FOX CHAPEL — There will be something missing for Seneca Valley baseball and its fans come the last week of May.

For the first time in five years, the Raiders will not play in the WPIAL Class AAAA championship game following a 3-1 quarterfinal loss to Central Catholic Tuesday afternoon at Fox Chapel High School.

“We want to get there every year,” Seneca coach Eric Semega said of the district final. “I thought we had a good chance this year, but we just didn’t get it done today.”

A pair of three-base errors helped derail the Raiders’ title run.

Holding a slim 1-0 lead in the top of the sixth, the Vikings got their leadoff man on base when Dom DeRenzo hit a fly ball to deep right. Battling the wind, SV’s Lane Palmer had the ball bounce off his glove. DeRenzo was sprinting from contact and ended the play at third base.

The next batter, Joel Shaffer, hit a dribbler between the mound and first base, but SV pitcher Branden Schlick made an errant throw to first. The ball bounced in foul territory as DeRenzo scored and Shaffer made his way to third base.

Pat Ferguson followed with an RBI-single for a 3-0 lead.

“If you give away runs, it makes it very tough,” said Semega. “Not to take anything away from Central, they’re a good team. But we gave them those runs. If you’re going to lose, you don’t want to lose like that.”

“Against a team as good as Seneca, you have to take advantage when they do make a mistake,” said Central coach Frank LaCava. “We were fortunate enough to do that today. We needed more than one run to win.”

The Raiders rallied with a run in the bottom of the sixth, but it could have been a bigger inning. Vince Augustine led off with a double, chasing Vikings’ starter Nolan Martino from the game. Matt Wagner then lifted a high fly ball to right field off of reliever Jack Tumulty, but Ryan Sproule dropped the ball. He recovered in time to throw out Wagner, who was trying to reach second base.

Augustine, who advanced to third on the play, later scored on Troy Martin’s groundout.

Tumulty escaped further damage in the sixth before setting the Raiders down in order in the seventh to end the game.

Mistakes were not limited to the field for the Raiders. In the bottom of the second inning, Martin was at second base with no outs when teammate Zach Wilson hit a groundball deep into the hole at shortstop. Central’s Antonio Falbo made a diving attempt to his right, but the ball glanced off his glove and rolled into shallow left field.

Martin appeared to score on the play, but the Vikings appealed before Martino threw another pitch and it was ruled that Martin had missed third base and he was called out.

The Raiders stranded five runners over the first three innings, four of them in scoring position.

Just a sophomore, Martino surrendered just the one run on five hits in five-plus frames for the win.

Schlick was the hard-luck loser for Seneca after striking out 10 and walking three. Two of the three runs he allowed were unearned and he gave up just four hits.

“He was awesome,” Semega said. “He held Central in check the entire game and that’s hard to do against what is, in my opinion, one of the top three hitting teams in Quad A.”

The Vikings (10-7) broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth. With runners at second and third and two outs, Ferguson was intentionally walked to load the bases. Schlick then issued a free pass to Ryan Ray, allowing Sproule to score.

The Raiders won a Section 1 title this season and finished with an overall record of 14-7.

Central Catholic 000 102 0 — 3 4 1

Seneca Valley 000 001 0 — 1 5 2

W: Nolan Martino 5+ IP (1K, 2BB). L: Branden Schlick 7 IP (10K, 3BB). S: Jack Tumulty 2 IP (1K, 0BB).

Central Catholic (10-7): Chase Troutman 1B, Ryan Sproule 1B R, Dom DeRenzo 1B R, Joel Shaffer R, Pat Ferguson 1B RBI, Ryan Ray RBI

Seneca Valley (14-7): Corbin Kessler 1B, Mike Collins 1B, Vince Augustine 2B R, Troy Martin 1B RBI, Zach Wilson 1B