pine-Richland (18-3) became the first school in the history of the WPIAL tournament -- dating back to 1944 -- to win three titles in a row.

"It's the best feeling I've ever had," Koller said. "Knowing this team won three, and no other team has done that. That's all you can hope for going into high school."

No. 8 seed Hampton (17-6) had tied the score at 5-all in the top of the sixth inning on Chris Beatty's second homer of the game, a two-run shot off Rams ace John Karr.

But Koller led off the seventh, and ripped a 1-0 fastball from Hampton reliever Jason Steen (1-1) over the left-field fence. Koller pointed to the sky after the ball cleared the 12-foot wall and circled the bases to meet a mob of his celebrating teammates at home plate.

"No one told these kids we weren't supposed to win three straight," said Wolfe, an assistant on the past two champions. "Someone forgot to tell them."

Hampton, which beat Section 1-AAA rival Pine-Richland, 19-6, in April, was denied its first WPIAL baseball crown. The Talbots erased early deficits of 2-1 and 5-2 off Karr.

"We came back and then to lose it that way, on a walk-off home run," Beatty said. "It's like a storybook ending for them."

Karr (10-0), who started in all three WPIAL finals, allowed five earned runs on five hits in seven innings. The Penn State recruit struck out 10 and walked three.

"We had our chances," Hampton coach Gary Wilson said. "We just didn't capitalize."

Hampton led, 1-0, in the top of the second inning on Beatty's 10th homer of the season. Pine-Richland made it 2-1 in the bottom of the second on Brian Miller's RBI single and Tony DiPasquale's sacrifice fly off Hampton starter Kevin Barberich.

Hampton's Sean Hennessey, who went 2 for 3 with two stolen bases, tripled and scored to make it 2-all, but Koller homered for a 4-2 Pine-Richland lead. Sophomore second baseman Brett Mollenhauer, whose older brother, Dale, was a key player on the 2004 WPIAL champion team, hit a two-out single to give P-R a 5-2 lead after four innings, before Hampton rallied.

"A lot of the seniors are bitter right now," Beatty said. "I know I'm very bitter about this one."

Koller tried to stay positive when his early-season hitting slump cost him a starting job. Pine-Richland kept winning, but for two weeks, Koller was relegated to a spectator. It was not the way he envisioned his final year of high school baseball.

"I was looking to come out and be the reason why we won," Koller said. "To sit there on the bench and watch it happen, it really hurt. But it only drove me more."

Said Wolfe, "He was slumping, and he knew it. Everyone was asking 'Why aren't you playing.' He wasn't hitting the ball. He understood that."

Koller spent many hours with shortstop Colin Durborow at the batting cage and swung into a net his dad put in his garage.

Koller came back, hitting out of the No. 9 spot early on. He hit his first home run of the season in the section finale against Blackhawk.

"I had no idea what I was going to do," Koller said. "I just kept working. I found my swing again."

And, once again, Pine-Richland found gold.