2026 Baseball Championship Day 2 Recap: Hazleton Pulls Upset, to Face DuBois in Winner's Bracket Final of Baseball Tournament

DuBois, Pa. - Penn State Hazleton made waves on Saturday, upsetting top East seed Penn State Mont Alto in the double-elimination round of the 2026 PSUAC Baseball Championship Tournament. They joined the West's 1-seed Penn State DuBois in the winner's bracket final after each picked up wins at Stern Field in DuBois.

Hazleton would match their earlier feat in the nightcap, imposing their will early on DuBois and winning in convincing fashion to advance to the championship game. DuBois, who beat Shenango earlier on Saturday, now faces Mont Alto in a rematch of countless PSUAC Baseball Championship games over the past decade.

Mont Alto rebounded with a win over Shenango in an elimination game in the afternoon, securing their spot on Sunday's card. The opening game of the day will be at 10 a.m. at Showers Field in DuBois, with the championship game to feature that game's winner against Hazleton at 12:45 p.m.

West #1 PSU DuBois - 7, West #3 PSU Shenango - 5

DuBois worked some late magic to upend Shenango on Saturday, advancing to the winner's bracket final later. Scoreless for two innings, DuBois scored runs in each of the third through sixth innings to complete the comeback win over the West Division foes.

Shenango scored a run in each of the first two innings, including a home run by Dominic Fornataro on the first pitch of the game, before adding two more on a Jason Malley two-run shot in the third to give the underdogs a 4-0 lead.

DuBois started to scrap back into it, scoring a run in the third to make it 4-1. Trailing 5-1 an inning later, DuBois pushed across two runs from a bases loaded walk and a fielder's choice to make it 5-3. Another run came in the fifth as Braylen Corter drove in Grant Lillard, and the floodgates opened in the sixth as DuBois scored three times, including a go-ahead two-run double from Lukas Colton.

Anthony Miller had four hits for Shenango, driving in a run, while three players from DuBois finished with multiple hits--Josh Stout, Corter and Aaron Miller

East #3 PSU Hazleton - 7, East #1 PSU Mont Alto - 5

Hazleton pulled off their second straight upset of their tournament, this time dispatching divisional opponent Mont Alto in the double-elimination round. After dropping 17 runs in their last game, Hazleton continued the pressue on their opponents, scoring three runs in the first inning, including two sacrifice flies.

Trent Strohecker started the scoring with an RBI single, and Brandon Unger followed up a sac fly in the first with an RBI single in the third to make it 4-0. An RBI double by Cooper Ansbach made it 5-0 and it looked like Hazleton's game. But Mont Alto answered as Garrett Worth crushed a three-run homer to left-center to make it 5-3. 

A Wyatt Kissel double in the fifth made it 6-4, and the teams traded home runs--Josh Smeltzer of Hazleton in the sixth, James Sibert of Mont Alto in the seventh--to give the final tally of 7-5.

Brandon Zeger and Kissel each had three hits for Mont Alto, but Hazleton outhit them 11-10 as its first seven batters in the order recorded a hit, including three from Unger as they advanced to their first winner's bracket final in more than 15 years. 

East #1 PSU Mont Alto - 9, West #3 PSU Shenango - 8, 8 innings

It looked like Mont Alto's title defense was over. Trailing 8-1 heading into the bottom half of the fourth, they needed a lifeline. 

They got one, from two different players. Justin Horne capped a five-run rally with a two-run homer to pull within 8-6 and Wyatt Kissel became the hero after smashing two solo homers, including the game-tying shot to left-center in the home half of the seventh to push the game to extras.

There, Horne would deliver again with an line drive RBI single over the head of the shortstop to drive in the game-winning run and walk Mont Alto off right into more action.

Dominic Fornataro, John Perry and Mason Bevan each had RBI doubles for Shenango, and Anthony Miller homered in Shenango's final game of the season, heading home in heartbreaking fashion.

Mont Alto awaits their opponent for Sunday morning, the loser of the winner's bracket final between DuBois and Hazleton.

East #3 PSU Hazleton - 8, West #1 PSU DuBois - 1

It was another fast start for Hazleton as they quickly scored five runs in the first inning. Three hit batters helped load the bases, and Dylan Colantone opened with an RBI double. Brandon Unger and Josh Smeltzer each single in runs and two more runs would score despite no additional hits by Hazleton.

The lead was all Hazleton starting pitcher Cooper Ansbach needed. Ansbach finished the night with a complete game two-hitter, striking out eight in a dominant performance. Ansbach allowed just six base runners all night as Hazleton was solid defensively behind him, committing no errors.

Ansbach also collected two hits, a run and an RBI while Colantone finished with two hits, two runs and two RBIs. Unger and Smeltzer rounded out the Hazleton players with multiple hits as the team outhit DuBois 10-2. Hazleton created lots of opportunities, but even squandered some as they left 10 runners on base.

DuBois, like Mont Alto, will now have the tougher path to a title on Sunday, needing to win three games--first, in the loser's bracket final, and then twice against Hazleton--to capture the 2026 PSUAC Baseball crown.