WILLIAMSPORT, PA – The 2025 United East Baseball Championship got underway on Friday with the #5 Highlanders on the road at the four-seeded Penn College Wildcats for a best-of-three series, which Cairn clinched with two high scoring wins, 12-5 and 19-14, advancing to the Final Four next weekend.
Before any scoring, senior centerfielder
Will Wikner (Gaithersburg, MD / Shenandoah University) recorded his 100
th career hit with a single through the right side in the first inning. The Wildcats woke up Williamsport with two solo home runs, one each in the second and third innings to get ahead 2-0. The Highlanders answered right back in their next half inning, starting off with junior catcher
Zach Bauers (Cooper City, FL / Cooper City) walking and moving into scoring position as sophomore designated hitter
Andrew Holt (Sunrise, FL / New College of Florida) doubled. An RBI groundout and double from senior left fielder
Tyler Harris (Oxford, PA / Oxford Area) tied the game at two apiece.
Penn College (18-18) took control again, scoring in the fifth with a sacrifice fly as they added another in both the sixth and seventh, going ahead 5-2. Senior right fielder
Dylan Jackson (Levittown, PA / Chestnut Hill College) led off the eighth with a walk as Wikner and senior first baseman
Tyler Warr (Langhorne, PA / Neshaminy) singled, sparking the rally. Bauers walked before Holt doubled again to tie the game at 5-5. Junior third baseman
Ben Gagnon (Bethlehem, PA / Northampton CC) and Harris singled, bringing in two more as Gagnon came around to score on an error, Cairn (27-14) up 8-5.
The Wildcats went down in order in the bottom of the eighth as the Highlanders added four more runs as Holt homered in the top of the ninth to make it a 12-5 lead. Sophomore lefty
Zachary Dennis (Midland Park, NJ / Midland Park) continued to deal, holding Penn to a single earned run in his 4.0 innings of work.
Wikner, Holt, and Harris each had three hits in game one, Holt with two doubles and home run for five RBI as Wikner tripled as well. Warr and Gagnon each had two hits in the effort.
Penn had the lead again to begin game two, sending a long home run into the right field seats in the first as a pair of singles afterwards would plate two runs and give the Wildcats a 3-0 advantage. A wild pitch added a run to the lead in the second before Jackson sent a three-run homer over the wall to cut the lead to 4-3 in the third. The Wildcats threw up another run in their half inning to extend the lead to two.
The Highlanders would rally in the fourth, scoring six runs as Gagnon, Harris, Wikner, Warr, and Bauers had hits in the frame, giving Cairn a 9-5 lead. Jackson singled in the fifth, scoring two more with another on a fielder's choice to go up 12-5. Penn College fought back with four runs on seven hits, cutting the Highlander lead to 12-9 as they stranded the bases loaded. They were able to take a 13-12 lead in the sixth on two more hits before the Highlanders piled on seven runs in the final three innings to hold onto a 19-14 victory to clinch their spot in next weekend's championship series.
Harris and sophomore shortstop
Nathan Schurga (Wilmington, DE / Conrad Schools of Science) each had four hits in the matinee, the former with four RBI. Wikner added three more hits to his day with as many RBI while Jackson tied a season-high for the team with six RBI coming on two hits including a home run. Junior reliever
Greg Jessup (Tyler, TX / McKinney Christian) got the win (3-2), allowing only a single earned run in two innings of work while freshman lefty
Josh Smeltzer, Jr. (Reading, PA / Muhlenberg HS) threw a three-inning save. Friday's two wins break the program record for single-season victories (27) once again as well as mark Head Coach Brett Marks' 100th career victory at Cairn.
Cairn will and the three other winners of Friday's action will meet at Keystone College next weekend for the Championship Series starting Friday.
