CENTRE COUNTY — In the fifth and deciding game of the 2021 Centre County Baseball League Finals, the Howard Hawks scored three runs in the top of the eighth inning to take a back-and-forth 9-6 victory over the Blanchard Bees and the CCBL Championship Trophy.
Jaden Jones, Bryce Greene and Bryan Green, all recent Bald Eagle Area High School graduates, each had a clutch hit in the inning, highlighted by Bryce Greene’s RBI triple.
That win ended a 42-year drought for the Hawks, who had not won a league title since 1979, and it represented perhaps the beginning of a new era for the team.
Flash forward to Thursday, July 31, to Howard’s celebration of its 5-2, Championship-clinching victory over the defending champion Spike Island Pirates in Philipsburg.
This one did not take 42 years to accomplish.
The Hawks lost only once in this series — a 2-1 loss after a brilliant performance by Pirate pitcher Ryan Whitehead — and only twice in the entire season. They finished with a 21-2 record.
The other games were 16-6 and 11-8 wins that showed off the team’s offense, and the final was mostly on the shoulders of pitcher Dylan Womer.
Womer threw a complete-game, five-hitter in what was a rematch of the Womer-Whitehead showdown in Game 2.
It has been a long time coming for one of the oldest, continuous teams in the CCBL.
The Hawks rejoined the league in 1974 and have been members ever since.
They immediately had an impact, winning six championships in a row in 1974, ‘75, ‘76, ‘77, ‘78 and ‘79.
But that was it, amazingly, until that extra-inning game at Blanchard in 2021, 42 years later.
And now again in 2025 with a mix of experienced players and a big influx of new, young and aggressive players mostly from the very successful BEA high school program.
According to Paul Haas, now a Howard coach and a long-tenured player who goes all the way back to the 1974 team, the Hawks have solid young players like Kahale Burns, Kaden Burns, Gavin Burns, Brayden Dubbs, Gavin Eckley and Parker Quick.
“We really benefited and were much better with all the young players,” Haas said, “and the trick now is to keep them. At least two of them are college players, and if they stay with the team, the Hawks should be good for a long time.”
All of the young players mentioned were members of BEA’s two consecutive state championship teams that had a combined record of 47-6.
Brian Pelka, a former Pittsburgh Pirate draft pick and 27-year veteran pitcher for the Hawks, also cited the strong sense of teamwork, togetherness and community while playing for the Hawks as one of the team’s strong points.
“Look at me,” Pelka, who won over 150 games pitching for Howard, said. “I’m from Philipsburg and played for Philipsburg-Osceola and still live there. But I started with the Hawks, with all of that driving and traveling, and I never wanted to play anywhere else.”
In general, the CCBL had a very successful season in 2025 with eight teams and a very competitive regular season and playoffs.
The league is the oldest amateur baseball league in Pennsylvania and was established in its present form in 1946.
This year’s teams were the Hawks, Pirates, Bees, Lewistown FoxPro, Spring Mills Braves, Spring Creek Shockers, Milesburg Iron Kings and Port Matilda Woodpeckers.
In the first round of the playoffs this year, Howard had a bye, Spike Island defeated Milesburg, Blanchard defeated Spring Creek and Spring Mills upset Lewistown.
In the Semifinals, Spike Island outlasted Blanchard and Howard swept Spring Mills, setting up the final matchup between the Hawks and the Pirates.
