LA PLUME, PA – Championship Weekend for the 2025 United East Baseball Championship went down over the weekend with Keystone College coming out on top with their 20^th-consecutive conference championship as the Highlanders' playoff run came to an end on Saturday evening.
 
Cairn (28-16) took on the reigning champions to open the weekend on Friday, hosted by Wilkes University. The Giants got on the board in the second, stringing together four hits for three runs, adding another in the third to get ahead 4-0. As the Highlanders were held scoreless, Keystone (33-9) scored again in the seventh.
 
Senior right fielder Dylan Jackson (Levittown, PA / Chestnut Hill College) got started in the eighth with a two-out double, coming around to score as classmate Will Wikner (Gaithersburg, MD / Shenandoah University) singled up the middle. The Giants got the run back in the bottom half as Cairn scratched across another run in the ninth with sophomore designated hitter Andrew Holt (Sunrise, FL / New College of Florida) scoring on senior left fielder Tyler Harris' (Oxford, PA / Oxford Area) single.
 
A 6-2 win for Keystone would put Cairn in the elimination bracket as they held the Highlanders to five hits, preparing for their first elimination game with St. Mary's on Saturday)
 
The Highlanders would regroup ahead of their morning matchup with St. Mary's on Saturday, putting up two runs in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly by junior catcher Zach Bauers (Cooper City, FL / Cooper City) and infield single by Holt. Jackson came up in the second, doubling down the left field line to score freshman second baseman Gustavo Villegas (Plantation, FL / Plantation). The Seahawks brought a run across in the third on a pair of hits as Carn held the 3-1 advantage.
 
Senior first baseman Tyler Warr (Langhorne, PA / Neshaminy) and Holt singles in the fourth, scoring two more runs to stretch the lead to 5-1. After two scoreless frames, Villegas singled to score junior third baseman Ben Gagnon (Bethlehem, PA / Northampton CC), with Villegas scoring as Jackson doubled again. Cairn continued to pile it on in the ninth as Jackson worked a bases loaded walk before Wikner and Warr singled to plate three more runs. St. Mary's (13-16) scored another on an error in the bottom half as the Highlanders won the game 11-2 to advance to the second elimination game of the day.
 
Junior lefty Nick Benson (Philadelphia, PA / Father Judge) threw a dominate complete game, going the distance of nine innings with four strikeouts and two runs on 114 pitches, getting his first win on the season in the postseason. Jackson and Warr each added three hits, Jackson with two doubles for three RBI as Holt and sophomore shortstop Nathan Schurga (Wilmington, DE / Conrad Schools of Science) each had a pair of hits.
 
The next test for the Highlanders would be an elimination game with Penn St. Harrisburg on Saturday afternoon. Harrisburg (33-10-1) got started with three runs in the first before a 12-spot in the second to begin putting the game out of reach. Four more runs came through in the next two frames, putting the Nittany Lions ahead 19-0.
 
Cairn got on the board with a passed ball after Warr tripled, opening things up as Harris singled and Villegas doubled, scoring two more before Jackson added a two-run singled and Schurga game in on a wild pitch, cutting the lead to 19-6. The Nittany Lions threw up four more in the bottom half, pushing the lead back to 23-6. The Highlanders scored six more in the eighth as Wikner walked with the bases loaded and Warr then singled. Bauers added a 2 RBI double with Holt beating out an infield single to score another, Cairn now down 23-12. The Nittany Lions' offense couldn't be stopped as three more came in to score in the bottom of the eighth as the Highlanders were held off in the ninth, ending their playoff run one game shy of the conference championship.
 
Bauers had three hits with two RBI in the season finale with a pair of doubles as Warr and Villegas added two more hits to the day.