RECAP >> Errors proved costly for the Lower Macungie baseball team on Thursday night at Orefield Middle School in their 5-3 loss to North Parkland in the Lehigh Valley Legion playoffs.
In a matchup of the last two unbeatens in the eight-team, double elimination tournament, and with a berth in the championship game on the line, Lower Mac hurt itself in the field with four errors and the Buffaloes took advantage as they remained perfect in the tournament, while dropping head coach Jeff Smith’s team into the losers’ bracket.
Lower Mac, which lost its third straight to North Parkland, also struggled at the plate as they managed just four hits off of starter Stephen Sepko who just completed his freshman year at Parkland High School.
Sepko allowed just three hits and struck out eight in five innings to pick up the win before giving way to Josh Gunkle who came on in the sixth to earn the save.
With the victory, North Parkland improved to 16-5 on the season and will play for the league championship on Monday and a berth in the Region 2 Tournament. The Buffaloes need just one win to claim the title.
Meanwhile, Lower Mac had its four-game win streak snapped and dropped to 12-5-1. Head coach Jeff Smith’s team will now have to battle its way through the elimination round. LM will play the winner of tonight’s game between No.2 Whitehall and No.8 Salisbury on Saturday (site/time TBA). Both Whitehall and Salisbury picked up wins last night with Whitehall eliminating regular-season champ South Parkland 8-1 while Salisbury ended Carbon’s season with an 11-5 victory.
Right fielder Alex Pion went 2-for-4 at the plate with a run scored for LM. Starter Ryan Latchford was touched up for three runs in the first inning but then settled down to allow just a pair of runs over the final five innings.
Latchford also helped his own cause at the plate with an RBI single in the top of the sixth inning that got LM within 4-3 before North Parkland added a big insurance run in the bottom half of the inning.
North Parkland was led on offense by right fielder Jake Barto who was 2-for-3 with three runs scored. Catcher Matt Razzis and shortstop Joe Algard each went 1-for-3 with an RBI.
North Parkland 5, Lower Mac 3
LM – 100 011 0 – 3-4-4
NP – 301 101 x – 5-6-1
Ryan Latchford and Dominic Chiego; Stephen Sepko, Noah Gunkle (6) and Matt Razzis, Aaron Atiyeh (5). WP – Sepko
2B – Razzis (NP), Algard (NP)