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Forty Years Later, Annville-Cleona’s 1986 State Championship Still Carries a Special Bond
On June 13, 1986, the Annville-Cleona Baseball team captured the first PIAA Baseball State Championship in Lebanon County history when the Dutchmen defeated Ford City, 9-7, at Shippensburg University.
On June 13, 2026, much of that same team came together again, this time at Annville Union Hose, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of an accomplishment that still holds a special place in Annville-Cleona history.
Four decades have passed since that unforgettable Friday afternoon in Shippensburg, but for those who lived it, the memories remain close. The swings. The bus rides. The comebacks. The jokes. The superstitions. The heartbreak that helped bring them together. The belief that, no matter the score, the game was never over.
Most of all, the bond remains.
“The unity we had as a team was unreal,” said Steve Miller, the team’s senior shortstop. “I’ve never felt that anywhere.”
That unity was easy to see at the 40-year reunion. The players may have gone on to build lives, careers, and families in the years since, but when they were back together, the years seemed to disappear. They laughed like teammates. They told stories like teammates. They remembered the smallest details like teammates. In many ways, they were still the same group that found a way to turn a season of adversity into a championship run that no Lebanon County baseball team had ever completed before.
“It’s like we’ve never left 1986,” said Craig Gingrich, who was a senior during the team’s magical season.
Before the Run
The story of that team is not one of wire-to-wire dominance. It is a story of a group that started hot, fell into trouble, absorbed tragedy, regrouped, and found its best baseball when the stakes were highest.
The Dutchmen opened the 1986 season with confidence, racing out to a strong start and proving early that they had the talent to compete. But as the season moved along, things began to slip. Annville-Cleona went through a difficult middle stretch, one that tested both the team’s ability and its resolve.
Coach Mike Capriotti remembered the group starting 10-0 before falling into a funk, losing seven of its next eight games. One loss, in particular, stood out.
The Dutchmen lost to Lebanon Catholic, and Capriotti remembered that moment as a wake-up call.
“I was not a happy camper,” Capriotti said. “The senior leadership was absolutely awesome, and they knew what they had to do.”
At the time, Section 4 consisted entirely of Lebanon County teams. Annville-Cleona finished third behind Cedar Crest and Northern Lebanon, which meant the Dutchmen entered the District 3 postseason as a dangerous team, but not necessarily one that many expected to finish the year on top of Pennsylvania.
In 1986, that path looked very different than it does today. The PIAA now crowns baseball champions across six classifications. Back then, with fewer classifications, smaller schools like Annville-Cleona were often matched against programs with larger enrollment bases. That made the Dutchmen’s run even more remarkable in hindsight.
“We played schools so much bigger than us,” said Gavin Osteen, a sophomore pitcher/outfielder who became one of the team’s most important arms during the run.
More Than a Game
Before the postseason fully took shape, the team was also forced to deal with something much bigger than baseball. A classmate and friend, Jeff Gibson, was killed in a car accident. In a school that had a graduating class of 120, this moment sent shockwaves through the community. Several players remembered his death as a moment that changed the emotional direction of the season.
“One of our buddies died in a car accident,” Miller said. “All of us kind of came together.”
Daryl Houser, a senior tri-captain who played outfield and also saw time at third base, said the tragedy seemed to change the way the group looked at everything.
“A lot of us decided that a lot of things we used to think were important didn’t matter anymore,” Houser said.
Instead of breaking the team apart, the loss helped bring the Dutchmen together. The players began to play looser. They played with perspective. They played for one another. And, in many ways, they played for Jeff.
Learning How to Survive
That belief followed them into the playoffs, where Annville-Cleona quickly established the identity that would define the entire run: the Dutchmen would not go away.
In the first round of the District 3 playoffs, Annville-Cleona found itself in a massive hole. The Dutchmen trailed by eight runs and appeared to be nearing the end of their season. But the players did not panic. In fact, several remembered the moment almost humorously.
