Down to the final four

Semifinal matchups are set

The top four seeds in this year’s Perky League Playoffs wasted no time in their quarterfinals matchups.

All four squads earned resounding sweeps to get the postseason started, and in doing so, earned themselves plenty of time off before next week’s semifinals.

No. 1 Skippack swept through No. 8 Stony Creek 3-0; No. 2 Plymouth was a 3-0 winner over No. 7 Conshohocken; No. 3 Valley Forge was able to sweep No. 6 Pottstown; and No. 4 Collegeville was a 3-0 winner over No. 5 Nor-Gwyn.

That sets up two intriguing matchups for this coming week, with Skippack battling Collegeville and Plymouth taking on Valley Forge.

Game One of each best-of-five semifinal series is set for Monday, at Skippack and Plymouth.

The winners advance to the finals, which will be held at Hostelley Field.

LAST TITLES >> Valley Forge is looking to defend its title and win back-to-back crowns.

There hasn’t been a repeat champion since 2012, when Collegeville captured its fourth in a row.

Meanwhile, this Collegeville

tunately it didn’t translate into this championship.”

Miller and Quin Dye paced the Patriots in hits at Region 3 with seven each — Miller going 7-for-19 (.368) while Dye was 7-for-20 (.350) — as both collected at least a hit in the first five games. Miller also led the team in RBIs (8) and run scored (8).

Fort Washington, too, was carried by its bats in the tournament. The Golden Generals scored 43 runs in five games — its 8.6 runs per game second behind Northampton, which averaged 11.4 per contest — the champion Bombers plating 57 runs in five games.

Three of the Golden Generals’ five games were offensive slugfests — Fort falling to Northampton 14-12 in its opener last Friday, holding off Falls 12-11 Monday then losing to Whitemarsh 11-9 a day later.

Whitemarsh and Fort traded big rallies in the sixth frame of Tuesday’s elimination contest — the Patriots scored seven times in the top of the inning to take a 9-4 lead only for the Generals to respond with five in its half to knot things up at nine.

Whitemarsh, however, struck for two in the top of the seventh on Mike Eckelmeyer’s two-RBI double. Fort got a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh but could not put together another rally and extend their first Region 3 appearance since 2018 one more game.

“The defense was a little shaky again in that one inning, I guess a couple plays we could’ve made but you know what we tied the game back so now it’s a new ballgame,” Fort Washington coach Gary Bonitatibus said. “And unfortunately they got a big hit there with two outs and then we get the leadoff guy, I thought we could find a way, it just didn’t happen.”

Even with a 0-for-5 day at the plate against Whitemarsh, Fort’s Nate Dennis still had a teambest 10 hits in the tournament, going 10-of-22 for a .455 batting average. Dennis had three hits in each of the Generals’ first two games and finished with three extra-base hits (two triples and a double), two RBIs and tied David Sharp for the teamhigh in runs with eight.

Tyler Lizell was 9-of-16 (.563) with three doubles, a triple, six RBIs and five runs scored. Ryan Deal had a .412 average (7-of-17) with two doubles, seven RBIs and five runs scored while Gabe Franczyk hit .444 (8-of-18) with seven RBIs and five runs scored.

REGION 2 >> Nor-Gwyn qualified for the Region 2 Tournament for the first time since 2014 with the Hawks making it to the third day at West Lawn before getting knocked out 4-3 by Wyomissing Sunday.

Jeff Sabater, a North Penn grad heading to play at Northampton Community College, collected a hit in all three regional games for the Bux-Mont regular season and playoff champs. He was 4-for-4 with a double, three RBIs and run scored in a 10-0 win over Salisbury last Saturday then scored two runs against Wyomissing.

Fellow Bux-Mont side Hatfield-Towamencin went 0-2 at West Lawn but the Titans added another regional appearance to the program’s resume. Post 933 has reached the tournament four of the last five times it has been held — previously qualifying three straight seasons from 2016-2018. STATE TOURNAMENT >> American Legion play continues with the Pennsylvania State Tournament beginning Saturday in Ephrata.

In the opening round, Region 2 champ Norchester faces Region 8 champ French Creek Valley at 1:10 p.m. while Region 3 champ Northampton takes on Region 4 winner Paxton at 4:10 p.m.

Both the state champ and runner-up advance to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Aug. 4-8 in Asheboro, North Carolina.