The rout not only gave Bellefonte the district championship, but ensured a continued successful tradition carried on. For the eighth time in the last nine years, Bellefonte stands at the top of the District 6 mountain.

Another year, another title for the Red Raiders. It’s almost as guaranteed as the sun rising each morning.

“This program had been tremendous long before I was a part of it,” Bellefonte coach Jon Clark said after the District 6 championship game. “Now that I’m the one in charge, I have always felt like, don’t mess it up and continue the tradition. This group sets the bar for the next group.”

Clark has without question continued that tradition.

TIM WEIGHT/For The Express Bellefonte’s Evan Mattern reaches base during the District 6 Class AAAA championship against Juniata.

Zach Lehman was key in Wednesday’s in, as he threw a five-inning three-hit shutout and offensively, the Red Raiders backed him up and delivered. Oliver Thornburg went 2 for 3 with two home runs and three RBIs, Evan Mattern went 3 for 4 with two doubles and four RBIs and Alten Howell went 2 for 3 with a double and RBI scored.

The win has Bellefonte sitting at 16-4 as the PIAA Class AAAA playoffs get ready to begin next Monday with the first round. Bellefonte will face the District 7-2 runner-up at a site and time to be determined.

Bellefonte has scored an impressive 175 runs this year with ten games this year seeing the Red Raiders score 10 or more.

“When we’re patient, we’re allowing pitches to travel,” Clark said earlier this year. “We’re picking up movement out of pitcher’s hands and not swinging at bad pitches. When we’re doing those things, it’s evident based on the number of hits and number of runs we’re putting on the board.”

While the offense can hit throughout the lineup top to bottom, Bellefonte’s pitching staff is deep with three superb starters who can get the job done on any given day. That includes Lehman (87 strikeouts), Carsen Henry (39 strikeouts) and Triston Heeman (24 strikeouts). Those three have combined to throw 119 2/3 innings as well and have given up just five extra-base hits, although all five were home runs. None of them have allowed a double or triple yet this season.

TIM WEIGHT/For The Express Bellefonte’s baseball players and coaches pose with their District 6 Class AAAA championship plaque and gold medals after beating Juniata. It’s Bellefonte’s eighth district championship in the last nine years.

“”We don’t ask for strikeouts, strikeouts are bonus. We need to throw strikes, allow the defense to make plays when the opportunities come up,” Clark said. “We talk a lot about, ‘Can’t defend a walk.’ So, we put the ball in there and if we have the other pitches going, we can put a little more pressure on their offense to perform and it takes a little pressure off our defense.”

Offensively, Evan Mattern (31 hits), Lehman (29), Braeden Fortney (23), Quentin Crouthamel (21), Oliver Thornburg (20), Isaac Gall (15), Parker VonGunden (12) and Henry (10) all have double-digit hits.

All of them are seniors or juniors as well, and that experience back on the field is beneficial and helping the team excel.

“We’ve brought a lot of guys back from last year, and I think we’ve already done a really good job getting faster, stronger and everything over the offseason,” Mattern said earlier this year. “We’ve been able to make a lot of good adjustments and just get a lot better over the past couple months, so I think that definitely translates over to the field really well and allows us to stay in a lot more games.”

And the key to Bellefonte’s success aside from the talent, is also the ability of the Red Raiders to tweak things and get better. They learn from mistakes and grow as a team, and that’s evident in the fact that Bellefonte has only lost consecutive games once this year.

“We’ve made a lot of good adjustments in games we’ve lost. We’ve lost a couple of close ones, but I think we’ve done a really good job at being in every game,” Mattern said. “I don’t think there’s been a game yet where we’ve been out of it. Being able to be in every game puts you in great position to win a lot of games, obviously.”

Bellefonte has strung together 11 winning seasons, all but two of those years have seen the team win at least 13 or more games as well.

Bellefonte is hoping this year to break back through in states. After winning the PIAA Class AAAA championship in 2023 and finishing with a 20-5 record, Bellefonte has suffered back-to-back first-round exits in the state tournament to Indiana, falling 3-0 in 2024 and 1-0 in 12 innings in 2025.

The Red Raiders reached the state quarterfinals in both 2018 and 2019 before a first-round exit in 2021. There was no season in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic canceling high school athletics in the spring season that year.

“”The key is to just keep playing hard, keep doing what we’ve been doing, make tweaks where we need to, but don’t change everything because it’s working,” Mattern said.

The Red Raiders had a relatively younger team last year and the team bringing back numerous key pieces and players with experience has helped carry over success from 2025 into this spring.

“I think we had a really young team last year, and I think being able to bring all the guys back that we did and see the success that we were capable of having really set a lot of high expectations for this year,” Mattern said. “I think we’re in a pretty good spot to make a good run this year.”

And that hopeful run begins on Tuesday.