“We were getting pounded,” Houser said. “We might as well just have fun.”
That shift in mindset changed everything. Annville-Cleona began to hit. One run led to another. A team that looked finished suddenly looked alive. The Dutchmen came all the way back to win, 14-13.
“That game was a catalyst,” Houser said. “I think that really kicked us into where we started our roll.”
Capriotti remembered the same game through the eyes of a young coach trying to keep his team from folding.
“Don’t quit. Don’t quit. Don’t quit,” he said.
That became the theme.
They were also a team with a personality all its own. Capriotti compared the group to the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies, the famously quirky, hard-nosed team led by personalities like John Kruk, Lenny Dykstra, and Darren Daulton.
The comparison fit.
The Dutchmen were talented, but they were not robotic. They were loose. They were superstitious. They kept things light, even when the stakes became heavy. During the playoff run, they carried around a small voodoo doll, pulling at it before at-bats and making it part of the strange magic that seemed to surround the team.
Jimmy Inman, the team’s junior second baseman, remembered that the chemistry had roots long before the state tournament. Like many of the Dutchmen, he had grown up around the game with his teammates.
“Mike and I were neighbors,” Inman said of Mike Elliott, the team’s senior catcher. “We’ve been throwing baseball since we were 7 and 8 years old. That’s how far back this goes.”
For Inman, that connection was part of what made the group so difficult to rattle.
“I think it was more that the type of group that we had did not get nervous,” Inman said. “Mike kept us loose all the time.”
That looseness became part of their strength. They could be down big and still joke. They could make mistakes and still recover. They could face larger schools, longer bus rides, and pressure-packed innings without acting like the moment was too big.
In many ways, the quirkiness helped them survive the adversity.
The Response
Annville-Cleona followed its early district comeback with another dramatic win, rallying again to keep its postseason alive. The Dutchmen eventually reached the District 3 Semifinal, where they ran into East Pennsboro on a night when little went right.
Annville-Cleona managed only one hit, committed five errors, and lost to East Pennsboro, 7-2. The Dutchmen had leaned on comebacks earlier in the tournament, but this time, there was no rally waiting.
Capriotti did not hide his frustration afterward.
“We left our bats in Lebanon,” Capriotti said at the time. “We were way too anxious. You’ve got to take a pitch once in a while.”
The loss was a difficult one, especially with a spot in the District 3 Championship game on the line. Still, even in frustration, Capriotti showed perspective.
“I now realize, more than ever, that these are just kids,” he said following the loss. “They’re just 17 years old, and they’re not getting paid to play. I know they want to win, but we just didn’t have it tonight.”
The season, however, was not over.
Annville-Cleona responded in the District 3 third-place game, edging Northeastern, 5-4, to earn a spot in the PIAA Class AA State Tournament. The game again came with late drama. Bill Eisenhauer, a junior pitcher/outfielder, carried the Dutchmen deep into the game before Osteen came on to record the final outs. Osteen struck out Steve Krebs to seal the win and send Annville-Cleona to States.
The victory gave the Dutchmen their first trip to the PIAA Tournament and moved them to 17-7.
More importantly, the response showed that the East Pennsboro loss had not broken them.
“We were loose today,” Capriotti said after the Northeastern win. “We played together as a team and the morale was up. We were ready to play.”
The win also reinforced how important Eisenhauer had become on the mound. At that point, he had been the winning pitcher in Annville-Cleona’s previous five victories, four of which had been one-run games. The Dutchmen were not just surviving. They were learning how to win close games.
By then, the Dutchmen had become a team that believed.
“We came back in so many games, it seemed to be a normal thing for us,” Craig Gingrich said.
The Run Through States
Their belief only grew once States began.
Annville-Cleona opened the PIAA Tournament with a win over District 4 Champion Danville. Several players remembered seeing Danville step off the bus and immediately noticing the size difference. The Dutchmen were a small-school team looking across at a bigger, physically imposing opponent.
