SCHNECKSVILLE — Palmerton was matched up against Notre Dame of Green Pond in the Colonial League wild card game Saturday at Lehigh Carbon Community College.

Unfortunately for the Blue Bombers, getting a big hit at the right time turned out to be the only real wild card and led to a 6-0 Crusaders win, eliminating Palmerton from the Colonial League playoffs.

The Bombers had some scoring opportunities throughout the game, but every time, they failed to get a big hit off Notre Dame pitcher Steven Luke.

Palmerton led off the game with a basehit from Ben Serfass, but as he attempted to steal second, he was called out when the home plate umpire ruled that Zach Silfies had interfered with the catcher’s throw. Silfies was called out on strikes – the first of five straight strikeouts by Luke – and Palmerton was left with two outs and no one on base.

The Blue Bombers got good pitching from Ryan King, who pitched a complete game. King did hurt himself at a couple points in the game, including in the first inning. The Crusaders had gone right to work with singles from Josh Herman and Nick Vonelli. One out later, the Crusaders loaded the bases and a hit batter and sacrifice fly brought home Herman and Vonelli for a 2-0 Crusaders lead. The third run of the game would come in the second when King balked with runners on first and third to force home a run.

Palmerton continued to miss opportunities. They had runners on second and third in the third inning, moved a runner over to third in the fourth, loaded the bases in the fifth and had a leadoff runner on second in the sixth.

“Timely hitting has been a problem all season. Some of the time we have it, most of the time we don’t,” said coach Brian Taschler. “We got runners on base today, and we got some good at-bats today but when we needed that big hit, we just couldn’t get it.”

Meanwhile, the Crusaders added to their lead in the fifth. Luke led off with a single and was bunted over to second. A wild pitch moved him to third, and Collin Quintano singled to left to make it 4-0.

Notre Dame used a leadoff walk, another sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch to put a runner on third with one out in the sixth. A single from Vonelli made it 5-0, and with runners on second and third, Ben Gormley lifted a sacrifice fly to left to cap the scoring.

“They got up on us early, which is always tough when they come out of the gates with a lead. Our pitcher came through well today, and their pitcher threw a great game, too. It was two great pitchers,” said Taschler.

Next up for Palmerton is the District 11 playoffs, which begin next week. Between now and then, Taschler will keep the team practicing, and has also set up several scrimmages to keep his team on the field and ready for the opening round of districts.

“We believe in ourselves,” stressed Taschler. “We can’t get down; we had a good season at 13-7, so we have to keep our heads up. There are a lot of teams out there that didn’t qualify for the Colonial League tournament and we did, so just keep practicing and playing hard, and we’ll come back for districts.”

WHERE ARE WE? ... The Colonial League has tried out various venues for their league playoffs over the years, having used Limeport Stadium, Parkland High School and now Lehigh Carbon Community College for a majority of the games. The only drawback to LCCC is that the field doesn’t have lights, which means that the league had to split their semifinal games between the college and Easton High School. Otherwise, LCCC seemed to meet most of the requirements for the league.

WHAT’S GOING ON? ... Elsewhere in the Colonial League, Southern Lehigh advanced to the semifinals with an 11-4 win over Saucon Valley. The Spartans will play top-seed Northwestern at LCCC on Tuesday, with Notre Dame and second-seeded Wilson playing at Easton High School Tuesday. The finals will be back at LCCC on Thursday. Of course, all of the plans are left up to the weather, which doesn’t look good for the next couple of days.

Palmerton 000 000 0 - 0 6 1

Notre Dame 210 012 x - 6 10 0

King and Burnett; Luke, Vonelli (7) and Yurkovitch. W - Luke. L - King.