So. Lehigh rallies to edge Palmerton
The home stretch.
It’s the last phase of competition, and it can go one of two ways — good or bad.
The Palmerton baseball team has had its issues this season with handling the late stage of games.
The hardest part for Palmerton head coach Brian Taschler is that he sees his team competing with every team on the schedule. Yet, when it comes time to wrap the contest up and pull out the win, the Bombers have come up short.
Heading into their Colonial League matchup with Southern Lehigh, the Blue Bombers and Spartans both possessed 10-5 records and needed a victory to clinch a Colonial League playoff berth.
When the dust settled, it was Solehi posting a come-from-behind 5-2 decision that prevented Palmerton from punching its ticket to the CL postseason party.
After five frames, Palmerton held a 2-1 edge and seemed to be en route to the win. But a few Southern Lehigh hits, along with a pair of poorly-timed miscues, spelled doom for the Bombers.
“The difference today was mental errors,” Taschler said. “It’s been our downfall a lot this season — late inning, mental errors. It’s like we can’t hold it together through seven innings.”
Starting pitchers Zach Silfies of Palmerton, and Wyatt Yaindl of Southern Lehigh kept the runs off the board through the majority of the outing.
“We competed well today,” Southern Lehigh skipper Todd Miller said. “Our pitchers did a really nice job of keeping their guys off balance, and that’s a good hitting team. Palmerton has been solid all season long, so give credit to our guys for making the plays that we needed to.”
In the top of the third, Chris Andrews’ RBI single got the Spartans on the board first.
Palmerton responded in the bottom of the frame as Dylan Frank walked, Ben Serfass smacked a double and Tanner Burnett brought them both home with another double to make it 2-1.
The score remained that way until the sixth, when the Spartans applied pressure. Dalton Musselman walked and Andrews followed with a single. When Musselman attempted to steal third, the throw from Burnett got away and Musselman scored to tie. Andrews then attempted a similar play, but seemed to be caught. However an errant throw allowed the Spartans to take the 3-2 lead.
The winners tacked on insurance runs in the seventh to secure things, as Musselman smacked a two-run single to produce the final score. Jacob Stanten came on in the last inning to close it out for the Spartans.
“Our leadership comes from our first baseman, that ended up finishing the game,” Miller said about Stanten. “He keeps the guys in the game and the other kids respond well to that. It’s an attitude, a mentality, because even though Palmerton had us frustrated early, our kids battled and they made a couple mistakes that went in our favor, and here we are.”
BIG BATS ... For the Spartans, Andrews finished the day at the plate 3-for-4 with four stolen bases, an RBI and a run scored.
For the Bombers, outside of the doubles by Burnett and Serfass, Tyler Roe and Zach Silfies had singles.
MOVING ON ... Palmerton still controls its destiny as far as the CL playoffs are concerned. If the Bombers beat rival Northern Lehigh on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Berlinsville they are in. A loss creates the possibility of a multiple-team tie for the final playoff berth. “We have one more league game and now that’s going to be a must-win for us,” Taschler said.
Southern Lehigh 001 002 2 - 5 7 0
Palmerton 002 000 0 - 2 4 2
Yaindl, Coyle (6), Stanten (7) and Musselman; Silfies, King (6) and Burnett. W - Coyle. L - King.