It did not matter.
Behind strong pitching and the belief that they could hit any pitcher, Annville-Cleona knocked off Danville and continued its run. The Dutchmen then earned a rematch with East Pennsboro, the same team that had beaten them in the District 3 Tournament.
This time, Annville-Cleona left no doubt.
After managing only one hit in the District Semifinal loss, the Dutchmen erupted for 20 hits in the state tournament rematch. It was one of the clearest signs that this was no longer the same team that had walked off the field after the District 3 loss. Annville-Cleona had regrouped, loosened up, and found another level.
The timing of the East Pennsboro rematch created one of the lasting images of the championship run: players hurrying from the field to graduation, still wearing parts of their baseball uniforms and the rest of the team in full uniform in the balcony at LVC’s Miller Chapel.
“I remember graduating in my spikes,” Houser said.
From there, the Dutchmen moved on to the State Semifinals, where they faced District 11 Champion Salisbury.
Once again, Annville-Cleona had to absorb an early punch. Salisbury scored four runs in the 1st inning, but the Dutchmen answered. Annville-Cleona scored three runs in the 3rd, one in the 4th, four in the 5th, and one more in the 7th to edge Salisbury, 10-9.
Mike Elliott delivered one of the biggest offensive games of the season. He finished with two hits, four RBI, and was credited with the game-winning RBI. Eisenhauer earned the win in relief, improving to 7-1, after Osteen started the game.
The win sent Annville-Cleona to the PIAA Championship game.
By that point, the team’s confidence had become something more than belief. The Dutchmen had survived too much, rallied too often, and come too far to think the final game would be too big for them.
“We just didn’t crack,” Houser said.
One Final Test
The championship game against Ford City had its own pressure and its own drama. The WPIAL representative brought a strong team to Shippensburg, with a lineup that included Denny Harriger, who later reached the Major Leagues with the Detroit Tigers.
Annville-Cleona did not play a perfect game. The Dutchmen committed eight errors in the final, including several early miscues by Miller, the senior shortstop. After committing three errors in the first two innings, Capriotti admitted that he nearly removed him from the game.
Then assistant coach Terry Lehman stepped in.
Instead of adding to the pressure, Lehman walked out, gathered the infield, and told a joke. The story has become one of the defining memories of the championship game.
“He told it, and everyone relaxed,” Miller said. “That was what happened.”
Capriotti still remembers the effect.
“It changed the mood,” he said. “It changed the attitude, and sometimes that has to happen.”
Miller stayed in the game. The Dutchmen settled down. And later, Miller delivered one of the biggest swings of his life.
Despite the errors, Annville-Cleona collected 10 hits against Ford City. Miller drove in four runs, hit a home run, and was credited with the game-winning RBI. Mike Spitler, the team’s first baseman, added two hits and three RBI. Houser added a hit and an RBI, while Dave Gingrich, the junior third baseman, collected two hits.
Bowser, the sophomore outfielder and leadoff hitter, also helped save the championship with his glove. Already a key part of the lineup, Bowser provided one of the game’s biggest defensive moments with a huge catch in right field, adding another example of how different players found ways to deliver when the team needed it most.
Inman also remained part of that steady middle of the field, helping give the Dutchmen another reliable presence as they tried to survive one final test. On a team remembered for its senior leaders, he was one of the underclassmen who helped turn belief into execution.
It was not clean. It was not easy. But in many ways, that made it a fitting ending for a team that had built its identity around overcoming whatever came next.
Annville-Cleona outlasted Ford City, 9-7, and the Dutchmen were state champions.
More Than a Trophy
That was the way the 1986 Dutchmen seemed to operate. If one player struggled, another picked him up. If one moment went wrong, another moment turned their way. They were talented, but they were also resilient, connected, and just loose enough to survive the pressure.
For many of them, the inexplicable moments still point back to Gibson.
