RECAP >> Trying to defeat North Parkland over the years has been quite the challenge for the Lower Macungie Legion baseball team.
Heading into last night’s pivotal Lehigh Valley playoff semifinal matchup at Orefield Middle School, Lower Mac had lost twice to the Buffaloes during the regular-season, 9-4 and 9-1. They also lost four times in both 2022 and 2021 and had not beaten North Parkland since June 29, 2019 — a string of 10 straight losses.
Make that 11 in a row following yet another tough defeat.
North Parkland first baseman Tyler McNicholas delivered the key hit with a two-run RBI single that broke a 1-1 tie and pitcher Matt Razzis tossed six strong innings as the Buffaloes edged Lower Mac 3-2.
With the victory, North Parkland (13-4-1) advances to the winners’ bracket final tonight at 5:30 p.m. where they’ll face rival South Parkland, which edged Salisbury 2-1 in the other semifinal.
For Lower Mac, they drop to 11-7 on the season and face a must-win situation at the same time tonight as they host Northern Valley in the losers’ bracket. Northern Valley kept their season alive with a 9-3 victory over Carbon.
Lower Mac had their chances in last night’s loss putting runners in scoring position throughout the game and leaving eight on base. In their final at-bat and trailing 3-1, they were able to push across a run to get to within 3-2 and had both the tying and winning runs on base with one out, but reliever Owen Ness came on to get the final two outs to preserve the victory, the eighth straight for North Parkland.
Ness picked up his second straight save in the playoffs, while Razzis got the win after allowing just one run on two hits.
McNicholas went 2-for-3 at the plate and drove in all three runs for North Parkland, while center fielder Andrew Beers also had a pair of hits.
TJ Geist certainly pitched well enough for Lower Mac in suffering his first loss of the season (4-1). Geist went five strong innings, giving up three runs and scattering five hits before giving way to Taylor Davis who pitched the sixth.
Lower Mac managed just four hits in the game. Joe Cook, Geist, Zach McEllroy and Logan Ravier each had one hit.
North Parkland 3, Lower Mac 2
LM – 000 010 1 – 2-4-1
NP – 100 002 x – 3-5-2
TJ Geist, Taylor Davis (6) and Dayne Schmidt, Anthony McWhinney; Matt Razzis, Owen Ness (7) and Chase Whittaker. WP – Razzis (1-0), LP – Geist (4-1)