Reggie Crawford is flipping, kicking off the wall, and getting stronger on his last leg of the race.

That’s what the North Schuylkill swimmer was up to about a month ago. He is one of District 11’s premiere swimmers, and his season included competing at the AAU nationals earlier in the spring.Now, the baseball season is on its last lap — and Crawford is starting to pick up the pace on the mound.The southpaw slinger struck out five over six innings, and limited Tamaqua to a pair of runs during a 5-2 Schuylkill League victory on Thursday.“Reggie, being a great swimmer, was swimming until early April,” said North Schuylkill head coach Nick Brayford. “He’s just starting to come into form. I really feel he can do better than this, he was a little off today on command. But he would bring it back. He battled all day and didn’t give up many runs.”After tough sledding to start his baseball season against both Lehighton and Whitehall a few weeks ago, Crawford has settled in and has given up just four earned runs across his last 14 innings, while striking out 17 hitters during the stretch.“We had our opportunities,” said Tamaqua head coach Jeff Reading. “We did get some people on base. But Crawford did a good job for the most part on the mound for them.”The Spartans struck first in the second inning when Brandon Rockwell leadoff with a single, and came around to score when Zach Chownsky waited on an offseason pitch to rope a single to left to make it 1-0. In the third, Crawford drew a leadoff walk, and Aaron Bolinsky dove in pinch-runner Jaiden Leiby to make it 2-0. Zack Stoked added a sac-fly before the inning was over.“We haven’t been playing with a lead too much lately, we’ve been playing from behind,” Brayford said. “We’ve just been a little tentative. I liked the swings today. We were a bit more aggressive.”Crawford looked borderline unhittable across the first eight outs, but the Raiders made some noise before the ninth was recorded.Nate Boyle drew a walk with two outs in the third frame, after a long battle with Crawford, fighting off pitch after pitch. Daylon Barron followed by slamming an opposite-field double, which scored the speedy freshman from first and the Raiders were on the board. Casey Rother then smacked a single, which brought home Barron, and the North Schuylkill lead was cut to 3-2 after three innings of play.However, the Spartans scored two more runs in the top of the fourth and Tamaqua went scoreless the rest of the way. Crawford looked fatigued toward the end of the game, but got through six innings. He then handed the ball to Kenny Kropp in the seventh inning to shut the door on Tamaqua.POWER ... Barron, a lefty, ended the game with a single and a double on Thursday. He flashed opposite-field power with his double to the gap during the third inning. During a battle with Crawford in the fifth inning, Barron belted a ball that cleared the left-field fence — but was wide left of the foul pole and out of play.CLINCHING ... North Schuylkill secured a District 11 playoff berth with the victory.TIMING IS EVERYTHING ... Crawford reached pitch No. 99 after the second out was recorded in the sixth inning. This entitled him to pitch to the last batter of the frame, before handing the ball over to Kropp in the final inning for the save.N. Schuylkill 012 200 0 - 5 11 0Tamaqua 002 000 0 - 2 5 1Crawford, Kropp (7) and Burke; Minchoff, Boyle (4) and Rother. W - Crawford. L - Minchoff.