Not long into the season, the Seneca Valley baseball motto of “Why not us?” had turned into “What has happened to us?”

The Raiders were playing poorly and losing — a lot.

Somehow, Seneca Valley squeaked into the playoffs with a 6-11 overall record on the strength of a 5-5 mark and a third-place tie in section play.

The Raiders took advantage of their clean slate.

And their new motto: “Find a way.”

Vince Augustine hit a three-run home run in the fourth inning to stake the Raiders to a 10-2 lead over No. 1 seed Hempfield and cruised to a 10-5 win in the first round of the WPIAL Quad-A playoffs at West Mifflin High School Friday afternoon.

Hemfield (16-4) came into the playoffs riding a 10-game winning streak.

“Our ‘Why not?’ motto kind of fizzled out early in the season when we were playing really badly,” said Seneca Valley coach Eric Semega. “When we got into the playoffs, we went with the motto of ‘Find a way’ and we found lots of ways to take care of business (Friday).”

John Davis also hit a solo home run for the Raiders.

Troy Martin worked 4 1/3 innings in relief of starting pitcher Brandon Schlick to pick up the victory.

Seneca Valley was scheduled to play Shaler (14-7) in the quarterfinals at noon today at Fox Chapel.

The Raiders have advanced to the WPIAL quad-A finals the last three seasons.

Few thought Seneca Valley would even get the chance for a fourth in a row, especially as a 16th seed.

“We deserve to be where we are, the 16th seed,” Semega said. “But I felt that this year, whoever got one of the top four seeds, there was no guarantees because everyone is so equal. A number of higher seeds have lost already.

“I’m sure it was tough to seed the teams,” Semega said, laughing. “Everyone but us.”

Augustine also had a double and drove in five runs for the Raiders.

Semega was unsure who he would start on the mound for Saturday’s game.

He was just happy to be playing again.

“I think not having a lot of time to think about it will be a good thing,” he said.