The Camp Hill Lions graduated 2 college baseball players last season. Andrew Spann is in the area playing for the Lebanon Valley College Flying Dutchmen, and Jackson Thompson transferred from his commitment to Virginia Tech, to Campbell University. The two that are no longer with the team clearly haven't slowed the program down one bit. Next man up has been the story for the Lions thus far.
For example, the infield looks completely different from last season. Noah Madden, a senior mans up the starting third basemen job for the first time. A freshman, Drew Branstetter starts at short in the spot of now senior Michael Baturin, who made the switch from short to second mid-year. In the outfield, Richard Lutkins and Luke Becker, two JV starters from last year, find themselves starting in left and right field.
And when the Lions lost a couple games in a row, I wasn't so sure that this would be the year for them to prosper. But, here just a short while later, the Lions are back in the District 3 2A championship.
It was a tough game that lasted 9 innings against Kutztown on Monday afternoon. Through rain, ejections, and more, Michael Baturin hit one right to his old position, and Kutztown's shortstop Matt Remick, who started the game on the mound, bobbled the ball allowing Kobe Moore to run home and walk it off for the Lions.
The game started with 1 run scoring for Kutztown off of a double play in the first. The Lions then responded in the third, but going into the 4th, the storyline wasn't "The Lions have tied it up". All eyes were on the third baseline before the inning started.
In the bottom of the third, a coach from Kutztown was upset with the noise coming from the Lions dugout in support of batter Ben Tyler, or maybe a distraction to the pitcher. Kutztown's coach emphasized to the umpire, "I can't even talk to my guys, what kind of sportsmanship is that?"!
The Lions don't seem to want to slow down the dugout antics. Delone Catholic will be in for a loud Thursday afternoon.
Messiah University will place host at 4:30 on Thursday to the 1 vs 2 seeded match-up. Delone Catholic came in second place for the YAIAA 4 division standings. They came second to Fairfield, the 3 seed in the 2A bracket, but got upset to Upper Dauphin, a team that Delone went on to beat 10-0 in 5 innings on Monday.
Delone started their season 5-0 before a loss to York Catholic on April 13. Delone went on to lose 4 more, Susquehannock (2x), Fairfield, Biglerville all among the losses. The Lions will need to be on their A+ game to win on Thursday. They were on their game on April 13 as they beat Susquehannock 4-3 thanks to a home run from Dom Tozzi and a great mound outing from Luke Parise. The common opponents for the Lions are a confident boost and sense of security, especially considering that their best opponent played was a team the Lions beat.
Christian Doi is the likely pitcher for the Championship game. This isn't the first championship game he's seen this year. No, I don't mean the wrestling district championship that he won, but the Mid Penn Championship that he also pitched. Drew Branstetter came into the game in the sixth inning at Hershey high, and that will be the likely sequence for Thursday as well.
I spoke to Luke Parise on Wednesday before the game:
"We got to hit the ball. We gotta hit the crap out of the ball."
- Luke Parise on taking a more offensive approach
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