8 things to know about the semifinal matchups
Liberty baseball coach Andy Pitsilos is a superstitious guy who closed his ears anytime anyone mentioned his Hurricanes’ being the clear-cut favorite in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.
“We haven’t won anything yet,” he has said often.
Pitsilos has good reason to be cautious. In the last five EPC tournaments, the No. 1 seed has won the league title just once — when Parkland did it in 2015. In both 2017 and ‘19, Liberty earned the top seed but lost in the championship game.
So while the 18-1 Hurricanes, who host Pleasant Valley (13-4) at 4 p.m. in Tuesday’s semifinals, clearly earned their No. 1 seed and ranking, they know full well there’s much more work to do.
Parkland (17-4) hosts Emmaus (16-5) in Tuesday’s other EPC semi at 4:45 p.m., but the Colonial League gets a big week of baseball started with its semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Monday. No. 1 seed Northwestern Lehigh (16-4) hosts Southern Lehigh (14-6) and defending champ Notre Dame (16-4) entertains Palisades (13-7).
Here are eight things to know about the semifinals:
Colonial League
Newton’s laws: Jaden Newton was the talented quarterback of Palisades’ District 11 championship football team and he can throw the baseball just as well as the pigskin. He has a 1.41 ERA and is also a .433 hitter with 24 RBIs. He struck out eight in 6 ⅓ innings and went 4-for-4 offensively with three runs scored and three RBIs in the Pirates’ 12-1 quarterfinal win over Saucon Valley. But Notre Dame must also be wary of Bela Pavlinsky (.448, 27 RBIs) and Jon DeNato (.442, 18 RBIs).
Q score: Notre Dame’s Collin Quintano is another multisport athlete who plays quarterback in the fall. But he has also been a star on the diamond and is hitting .315 with five home runs and 24 RBIs. Quintano was a starter on the 2019 team that won league and district titles and reached the state final. Josh Herman, another key member of the 2019 team, is batting .354 with three home runs and 25 RBIs and Jackson Shollenberger, another 2019 player, is batting .375 with 15 extra-base hits, including three home runs, and 26 RBIs.
Pickell power: Christian Pickell’s two-run triple highlighted a six-run fifth inning that carried Southern Lehigh past Palmerton 6-1 Friday night in its Colonial League quarterfinal. Ashton Levy, Matt Tankred, and Michael Andrews also collected RBI hits as the Spartans
avenged a 6-5 loss to Palmerton. Now it’s on to a third meeting with Northwestern. They split the first two.
“We need a complete team effort to beat them,” Southern Lehigh coach Todd Miller said. “Our margin for error is very small. We need to play near-flawless baseball and they have room for a mistake or two. We proved last time [in a 5-4 win May 4] that we can accomplish that goal and gained some confidence because of it. We have no pressure as we’re not supposed to win this game.”
Wealth of Welch: University of Delaware recruit and Northwestern Lehigh ace Carter Welch will face Southern Lehigh for the third time this season. He has a 4-2 record overall with a 1.06 ERA and 51 strikeouts. Division I football recruit Justin Holmes leads the Tigers offense with a .547 average. He has five home runs among his 35 hits and 29 RBIs. Lehigh recruit Rafe Perich leads the Tigers with 12 extrabase hits, including four home runs, and 26 RBIs.
EPC
Hurricane warning: Liberty has the most productive offense in area baseball, averaging 10.2 runs per game. But Penn State-bound Devin Fletcher was also dominant Saturday in a 13-0 quarterfinal win over East Stroudsburg. He had a one-hitter with 10 strikeouts in five innings.
Bear necessity: Pleasant Valley is trying to become the first Monroe County team to reach the league finals since Stroudsburg in 2015. The Bears played Liberty tough in a previous meeting, losing 5-3 May 6. PV was held to just four hits by Fletcher and Hayden O’Neill, and Jack Rothenhausler hit a home run.
Trojans trail: Parkland has won four straight since a 14-10 loss to Northampton on May 6 and has been getting a spark at the top of the order from Blake Barthol. He has gone 6-for12 in the winning streak with four walks and five runs scored.
Arms race: Pitching has been the catalyst behind Emmaus’ five straight wins that began after a 13-1 mercy-rule loss to Liberty. Since that setback, the Green Hornets have allowed just six runs and 20 hits. It is the Emmaus offense that will be on the spot against Parkland, since the Green Hornets were shut out in both previous meetings and limited to nine combined hits in the 10-0 and 4-0 defeats.