Although he has never led his team to a WPIAL title game before this year, Serra Catholic baseball coach Brian Dzurenda had a good idea of what it would take to get there.

Before Tuesday's Class A semifinal game, Dzurenda thought if his team could score seven runs and weather an early onslaught from Chartiers-Houston, the Eagles would be making their first trip to the title game in school history.

Check on the seven runs. Check on weathering the early Buccaneers storm. So now it's check on Serra competing in the championship game at 5 p.m. Tuesday against Carmichaels at CONSOL Energy Park in Washington.

The Eagles, who averaged nearly 13 runs a game during the regular season, came through with their coach's mandated seven runs and Oliver Girman stepped in to get his younger brother, freshman starting pitcher Alain Girman, out of a second-inning jam and shutdown Chartiers-Houston the rest of the game.

"I have nothing but the utmost respect for Chartiers-Houston and their program but I really feel like if we could weather that storm, we could come back," Dzurenda said.

"We were down, 3-0, but I knew we had it in us. I went into the game telling our coaches, if we get seven runs, I really think we are going to win."

Oliver Girman inherited a 3-run deficit and runners on the corners with one out but he stranded them and then went on cruise control the rest of the game not allowing a run.

"My curveball and changeup weren't working so I just stuck with what was working," Oliver Girman said. "I was hitting my spots and getting stronger as the game went on and I really wanted to finish out the game."

Dzurenda had plans to use up to four pitchers to get through the game, but after he saw how Oliver Girman was executing, he opted to let the junior pitcher go the distance.

The runs eventually came and with the way Oliver Girman was pitching, Serra was not playing from behind for long.

Despite a successful 17-2 regular season, Serra routinely played from behind and often had sluggish starts.

The Eagles learned how to play from behind during a trip to Alabama in March where they rallied to defeat two Alabama schools on consecutive days. Serra also played from behind in a scrimmage against Class AAA No. 1 seed Hopewell before the postseason.

"Those tight games in Alabama and that nip-and-tuck scrimmage against Hopewell, those really helped us today," Dzurenda said.

Another tendency that Dzurenda has been seeing a lot of this year was clutch hitting. Serra scored all seven of its runs against Chartiers-Houston with two outs.

The only losses Serra suffered during the regular season came against Class AA power Seton-LaSalle and section rival Jeannette, 5-3.

The Eagles now have a date with Carmichaels, the same team that eliminated them from the WPIAL playoffs and PIAA tournament last year. In the WPIAL semifinals last season, Serra fell to the Mighty Mikes, 7-3, and after winning three consecutive playoff games to get to the PIAA semifinals, Carmichaels ended Serra's season, 6-2.

Seven starters on this year's team started on last year's squad. The majority of the team is made up of juniors.

The lone senior on the team is Brandon Sandusky, one of the team's strong stable of arms. Along with the Girman brothers, Sandusky and his younger brother, Corey, and junior Brian Henze, Serra has a five-man pitching rotation that is not only unheard of in Class A but very rare at any classification in the WPIAL.

Although the team is young most of the players realize the lasting footprint they can leave on the program by bringing the first WPIAL baseball title to the school.

"We all think it is real important to win and make a name for our team and our school," Oliver Girman said. "We have wanted this for a long time and for us to lose now, it wouldn't be right."