{"id":207938,"date":"2026-06-02T01:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/207938\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T01:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:17:15","slug":"bethlehem-wins-2026-section-2-class-aa-baseball-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/207938\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem wins 2026 Section 2 Class AA baseball championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dominic<\/p>\n

Dominic Macarilla of Bethlehem pitching against Mohonasen in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Bethlehem<\/p>\n

Bethlehem center fielder Jonathan Lazarek with a diving catch against Mohonasen in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Bethlehem<\/p>\n

Bethlehem celebrates winning the Section 2 Class AA title after defeating\u00a0Mohonasen in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph\u00a0L. Bruno Stadium in Troy on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Daniel Leach of Bethlehem covers second as Daniel Corsaro of Mohonasen dives safe in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Tommy<\/p>\n

Tommy Gianatasio of Mohonasen pitching against Bethlehem in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Bethlehem<\/p>\n

Bethlehem center fielder Jonathan Lazarek with a catch against Mohonasen in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Daniel Corsaro of Mohonasen celebrates scoring on Bethlehem in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Tate<\/p>\n

Tate Kindlon of Bethlehem pitching against Mohonasen in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Kaleb<\/p>\n

Kaleb Murray of Bethlehem celebrates with Daniel Frick after scoring on Mohonasen in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Kaleb<\/p>\n

Kaleb Murray of Bethlehem scores on Mohonasen in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph L. Brunoo Stadium in Troy on Monday.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Eoin<\/p>\n

Eoin O\u2019Brian of Mohonasen pitching against Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver\"Elijah<\/p>\n

Elijah Proper of Bethlehem dives safe into second base as Brennan LaRue can\u2019t come up with the ball in the Section 2 Class AA Championship game at Bruno Stadium in Troy , NY on Monday, June 1, 2026. Stephen Weaver\/For the Times Union<\/p>\n

Stephen Weaver<\/p>\n

TROY \u2014 Winning this year sounds much better than next year — especially when you are a teenager.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And, the future is indeed now for the Bethlehem varsity baseball team.<\/p>\n

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Bethlehem coach Matt Rehbit’s stance before, and even during, the 2026 season was that the Eagles — with a roster made up mostly of juniors and sophomores — were a year from a championship. On Monday evening, though, the Eagles secured a Section 2 Class AA title with a 6-3 victory over Mohonasen at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Game 3 of the best-of-3 championship series.<\/p>\n

On an evening filled with heroes for Bethlehem, sophomore reliever Dom Macarilla stood out most. Summoned into the game in the bottom of the first inning after starter Tate Kindlon walked all four batters he faced on 3-2 pitches, Macarilla —\u00a0who had not pitched during sectionals — proceeded to record all 21 outs after last previously taking the mound on May 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was ready the entire time during all of the (playoffs), wanting to go in,\u201d Macarilla said. \u201cI finally got in and proved myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cDom is one of the best-kept secrets in Section 2 sports. He was doing that all year,\u201d Rehbit said. \u201cHe has pitched middle innings; he has closed out games. He started against Shen and Colonie. He eats innings and what he does better than anybody is (that) he throws strikes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe rallied behind that, and then the bats were able to work,\u201d Bethlehem shortstop Robert Frick said. \u201cHe was the backbone for today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bethlehem\u00a0(13-12) entered the nine-team tournament seeded eighth. The Eagles proceeded to win five of six playoff contests to secure a trip to the state tournament. Up next for Bethlehem is a state quarterfinal contest Saturday afternoon at\u00a0Onondaga Community College vs. Section 3 champion West Genesee (19-4).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping to make a little noise in sectionals, so that next year and beyond, we could be back here. They didn\u2019t get that memo,\u201d Rehbit said of his squad, a unit that started four sophomores and added a fifth to the lineup when\u00a0Macarilla took the mound.<\/p>\n

Macarilla was making his 11th pitching appearance of the season. He entered Monday\u2019s action with a 1-0 record and a 3.76 earned run average over 31 2\/3 innings. While most of his efforts had come in relief, Macarilla had tossed a five-hitter with 11 strikeouts in a 6-0 victory over\u00a0Shenendehowa on May 8.<\/p>\n

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The first two contests of this season\u2019s title series featured opposing 9-0 scores, with Bethlehem prevailing Friday behind starter Jacob Bradt and Mohonasen winning Saturday as Nic Quinlivan excelled on the mound. Monday, Macarilla stranded the bases loaded three times against No. 2 seed Mohonasen (19-3).<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just trying to do my job,\u201d said Macarilla, who allowed eight hits and two runs. \u201cI had to throw strikes and (Mohonasen) had to prove they could hit the ball. I was going to keep throwing strikes until they proved that. Obviously, they hit the ball pretty well. They are not a strikeout team. I give them props for that. I made my pitches, we got the outs we needed and we won the game. \u2026 This win means the world to me. Now, it is on to regionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Mohonasen scored runs in the first and third innings, the Mighty Warriors also left the bases loaded each time. In the fifth, Macarilla made sure Mohonasen left three runners on base again as he induced a pop-up to Frick to end the inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are playing well right now. We are showing it with the energy we have. It is hotter now and we\u2019re starting to move better,\u201d Macarilla said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing our job as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Every member of the Bethlehem lineup reached base. The Eagles scored twice in the first inning, getting a sacrifice fly from Sam Spector and an RBI single by Seamus Healey.<\/p>\n

Daniel Leach, another sophomore standout, delivered a two-run double in the third to make it 5-1 Bethlehem.\u00a0Bethlehem added its final run in\u00a0the sixth on an RBI walk from Healey to make it 6-2, and\u00a0Mohonasen scored one last run\u00a0in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double from Will Quinn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The championship was Bethlehem’s second Section 2 title in\u00a0three years. The 2024 Eagles later won a state championship.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe got a lot of returners coming back to do this next year, but it is huge to do this now,\u201d Frick said. \u201cWe rallied around the underdog. We felt a little disrespected with our seed. It means a lot that we put everything together, especially being able to back up Tate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominic Macarilla of Bethlehem pitching against Mohonasen in the Section 2 Class AA championship series at Joseph L.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1216,153,155,154,25118,1215,296,726],"class_list":["post-207938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-alco","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-hs-baseball","tag-latestnews","tag-local","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}