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The Bellwood-Antis baseball team has solidified its spot among the best in District 6 2A over the last five seasons.

The Blue Devils have played in District title games and moved on to the PIAA playoffs, last year making it as far as the state final four.

However, one thing has eluded B-A and Coach Steve Conlon in that time – a championship.

The Devils will have the chance at claiming one again tomorrow after advancing to the District 6 championship for the third time in the last four years with a 5-0 victory over Bishop Guilfoyle yesterday in Altoona. They will face Southern Huntingdon in the finals, which will start at 1 p.m. Wednesday at People’s Natural gas Field in Altoona.

Sophomore Travis Luensmann picked up his second win of the postseason with another gem.  He went the distance, tossing a complete-game four-hitter that was highlighted by 10 strikeouts.

In the first round last week, Luensmann also K’d 10 in B-A’s win over Portage.

“I thought we played outstanding yesterday.  Travis was extremely strong on the mound and we fed off of that,”said Coach Conlon, whose other District championship came in his first season in 2003.

When he wasn’t fanning Marauder hitters, Luensmann was assisting his teammates, none more so than leadoff man Ian McFarland, who collected four hits and an RBI, thanks, he said, to a new approach he learned from Luensmann.

“He told me to stay lower in my stance, so I had been working on it,” said McFarland. “I did it in the game and it paid off.”

“We did enough at the plate to score some runs. Ian McFarland had a great day at the leadoff spot going 4-for-4,” said Coach Conlon.

McFarland, who is now 6-for-8 in the playoffs, had a hand in most of the runs B-A scored. He led off the first with a single, stole second, and was plated on a sacrifice fly from Trent Walker. It was 1-0 before Luensmann even took the hill.

“That’s a big momentum builder for me,” Luensmann said of the early leads the Devils have given him in the postseason. “It’s good to know my teammates are backing me up and behind me providing that cushion.”

McFarland made it 2-0 in the second with the first of two doubles, this one scoring Alex Schmoke. A Mark Stewart single in the third got the lead to 3-0.

McFarland was back at it in the fourth, when his second double brought Noah Plank across for a 4-0 lead.

“It feels good to step up and be a leader,” McFarland said. “I’m just trying to get on base any way possible.”

McFarland was one of six Devil batters with hits while Schmoke, who went hitless, scored twice.

“We’re just solid from one through nine,” said McFarland. “We can hit the whole way through the lineup.”

B-A added one insurance run in the sixth, with Walker singling home Schmoke, but the Devils already had all of the runs they would need considering the way Luensman was throwing.

“It’s getting down to me focusing and really preparing myself before every game,” said Luensmann. “I have the confidence to step in and execute in big games.”

Junior Caden Nagle will get the start for B-A in the championship game against Southern, which defeated top-seeded Bishop McCort in the semifinals. The Rockets began the season with three consecutive losses before winning 16 of 17, including a 2-0 victory over the Crushers last week.

McFarland said clean defense will be important behind Nagle.

“Caden throws a lot of strikes and gets a lot of contact, so we’re going to have to play defense behind him,” he said.

Luensmann was a member of the District runner-up last year as a freshman, and he watched in 2015 when his brother Chad lost in the finals while pitching for B-A.

“It’s been three years for the seniors,” said Luensmann. “We want this one a lot and we’ll do anything we can to win the game.”