ALTOONA — The Seneca Valley baseball team had no problem with this bit of irony.

Less than four weeks ago, the Raiders saw their dreams of a WPIAL title dashed after surrendering eight runs in extra innings to Bethel Park in the district semifinals.

Saturday afternoon, the Raiders managed eight runs of their own in the ninth inning and it yielded a state championship.

With the game tied 1-1, SV sent 12 batters to the plate in the top of the ninth frame, claiming the PIAA Class AAAA championship with a 9-1 win over Souderton at Altoona's Blair County Ballpark.

"I believed all year that we had a realistic shot at winning a state title," said SV coach Eric Semega after the game. "But to actually be standing here right now, it's unbelievable."

Through seven innings of play, the two teams had combined for just four hits, with the Raiders collecting three of them.

Souderton coach Mike Childs was forced to pull starter Kyle Greenwalt after seven innings put him at the PIAA limit of 14 innings in a week and reliever Brian Conrad surrendered a run to the Raiders in the top of the eighth.

After Conrad's teammates managed to tie the game in the bottom of the inning, SV's bats ended the competitive aspect of the contest in the next half inning.

Leadoff hitter Gabe Grinder tripled to the right-center field gap and scored when the relay throw sailed into the Raiders' dugout.

SV pitcher Cory Mazzoni followed with a two-base hit, Andrew Fornadel singled and Dan Jergel's base hit drove in courtesy runner Eric Aschley for a 3-1 lead.

Childs would make two more pitching changes by the end of the inning, bringing in Garret Buehler and Keith Moyer.

But SV's offense kept rolling.

The biggest blow was provided by Ken Walrond's bases clearing double to right that scored Brandon Durbin, Phil Double and Shaine Patsilevas for a 7-1 edge.

"Our kids didn't succumb to the pressure," said Semega. "They've battled in so many close games this year and this was a close game until the last inning."

Keeping Souderton's offense at bay was Mazzoni, who proved why he was recently chosen as the WPIAL Quad A pitcher of the year.

Tallying 10 strikeouts and three walks (two intentional), Mazzoni seemed unhittable for most of the day.

The first hit he surrendered was a two-out double to Indians' shortstop Eric Hink in the bottom of the sixth inning.

But it was in the bottom of the eighth inning when Mazzoni showed what he is made of.

With SV leading 1-0, the Indians (23-4) received an RBI-single from Marcus Stull that tied the game.

After a hit-batsman and an intentional walk, Souderton had the bases loaded and a state championship standing at third base in Ryan Parmer with just one out.

But Mazzoni got Ryan Brown and Buehler to ground into back-to-back fielder's choices to end the inning.

"I was just trying to keep the ball low and allow my defense to help me," Mazzoni said.

"I told the guys late in the game that the team that wins would be the team that came up with the big hit," said Semega. "(Souderton) had their shot and didn't come through, but we did."

"I will forever think of how close we were to winning a state championship," said Childs. "It crossed my mind to run a suicide squeeze there with the bases loaded. But I didn't pull the trigger and here we are the losing team. There's always the what-ifs."

After hitting a batter in the ninth, Mazzoni struck out Landon Shoemaker and Ron Phillips before getting Eric Broney to fly out to Double, who raced beyond the left-field foul line toward the seats and made a diving catch in foul territory to seal the win — a fantastic catch to end a spectacular season."My legs were feeling pretty empty there at the end of the game," said Mazzoni. "But I just had to keep battling."For the first seven innings, the Raiders' offense was almost as frustrated as Souderton's.Greenwalt gave up just three hits in his seven innings of work, striking out six and not walking a batter.When SV (22-2) did get runners on base, it was unable to turn them into any runs.Walrond and Patsilevas reached base on an error and a single in the third and sixth inning, respectively, but both were thrown out trying to steal second base.Grinder reached on another error in the fourth, but was soon after picked off of first base.Tyler Bream led off the eighth inning with an infield single, moved to second base on Kevin Rohm's sacrifice bunt and to third on Patsilevas' fly out to right.With two outs, Walrond finally broke the scoreless tie with a single to left, bringing home Bream with the game's first run."In my opinion, that was the biggest hit of the game," Semega said of Walrond's RBI-single in the eighth. "It kind of broke the ice with the confidence level in our dugout.""It was a curveball," said Walrond of his hit in the eighth.Walrond ended the game with a single, double, a run scored and four RBI."Our two pitchers (Mazzoni and Kyle Helisek) kept us in every game this year," Walrond added. "It feels fantastic to be able to come through with a couple of hits in a game like this."<B>Seneca Valley 000 000 018—9 12 3Souderton 000 000 010—1 3 5</B>Cory Mazzoni and Matt Johnson; Kyle Greenwalt (6k, 0bb), Brian Conrad (8), Garret Buehler (9, 0k, 1bb), Keith Moyer (9, 1k, 0bb) and Ryan Brown.<B>W:</B> Mazzoni (10 K, 3 BB). <B>L:</B> Conrad (1k, 1bb).<B>Seneca Valley (22-2):</B> Ken Walrond 1B 2B R 4RBI, Jim Burry 1B R, Gabe Grinder 3B R RBI, Cory Mazzoni 1B 2B, Andrew Fornadel 1B R, Tyler Bream 2-1B R, Dan Jergel 1B RBI, Phil Double 1B R RBI, Shaine Patsilevas 1B R, Eric Aschley R, Brandon Durbin R<B>Souderton (23-4):</B> Marcus Stull 1B RBI, Eric Hink 1B, Mike Franklin 1B, Mike Bergey R