It was a good week to be a Pioneer and Pioneer sports fan! The baseball and softball teams won the Lancaster-Lebanon League crown, the girls' lacrosse team advanced to the second round of District 3A competition and the track teams brought home some hardware from the District Three Championships in Shippensburg. All four teams continue their post-season action this week.
The baseball team's trek through the L-L playoff bracket included not one, or two but three shutouts to earn the program's second L-L title and first since 1994. The team blanked Donegal 6-0 in the opening round then shut down Section One runner-up Warwick 5-0 last Tuesday before denying Section One champ Hempfield 3-0 in the finals at Ephrata's War Memorial Stadium Thursday.
"There are a lot of good teams in Lancaster and Lebanon so to finish with three straight shutouts, I wouldn't have guessed that," said head coach Keith Martin. "The key has been the way this team practices and supports each other in both games and practices."
Using three of their five base hits in the game, and a hit batter, the Pioneers scored all the runs they needed in the first inning. Braendon Karpathios connected for a one out single, and Dylan Byler was hit by a pitch. Hunter Cunningham's sac fly moved Karpathios to third and Connor Blantz singled in the first run. Derek Eckman's grounder to right plated courtesy runner Alex Knapp and Blantz came home on the throw.
Joseph Meck singled in the third inning, Byler reached on an error in the fourth and Blantz collected his second single of the game in the sixth, providing Lampeter with three other run scoring opportunities that were denied.
On the hill, Byler walked the first batter of the game but had a no-hitter going into the sixth. The Knights collected an infield base hit in the sixth inning and a lead off base hit in the seventh. Byler finished with seven strikeouts and that leadoff walk.
The Pioneers, sitting with just two losses on the year, advanced to the finals with Tuesday's shutout over Warwick. After three scoreless frames, L-S scored one in the fourth, three in the fifth and another in the sixth to take control. They collected nine hits with Karpathios collecting three. Patrick Holmes was tops with a pair of RBI's.
Karpathios started on the hill as well, tossing a three-hitter with eight strikeouts and two walks.
"To have only two losses at this point is great but we need to keep our focus on what's in front of us," stated Martin. "We have embraced the concept of taking the season one game at a time and focusing on goals within each game. We need to stay committed to each other, continue to trust each other and stay true to what has gotten us to this point."
SOFTBALL
While the baseball team was shutting down the opposition, the softball team earned a come-from-behind win over Penn Manor (5-2) and took control against Elizabethtown (9-1) to earn their second L-L crown since 2014.
At Seaber Softball Stadium on the campus of Millersville University, L-S gave up two runs in the top of the first inning to Penn Manor last Tuesday but then turned around and scored all five of their runs in the bottom half.
With two outs and Julz Garber, who reached on an error, on second, Brynn Baker worked a walk and Cam Byler and Gabby Drumm cracked run scoring base hits to knot the score at 2-2. Daisy Frank also reached on a walk and scored on Emily Platt's two run double. L-S also scored on a passed ball.
"You have to give Penn Manor credit," said head coach Gene Charles. "They didn't give up and played with heart. We were lucky to play poorly and come away with a win.
"We talk about wanting to play our best ball at the end of the end of the year but I don't think we're doing that right now," he continued. "We seem to be a little lazy mentally right now.
"We had a season-low five hits and a season-low five runs scored," added Charles. "We had opportunities and we didn't capitalize. We were fortunate to escape with a win."
One night later the Pioneers jumped in front early, scoring all the runs they needed in the first inning, three. E-town got one back in the second frame but L-S took control in the third, scoring six runs on six hits.
"I think that inning kinda knocked the wind out of their sail," said Charles. "Julz (Garber), Chloe Blantz and Summer Peters connected for six of our 11 hits and Summer had two RBIs with a double and a triple. I felt we could have scored more later but we didn't get it done."
Drumm added a two run triple in that six run third and finished with two hits.
E-town loaded the bases in the first but Baker, from the circle, took control, forcing a pop out and a ground out to end the threat.
"Brynn shut the door," said Charles. "She threw an amazing drop ball. Her drop hasn't been working like that all year. She settled in after that first inning and finished with seven strikeouts and no walks.
"I was a little nervous coming in," Charles said. "We had beaten them 13-0 and 10-2 earlier but they were coming off a shutout over Donegal and Warwick, two of the top teams in the league.
"Now we prepare for districts."
TRACK
The Pioneers took two top seeded athletes, and dozen or so others, to the District Three Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg this past weekend and came home with three gold medals and had four athletes qualify for the PIAA Championships.
