Pat Rothdeutsch

It is impossible to not immediately notice Clearfield Little League All-Star pitcher Oliver Billotte.

For those lucky few high school and college players talented enough to be drafted by a major league baseball team, it doesn’t take very much time for the dream of playing professional baseball to become a reality.

The 2016 spring season leaves no doubt that high-school diamond sports here in Centre County are not only alive and well, but they are thriving.

MaxPreps is a respected information and entertainment website about high school sports, and even after the Bellefonte baseball team’s cataclysmic win the PIAA state championship on June 17, MaxPreps still has the Red Raiders ranked the No. 66 team in Pennsylvania.

Just because the Bellefonte Red Raiders’ baseball game against Susquehanna Township on June 17 at Medlar Park was for the Pennsylvania Class AAA State Baseball Championship doesn’t mean the Raiders looked or played any differently.

The final chapter in the story of the 2016 Bellefonte Red Raider baseball team will be written Thursday, June 16, when the Raiders take on Susquehanna Township in the PIAA Class AAA state championship game at 6:30 p.m. at Medlar Field on the Penn State campus.

At this level, the adage goes, everybody is good. In the case of the Yough High School softball team in its PIAA Class AAA quarterfinal game against the Bellefonte Lady Raiders, it would also be appropriate to add a few more adjectives.

Howard Hawk pitcher Ty Womer had no more than a temporary control blip in the fifth inning of the Hawks County Baseball League game at Philipsburg on June 12.