WASHINGTON — The beginning of Tuesday night's WPIAL Quad A baseball title game between Seneca Valley and Peters Township surprised many people.

But the ending suited the Raiders and their fans just fine.

In a battle of two of the district's best pitchers — SV's Matt Smith and Peters Township's Ryan Minteer — both teams put up four runs in the first two innings of play.

From that point on, however, the Raiders dominated the action and went on to capture the program's first WPIAL title since 1994 with a 15-4 victory at Consol Energy Park.

“Coming in, I knew there were two very good pitchers and I thought it was going to be a 3-2 or 4-2 game,” said Raiders' coach Eric Semega. “I never imagined it would be this type of game.”

“I was surprised to see both teams hit so well early,” said Peters Township coach Joe Maize, whose team entered the game a perfect 15-0 against WPIAL competition. “It was hard to watch this game, with the way it played out. Seneca Valley completely outmanned us.”

Jack Graham put SV ahead for good with a solo home run to left in the top of the third, making the score 5-4, but the Raiders' offense was far from finished.

After scoring three unearned runs in the fourth frame, SV scored a combined seven runs on six hits in the sixth and seventh innings. Included was Sam Fragale's two-run triple that plated Joe McFarland and Brad Collier in the top of the seventh.

“Our hitting has been very consistent,” said Semega. “One through nine in the order, there's not a weak spot.”

It proved to be more than enough offense for Smith, who unlike Minteer, settled down after the second inning.

Smith, a junior right-hander, gave up the four runs on five hits and two free passes, all in the first two frames. After that, he allowed just five baserunners over the final five innings.

He ended the game with nine strikeouts to go with the two walks.

When asked what was working for him later in the game that eluded him early on, Smith said, “Everything. My location was there and I was getting the velocity with my fastball. I'm not sure why I didn't have it early in the game.”

“He was getting frustrated, it was getting to him a bit,” Semega said of Smith's rocky start. “But after that second inning, he was great.”

The Indians (19-2) missed a chance to get back in the game in the bottom of the fifth.

With SV leading 8-4, Peters Township got its first two hitters on base when Brady Sheetz singled and Justin Bianco reached on an infield base hit.

But Smith snuffed out the threat with strikeouts of Austin Hancock, Will McClure and Joe Grossi.

“That was a big missed opportunity,” said Maize. “He (Smith) kept rolling from there.”

Minteer was pulled after four innings. Relievers Mike Bittel, Zach Verner and Hunter Holcombe followed on the mound for the Indians.

PT drew first blood with a RBI single off the bat of Hancock in the bottom of the first inning.

But SV answered with a four-spot in the second. Ben Murray's run-scoring single was followed by Christian Durbin's three-run home run, which he tucked just inside the leftfield foul pole.

“It was a curveball, down low and I basically had to golf it,” said Durbin, SV's No. 9 hitter. “I didn't think it was going to be out.

“I've hit home runs before, but never on a big stage like this,” he added. It doesn't get any better than this.”

Tuesday's win is the biggest for SV baseball since the Raiders defeated Souderton to win the 2007 PIAA title.

“This win is pretty high on the list,” said Semega. “We achieved a lot so far this year.”

Seneca Valley 041 303 4 — 15 13 1Peters Twp 130 000 0 — 4 9 3W: Matt Smith 7 IP (9K, 2BB).

L: Ryan Minteer 4 IP (5K, 3BB).

Seneca Valley (16-3-1): Jon Dorogy 2-1B 2R, Brad Gresock 2B RBI, Sam Fragale 3B R 3RBI, Kyle Gorniak 2-1B 2B R, Jack Graham 1B HR 2RBI, Austin Bream 1B R, Justin Stanger 1B 2R, Ben Murray 1B R RBI, Christian Durbin HR 3RBI, Paul Krevokuch R, Brad Collier 3R, Joe McFarland R

Peters Township (19-2): Andrew Erenberg 1B R RBI, Justin Miller 1B R, Brady Sheetz 1B 2B RBI, Justin Bianco 2-1B, Austin Hancock 1B RBI, Will McClure 1B, Joe Grossi 1B, Chris Olivo R, Mike Chamberlin R

Monday: Seneca Valley vs. McDowell, PIAA Quad A first-round playoff, time and site TBD