"It was the biggest group of athletes we've taken to districts for a while," said head coach Calvin Esh. "And to get four to go on to states - we're very happy about that."
Ezra Mellinger, the top seed in both the long jump and 200 meter dash, lived up to the billing and garnered two gold medals. The senior crushed the field in the long jump, going 23-9, almost two feet better than Manheim Central's Will Rivers' second place effort of 21-9.25. Mellinger was seeded with a top leap of 24-1.5.
In the 200, Mellinger clocked a 21.87 in the semis before racing a 21.54 in the finals for gold. CD East's Shawn Brown, with a 22.02 settled for second.
Kristen Herr also stayed on top of the field in the javelin. Seeded first with a 157-5, the senior settled for a 150-5, well ahead of the rest of the competition as Daniel Boone sophomore Hanna Cassner was a distant second with a 124-2. Herr's efforts not only won gold but crushed the district record of 141-0 set by New Oxford's Madison Smith.
Like Mellinger, Herr competed in a second event, this time placing fifth with a 123-5, two feet off her seeding throw of 125-5. Berks Catholic's Keeley Suzenski, with a 138-3, was the overall winner.
Other Pioneers taking a trip to the podium included Josiah Zehr, Gabe Frederick and Alex Stoeffler. Zehr, who was seeded ninth in the pole vault, cleared a personal best 14-0 and finished in fifth place. Penn Manor's Matt Julian toped the field with a 15-7. Frederick matched his sixth place seed with a sixth place effort in the shot put (52-2.5). They both competed Friday afternoon.
Alex Stoeffler, who entered the javelin competition seeded 11th with a 174-10, was a bit off that mark but moved into eighth place overall with a 173-4.
The boys' settled for a seventh place tie with Manheim Township.
Just shy of grabbing a district medal was Lily Hoke. The junior was an 11th seed in the high jump with a 5-2 but failed to reach that mark. She and seven other competitors cleared 4-11 but due to misses, Hoke remained in that 11th place slot.
Zehr came close to grabbing a second medal but he too fell short. Seeded seventh in the 300 hurdles, Zehr clocked a 40.99 to finish ninth, just behind Cocalico's Joe Zimmerman who secured the final medal with a 40.26.
Other district place winners included the 4x100 team of Lindsay Szymanski, Lauren Gard, Toby Harnish and Elli Strauss (12th). Szymanski was also 12th in the 100 and Gard came in 15th in the 300 hurdles.
Jansen Miller settled for 17th place in the 800.
GIRLS' LACROSSE
The girls' lacrosse team, seeded fourth in the District 2A tournament, hosted No. 5 seed Wyomissing (14-6) in the opening round of the tournament last Wednesday.
With Kelsey Kimmel scoring nine of the team's 14 goals, L-S jumped out to a 9-5 lead in the first half and then played even with Wyomissing after the break to advance. Katelyn Smith added two goals and two assists and McKenna Conklin followed with two assists to back Kimmel. Riley Dawson, Conklin and Emma Gochnauer each provided one goal with Conklin (2) and Drummond (1) combining for three assists.
This is Lampeter's fourth district appearance and the first time they advanced to the semifinals where they face top seed York Catholic.
BOYS' LACROSSE
The ninth seeded boys' team opened Districts with a road game at No. 8 seed Conrad Weiser (10-7) last Tuesday, May 14. Due to weather, the game was played at Wilson HS.
In a game that was close from start to finish, the Pioneers dropped a heartbreaker, 8-6. Tied at 3-3 in the first quarter, CW took a one goal lead at the half and, after a 1-1 third quarter tie, held a 2-1 lead in the fourth quarter to finish on top.
"We felt we were with them the whole game but we didn't execute on the offensive end like we had hoped," said head coach Corey Nehlig. "Mental mistakes in transition killed our rhythm and we had too many turnovers.
"On the plus side though, our strengths were Dom Reed in goal and our defense playing a solid game overall," he added. "At the end of the day, I think Conrad Weiser made the plays when it mattered, giving them that slight edge."
Conner Nolt, a sophomore attack, scored half of Lampeter's goals. Joey Jordan and Noah Davis added one goal each while Noah Patterson turned in a hat trick of assists with Logan Bradley and Jack Ingram adding one assist each.
"This year was about finding a way to be a winning program again," said Nehlig, "and to become a family. Qualifying for districts and winning nine games was a step in the right direction. I am proud that this group of seniors was able to lead us this far and set an expectation for the future."
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