At one point in the 1984 baseball season, Chambersburg did not look like a championship team.
The Trojans went 0-3 over a 10-day span in early May, committing a total of 13 errors, and were left with a 9-4 record. But in the next game, a 4-1 win over Mechanicsburg, Chambersburg survived a Wildcat rally in the seventh inning when pitcher Andy Shreiner struck out Shawn Abner – who would be the No. 1 pick in the Major League Draft that year by the Mets – with two runners on base. And from that point on, Chambersburg was nearly invincible, going 16-1 the rest of the way. In the playoffs, the team was 8-0, outscoring its opponents 62-22, capped by the school’s first PIAA championship.
In the first round of the District 3 Class AAA playoffs, Dover put a scare into Chambersburg, which needed a 3-run sixth inning to tie the game, then won 8-7 in the eighth inning when Dave Stewart drew a bases-loaded walk. Tony Hartman led the way to a 12-2 victory over Hershey in the quarterfinals, hitting a home run and driving in four runs. Shreiner hurled a two-hitter to blank Cumberland Valley 6-0 in the semifinals. The Trojans had never won a District 3 title to that point, but that quest was taken care of quickly when they piled up eight runs in the first inning of the championship tilt against Mechanicsburg and won 8-2 as Brian Corwell had a strong game on the mound.
The PIAA tournament began with a 5-2 win over Berwick. Shreiner twirled a four-hitter and contributed a home run and three RBIs, and Rip Lawhead belted a two-run double. Brian Whitfield’s grand slam highlighted a 9-3 homer-happy quarterfinal win over Upper Darby in which Hartman blasted a pair of HRs and Brian Etter added one. Semifinal opponent Wilkes-Barre Coughlin came into the game with a big reputation and a cocky attitude, with eight players in its lineup boasting a batting average over .360. But Shreiner held them to just four hits and Stewart had a big day at the plate, going 4-for-5 in an 11-5 victory. That put the Trojans into the final, held the next day, June 15, at Shippensburg University. Exactly five years earlier, Chambersburg had lost 2-1 to State College in its only other state championship appearance. The Trojans’ opponent was Central of Martinsburg, which knocked off favorite Allderdice in the semifinals.
Ron Wiegand was named the starting pitcher for the final, and he was up to the task. The Scarlet Dragons did take a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a walk, a base hit and a throwing error trying to nail the runner at third base. But a bigger inning was avoided when Lawhead fielded a grounder at first base, stepped on the bag, then threw home to catch the runner trying to score from third base. The rest of the way, Wiegand was nearly untouchable. He fired a 3-hitter, walked 2 and struck out 6 batters, and he retired the final 9 Central batters. The Chambersburg offense got to Scarlet Dragon pitcher Bart Mock (who played the game with a broken bone in his non-throwing hand) in the bottom of the third inning. Hartman lined a single to right with one out and Bobby Curfman followed with a towering drive on a 1-and-2 curveball that carried over the fence in left field for a home run and a 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the sixth, the Trojans got a little insurance when Stewart bombed a solo homer to center. The 3-1 victory’s final out came on a grounder to Lawhead and the celebration began. It was the first of three state championships for the program.
Coach Bob Thomas, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame last fall and passed away this year, said this at a celebration in Memorial Square that drew around 1,000 fans: “We thought we had a pretty good chance at this (championship). We might be blowing a little smoke, but when you take 29 guys to start the season and you still have 29 guys at the end of the season, that shows the coaches that (the players) have a lot of desire. Everyone did their part. It was an all-out effort.”
Chambersburg finished with a 25-5 record and was ranked No. 11 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball.
Other players not mentioned in the above story included Cliff Salmon, John Pogue, Tom Knepper, John Herb, Joe Tosten, Tim Patterson, Jim Egolf, Mel Fager, Rich Schoenleber, Brad Shoemaker, Pat Kane, Ron Culbertson, Allen Jones, Keith Swartz, Darby Crum, Richie Bell, Terry Newman, Lewis Crist, John Ross and Kevin Getz, and assistant coach Dave Etter.
