Dave Byrne was on the baseball beat Monday afternoon, when two of the three Lancaster County teams who made the PIAA Tournament advanced — that would be Hempfield in Quad-A and Lancaster Catholic (the district champ) in Double-A. Warwick, the Quad-A district champ, was bounced in the first round. Here’s Dave’s recap from Tuesday’s New Era:
In playoff baseball, momentum can disappear at the crack of a bat.
Last Thursday, Lancaster Catholic and Warwick won their first-ever District 3 championships. They opened the state playoffs yesterday hoping to carry over that momentum.
But only one team was able to do it in Tuesday’s doubleheader at War Memorial Field in Ephrata.
The Crusaders moved a step closer to their ultimate goal with a 7-4 victory over New Hope-Solebury in the Double-A opener.
But in the second game, Warwick’s season ended with 9-6 loss to Conestoga in the Quad-A bracket.
Elsewhere in the Quad-A playoffs, Hempfield grabbed some serious momentum in its come-from-behind victory over North Penn.
The Black Knights trailed by five runs in the top of the seventh, but they rallied to tie the game and force extra innings. They then scratched out the go-ahead run in the eighth and held on for the victory.
Catholic (18-6) will play District 4 champ Loyalsock — a 10-8 first-round winner over District 2 champ Scranton Prep — in a state quarterfinal game Thursday at a site and time to be announced.
“We need to use this as a springboard,” Catholic coach Mike Davis said. “I thought we played down a little. Even though we’ve never been here before, the kids were a little overconfident.”
The District 1 champion Lions (17-4) deflated that, taking advantage of three Catholic errors to plate unearned runs in the first and fourth innings.
Catholic took a 3-1 lead on Jon Markel’s second-inning single and a 2-run double from David Perales in the third, then pushed across three unearned runs in the fourth to take command.
In the middle of the 10-hit attack Catholic dropped on Lions’ starter Vinny Voorhees (7-3) was first baseman Tim Jones, whose 3-for-3 game was a home run short of hitting for the cycle.
“I was seeing the ball well, it felt good out there” Jones said.
Helm (6-3) appeared to have gained the upper hand after his shaky start — two of Catholic’s three errors were on him — but New Hope-Solebury reached him for a pair of runs in the fifth on a ground out and a wild pitch, pulling to 6-4.
“I struggled in the beginning,” Helm said, “then I had to pick it up.”
When Evan Montgomery singled through the drawn-in infield in the bottom of the sixth, scoring pinch-runner Kevin Staksel, the Crusaders finally could see their way to the next round.
“It’s uncharted territory,” Davis said. “Why not us? We didn’t come here, to the state tournament, to take second place.”
Also Monday:
Conestoga 9, Warwick 6
Down 7-0 after three innings, Warwick battled back to 7-6 and had the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position in both the fifth and sixth innings.
But Conestoga escaped both jams and plated a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh to seal the victory.
“For them to get two more runs was huge,” Warwick coach Mike Brown said. “It kind of took the wind out of our sail.”
The Pioneers (18-7), the fourth seed from District 1, took charge with a five-run second inning, taking advantage of two errors to bat around, plus-one.
Art Post drove in two of his four runs with a third-inning home run, making it 7-0.
But the Warriors’ offense started to reach Pioneers’ starter Steve Richter.
Skylar Gingrich led off the fourth with a monster home run well over the football stands in left field.
Taylor Baucom launched a three-run bomb over the right-field fence later in the inning, andwhen Zach Shank stroked a two-run blast the next inning, Warwick was within a run, and Richter’s day was done.
Julian Anapolsky came on, walked Gingrich and gave up a single to Thompson. Griffith sacrificed the runners over, and you could sense the game was about to turn.
It did — but not Warwick’s way.
Anapolsky’s 1-1 pitch to Mike Freeman reached the backstop, but Gingrich didn’t initially react and had to remain at third.
He was still there after Freeman and Baucom grounded out to end the inning.
“Sure I would have liked to get him in,” Brown said taking the onus off Gingrich, “(but) we still had two cracks at getting him in. “There was a lot of fight in this team. They showed it today and they showed it all year,” Brown continued. “We fought back and did everything we could. We just fell short.”
Hempfield 6, North Penn 5
The Black Knights trailed 5-0 in the top of the seventh before Brandon Kline got them on the scoreboard with a mammoth home run over the 390-foot mark in centerfield.
After the next two batters reached base, Mike Schusko smashed a line-drive homer to right to cut the margin to 5-3.
Brett Houseal tied the game later in the inning, ripping a two-run single with two outs.
In the eighth, Derek Dornes completed the comeback by scoring the go-ahead run on a North Penn throwing error.
Houseal then retired the side in the bottom of the inning to earn the victory.
Hempfield will face District 12 champ Frankford Thursday at a site and time to be determined. Frankford beat District 1 third-place finisher Avon Grove 3-1 on Tuesday.
