Steve Kline has been around baseball for a long, long time. The former relief pitcher’s elbow bone spurs are a testament to his longevity on the baseball diamond during 11 seasons with five major league clubs, and before that a lot of years in various loops from Little League to college to Triple-A.

He’s seen his share of thrills.

But, Kline likely hadn’t experienced anything like Sunday at IUP’s Owen J. Dougherty Field, when he witnessed his Crimson Hawks take down perennial Division II power Seton Hill to clinch the best-of-three Atlantic Super Regional series and advance to the NCAA D-II World Series just three years after the program had sunk to its lowest depth, winning just two games in 2021.

It was a revelation for a man who has spent a lifetime playing for managers but only a short time managing players.

“I’m honored to be a part of it,” Kline said, watching his team stage a wild celebration in the aftermath of a 7-4 victory.

Now, for Kline and IUP, it’s on to Cary, N.C., and the D-II World Series, the program’s first trip to that national stage.

The NCAA was expected to announce pairings for Sunday’s first-round games early this week, according to an IUP athletic department spokesman.

Harrison Pontoli and Peyton Johnson collected three hits apiece, freshman Bryce Devan pitched 3⅔ innings of one-hit ball and IUP took advantage of error-prone Seton Hill early to beat the Griffins and win the series, 2-1.

It was a stunning turnaround after Seton Hill had won the first game Friday and appeared poised to turn that momentum into a series victory and a second appearance in three seasons in the D-II World Series.

But it wasn’t to be for a program that had won more games combined from 2021-23 (110) than any other college baseball team in a five-state radius encompassing Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and New York.

The Griffins added to that total this year, finishing the season with a 41-17 mark.

“I need to take a step back and acknowledge the run that this senior class has made,” Seton Hill coach Marc Marizzaldi said. “These seniors have been to a World Series and have played in two super regionals and four regional championships. That’s unbelievable. And, we won a ton of games.”

Their combined four-year record is 161-57-1.

“We have nothing but respect for those guys over there,” said IUP pitcher Mark Edeburn, a graduate student from Peters Township and one of just two players remaining from that 2-35 team three years ago. “They’ve been the team to beat my four years here, and farther back than that.”

Edeburn was IUP’s top pitcher this season, finishing the year with a 7-2 record and a 3.63 ERA with five complete games, but he was the hard-luck loser in Seton Hill’s 5-4 victory in the series opener Friday.

IUP came back for 9-8 victory Saturday before the third game was postponed because of the threat of lightning and moved to Sunday afternoon, when the Crimson Hawks rallied with their second consecutive close victory to win the series and move on to the national tournament.

Elijah Dunn, who was 2 for 2 off the bench for IUP, gave the Crimson Hawks the lead for good in the sixth inning of the deciding game, doubling home Pontoli for a 5-4 advantage. IUP tacked on another run against Jon McCullough (6-2), the fifth of seven Seton Hill pitchers, to make it 6-4 on Brady Yard’s RBI single, scoring Dunn.

IUP added an insurance run in the eighth on Johnson’s sacrifice fly, and Devan (3-0) made it stand in relief of starter Jake Black, who pitched 5⅓ innings while yielding all four Seton Hill runs in the fourth.

Kline, 51, who last pitched in the majors for the San Francisco Giants in 2007, came to IUP with high hopes of establishing an annually competitive program. He’s seen signs of it from the start.

“We just wanted to build a good program so people would be proud of IUP baseball again,” he said. “There were a lot of guys in the 90s and 80s that had really good baseball teams here. There were some really good players who came through here. Everybody’s reached out in the PSAC. We root for each other pretty well. It’s nice to see that.”

Kline said he’s known that his love for baseball likely would go beyond his playing days.

“My brothers all coached. All four of them,” he said. “My dad coached a little bit. My oldest brother, Cookie, was my guy. He was about 15 years older than me, but he taught me the rules of everything. He was hard-nosed, like (referring to) the Boston Celtics, Pete Rose, hustle, the Yankee way (Vince) Lombardi. He taught me every different type of coaching thing, what to read off coaches, what’s good and bad.

“I know I’ve got a lot of faults. … When I do bad, I want to take my bad faults and turn them in to good ones. I want to become a good coach. I want to learn things like, ‘When do you step on the pedal and yell at them? When do you back off? When do you hug them?’ All that stuff. That’s what I’m still learning as a coach. My brother was here the other day and told me, ‘Just go easy. Let them play. Don’t get too amped up.’ I said, ‘OK’ and I sat back. They know what they have to do.”

Perhaps Kline’s brothers were right. Maybe there’s more to know than a grizzled veteran might think.

But there was a plan when Kline arrived at IUP, Edeburn said, and it didn’t take long to be set in motion. He and Pontoli, a senior infielder from Beaver, the only players to spend all three years with Kline and his staff at IUP, have watched that plan mature.

“It was kind of a culture shock whenever he came in,” Edeburn said. “It was almost immediate. He came in and set the tone, climbed in and brought in a new staff. They had immediate expectations, and we exceeded them. It’s always about doing more here. It’s always about competing.

“It’s exciting to have a coach like him, and we all knew it was different. The group of seniors who were here that year helped lead that charge as well. I can’t say enough about that. The leadership aspect really took off when Kline came here. It seems like he’s found a niche in college.”

Trailing 3-0, Seton Hill took a 4-3 lead as Max Mandler hit his third homer in as many days and Owen Henne stroked a bases-loaded triple off Black, who gave up eight hits and two walks while striking out four.

IUP pulled even in the fifth against McCullough, loading the bases but scoring just one run on Devan Landers’ RBI single.

The victory added to IUP’s record season for wins — the Crimson Hawks improved to 38-16 — and completed a major turnaround from prior to Kline’s arrival.

“It kind of pains me to say it, but the better team won,” Marizzaldi said. “They played the game better than we did. That’s why they got to this point, because they played consistent baseball all year. They didn’t change anything. They threw strikes, put a ton of balls in play and didn’t strike out much, and they made most of the routine plays.

“They beat us (three out of four games) in the regular season the same way they beat us here. That speaks to their consistency.”

IUP jumped in front with an unearned run in the second.

Johnson drew a one-out walk from Christian Zilli and moved to second on a groundout before scoring when Seton Hill committed two errors on one play.

Zilli threw wildly into center field on a pickoff attempt and centerfielder Noah Sweeney’s throw home got past catcher Jakob Haynes, allowing Johnson to score.

IUP added on in the third against Evan Rossi, scoring twice with the help of another Seton Hill error.

Au’sean Owens’ fly ball to left was misplayed by Owen Mandler, allowing Owens to reach second. He scored on a single by Pontoli. One out later, Ricardo Aponte singled home Pontoli.

Seton Hill patched together a pitching lineup that began with starter Jack Laird and Zilli working an inning each. Rossi and Zach Herb combined to pitch the third, with McCullough lasting the longest of anyone, pitching four innings and giving up nine hits and three runs.

Andino Vecchiola and Ian Korn rounded out the list of Griffins hurlers, combining to cover the final inning.

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