After the championship, the team gave one of its gold medals to Gibson’s parents. It was a gesture that said what many of the players still believe: Jeff had been with them throughout the run, their angel in the outfield.
“If he could help us, he did,” Elliott said.
Elliott was central to the Dutchmen’s success. As the catcher, he called games from behind the plate and helped guide a pitching staff that leaned heavily on Osteen and Eisenhauer down the stretch.
“Mike was our captain of all captains,” Osteen said.
The senior captains helped hold the team together. Elliott, Houser, and Miller each led in different ways, but their influence was felt by everyone. Younger players such as Bowser and Inman looked to them, trusted them, and followed their lead.
“You just want to impress the old guys,” Bowser said. “Being on a team with those older guys that you look up to and winning a state championship, it was amazing.”
That mix of senior leadership and young talent helped Annville-Cleona complete the run. With gold on the line, the Dutchmen outpaced Ford City, 9-7, to become PIAA AA State Champions.
The achievement was historic. It was the first baseball state championship won by a Lebanon County team. To date, only one other Lebanon County baseball program has matched the feat, with the 1999 Palmyra Cougars also winning a PIAA State Championship.
At the time, though, several players admitted they did not fully understand what they had done.
“I don’t think we realized what we accomplished until we came back from Shippensburg and saw the community’s reaction,” Craig Gingrich said.
Dave Gingrich remembered the Dutchmen being escorted back into town by fire truck. For a small community, the championship became something larger than a game.
“It was an awesome experience for our community,” Gingrich said. “Winning a state championship in a small town, very special.”
A Lasting Legacy
Forty years later, that meaning has only grown.
The players have gone on to become coaches, fathers, professionals, workers, leaders, and mentors. Several said the lessons from that season followed them into adulthood. They learned the value of teamwork. They learned how to handle pressure. They learned how to pick up the person next to them. They learned how to keep going when things looked finished.
Osteen, the sophomore pitcher/outfielder, went on to pitch for 13 years in professional baseball, reaching as high as Triple-A.
Dave Gingrich, the junior third baseman, went on to a highly successful coaching career at Cocalico and was inducted into the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Miller, the senior shortstop, carried the lessons of the game into fatherhood, helping guide his son Gage, who is currently in the Miami Marlins organization and playing for the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.
Away from sports, Bowser, the sophomore outfielder and leadoff hitter, built a career in biopharmaceutical research and the development of oncology therapies.
That group, along with several others who attended the reunion, cited the lessons of teamwork as an important part of the work they went on to do in adulthood.
The legacy also reached those who were watching from a distance. There were many young fans who idolized the players they were watching, helping spark a group of athletes who would continue the success of Dutchmen athletics well into the late 1990s and beyond. That group included Dave Gingrich’s younger brother, Matt, who was seven years old at the time. Now he leads another generation of young athletes as the Annville-Cleona head football coach and junior high track coach.
Those are only a few examples. But the common thread is clear.
Teamwork did not end when the final out was recorded in 1986.
It carried forward.
“You could call any one of these guys and connect with them,” Craig Gingrich said. “They’ll have your back.”
That may be the greatest legacy of the 1986 Annville-Cleona Dutchmen. The trophy still matters. The score still matters. The history still matters. But the bond may matter even more.
As teenagers, they won a state championship. Forty years later, they understand that they won something else, too.
They won a connection that never left them.
“It’s something that can never be taken from us,” Houser said.
There may be other champions. There may be other great teams. But in Lebanon County baseball history, the 1986 Annville-Cleona Dutchmen will always hold a special place.
They were not just champions on the field.
Through the experience, they gained an unbreakable bond with one another.
Special thanks to the members of the 1986 Annville-Cleona championship team for including me and LebCoSports.com in the 40th anniversary celebration. It was an honor to enjoy the moment with the championship group and to witness, firsthand, the bond that still exists four decades later.
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