A lot of baseball was on tap all over the state of Pennsylvania today, and lots of Mid Penn teams were in action as the second and third rounds of the District 3 tournament were underway.
First, in 2A action, a champion was crowned and Camp Hill fell just short back-to-back titles. In the top of the seventh inning, with 2 outs, a ball hit to Grant Cutler at third seemed like an end of the inning easy out, but "(baseball) is an unfair game" as Billy Beane states in the movie Moneyball, and the throw from third to first was too far for Ben Tyler, allowing a run and after that, a ball hit to Noah Madden at second bounced off of his glove, allowing one more. The Lions couldn't grab 2 more to tie it in the bottom of the inning, and the Squires of Delone Catholic are your Class 2A champs.
Cross-town rival of Camp Hill and Mid Penn Capital fellow, the Trinity Shamrocks traveled to Oley Valley high school, the team that ended their season last year to face them in the Semifinals. The game was an interesting one, with lots of lead changes and momentum shifts. The Shamrocks scored 1 in the first off of a Ryan Balaban RBI double, then in the third, down 3-2, Maika Niu delivered a 2-run homer to give Trinity a lead. Trinity scored 5 runs in the fifth that finished opposing pitcher Luke Macdonald. Macdonald allowed just one earned run in the entire regular season, yet he let up 5 in just one inning against Trinity.
West Perry, the 4A overall one seed, found themselves in a pitcher's duel with 9 seeded Fleetwood. Fleetwood's pitcher, Jacob Karnish tallied a hit and led the Tigers of Fleetwood at the plate, while also delivering a 9 strikeout, 5.1 IP day on the mound. West Perry's season comes to a halt with a 14-7 record.
Middletown had another inner conference match-up, taking the short journey to East Penn for their second game of the tournament. They faced Big Spring in first round events, while the Panthers had a bye. Nick Kerkessner started on the mound for the Panthers, as Hunter Case came in for the save. Andrew Swenson, who missed a chunk of time at the start of the year, came in with 2 hits, and led East Penn at the plate. Freshman Catcher Lucas Martz went 1 for three, but delivered a 2-run RBI.
The best game of the day goes to the 5A match-up of Red Land and Manheim Central. Red Land started off with a 1-0 lead over the Barons. It stayed 1-0 Red Land, until the fifth inning, when Mason Weaver scored an RBI single that sent in Andrew Harrison. No action in the sixth, but tied at 1 apiece in the bottom of the seventh, Nolan Brook brought home an RBI single and reserved a spot for Manheim Central in the Semifinals next Tuesday. Red Land will go on to the Fifth Place tournament, in which the winner will also get a ticket to the state tournament. They'll face Lampeter Strasburg, who lost to Susquehannock.
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