7/10/19
Since the start of the Lehigh Valley Youth Legion season back in late May, both Lower Macungie and North Parkland have been on a collision course to meet in the finals.
The two teams ran rough shot through the seven-team league combining to go 31-5 with Lower Mac going 15-3 and North Parkland finishing one game better at 16-2, resulting in it winning the regular-season championship.
North Parkland also got the better of Lower Mac in the three matchups between the two as they won a pair of one-run games, both by a 3-2 score.
Lower Mac, however, defeated North Parkland in last year’s championship game also by a one-run score (4-3) to win its second straight title.
So the big question: who has the advantage heading into this year’s championship series?
“If we play clean baseball, I would expect to beat them,” said a confident Lower Mac head coach Shawn Betz. “We can beat anybody if we play our game.”
Up until this point, the Rangers nearly have. And now they find themselves back in the finals for the third year in a row.
Game 1 of the best two-out-of-three championship series begins tonight at 6 p.m. as Lower Mac travels to North Parkland. Game 2 is tentatively set for the same time on Thursday at Church Lane Park with a Game 3, if necessary, back at North Parkland on Friday.
Both teams have already clinched a berth in regionals, which begin on July 20. The champion of the Lehigh Valley will advance to the Oley regional, while the runner-up will have to make a longer trek north to Berwick.
Lower Mac (16-3 overall) had an easy time advancing to its third straight final as they swept South Parkland, the No.3 seed, last weekend in the semifinals.
In Game 1 on Saturday at Church Lane Park, Lower Mac broke open a tight 3-2 game with a six-run fourth inning to win 10-3, while in Game 2 on Sunday morning at Parkland High School, they outscored South Parkland 10-0 in the middle innings to roll to a 12-1 in a game that was stopped after six innings due to the 10-run rule.
As has been the norm all season, Lower Mac got strong pitching in both games as starter Andrew O’Brien and Tyler Geist combined on a six-hitter in Game 1. O’Brien allowed just three hits and struck out seven in five innings of work and earned his third win over South Parkland this season.
In Game 2, Tyler Seidel pitched four strong innings and allowed just a pair of hits, and Dylan Witkowski came in to pitch the final two innings.
“We stressed to our pitchers throw strikes to keep pitch counts down and that’s exactly what they did in both games,” said Betz, who’s now in his third season. “We’ve been pretty efficient pitch-count wise all season long. I have as many as nine guys that can pitch on this team.”
Betz is also how pleased how his team is playing right now heading into the finals after going just 2-2 to end the regular-season.
“It was nice,” he said. “We played pretty much mistake-free baseball throwing strikes and not giving extra outs. About two weeks ago we played seven games in a eight-day stretch and played well and these past two games we also played good baseball.”
And now Lower Mac can turn its focus and attention to North Parkland and winning a third consecutive Lehigh Valley Youth Legion title.
O’Brien is expected to get the start tonight for Lower Mac in Game 1.
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Lower Mac 12, South Parkland 1 (Game 2 – Sunday at Parkland HS)
LM – 020 253 X – 12-7-1
SP – 010 000 x – 1-4-6
LM – Tyler Seidel, Dylan Witkowski (5) and Dominick Chiego
SP – Charon, Kemper (5), Ruisch (5) and Hrycko
WP – Seidel (3-1), LP – Charon
Lower Mac 10 , South Parkland 3 (Game 1 – Saturday at Church Lane Park)
SP – 001 100 1 – 3-6-3
LM – 030 601 x – 10-8-1
SP – DuBorg, Hendricks (4), Ruisch (5) and Hrycko
LM – Andrew O’Brien, Tyler Geist (6) and Sam Dietz
WP – O’Brien (4-2), LP – DuBorg