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Lady Pioneers Claim 5th L-L League Crown

BY MONA STEINHAUER

Lampeter-Strasburg’s softball team has cruised to a 20-1 record by taking control early. They have played eight games where the margin of victory has been five runs or less and even fewer times have they had to battle from behind. But they’ve proven they can do that.

On Thursday, May 20, at Millersville University, the Pioneers used a seven-run sixth inning to break a 4-4 tie and beat Elizabethtown for the L-L League Championship trophy.

L-S connected for eight hits that inning, including a two out, two run double by Emily Platt (34, 2RBIs) and took advantage of a pair of errors. A throwing error on a sac bunt plated the first two runs of the inning.

“It wasn’t pretty, but we lived to play another day,” said head coach Gene Charles.

The Pioneers defeated the Bears 9-1 in the 2019 L-L championships. This is their fifth crown in program history.

And it was E-town that took the early lead, plating four in the third inning, all with two outs. A rare Pioneer error and a two-run homer by Megan Gray contributed to the lead.

L-S got two back in the fourth on Ally Raub’s double and two more in the fifth when Chloe Blantz (3-4) singled and scored on Daisy Frank’s triple. Cam Byler’s fielder’s choice ground out pushed in Frank and set the stage for a bat-around sixth.

Last Tuesday, the No. 2 seed Pioneers made short work of New Oxford (8-13) in the opening round of the District Three Class 5A tournament, winning 10-0 in five innings.

Kieva Middleton pitched a nohitter, striking out nine and walking one. “She had great command of the zone and her changeup was amazing,” said Charles. “They only had two runners reach base.”

Raub opened the scoring in the second inning, stealing home on a passed ball and Cam Byler cracked the first of her two home runs one inning later.

L-S started to pull away in the fourth, plating three runs on a pair of round trippers. New Oxford made a pitching change to start the inning and Brooke Zuber sent the first pitch over the centerfield fence. Blantz followed with a two-run homer that pushed the lead to 5-0.

They wrapped up the action one inning later. Byler collected her second homer, and fifth of the year, Julia Gerard lined a two-run single up the middle and Blantz smoked a double down the right field line to cap the scoring.

“You can’t look at where teams are seeded,” said Charles. “You have to be ready to take care of business. We got off to a bit of a slow start but eventually got the result we wanted.”

DISTRICT TRACK

Lampeter’s track and field athletes took advantage of the opportunity to compete in the District Three Championships May 14-15 and turned in a handful of medal-winning performances. Arik Harnish was Lampeter’s top place-winner securing a second-place finish in the open 800 with a 1:57.38. The senior also competed in the 4x800 relay with Nathan Eberly, Colin Whitaker, and Luka Vranich. The foursome broke their own school record with a 7:59.2 and finished fourth overall.

Vranich also competed in the open 800, where he finished in 10th place while Whitaker, a freshman, was a 3200m participant. His 9:46.64 was good for ninth place, just one away from a medal.

“The heat was pretty tough, especially for the distance runners,” said head coach Cal Esh.

Teagan Weaver also found his way to the podium, taking 7th in the long jump (21-5). He also competed in the prelims and the semifinals of the 100m sprint but did not qualify for the finals.

In the field events, Zach Shelley finished with a 45-3.75 in the shot put, taking 11th out of 18.

Sophomore Maggie Swarr was the top place-winner for the girls’ team, securing a bronze medal with a personal best toss of 125-6 in the javelin, just behind Manheim Central’s Madi Knier (129-0).

Lyndi Wall, also a sophomore, finished 8th in the 100m prelims and was 14th in the semifinals but did not advance to the finals. She and Madison Weichler also competed in the 200 and then joined sophomores Elly Brunner and Kaite Finn for a chance to medal in the 4x100 relay. They came up just short, settling for 11th place.

BOYS’ LACROSSE

With a chance to play in their first-ever District Three 2A final, the No. 2 seed Pioneers (14-5) hosted Susquehannock (13-5), seeded sixth, last Monday in the semifinals. Unfortunately, in a fast-paced and wildly entertaining outing, the Warriors prevailed 14-13.

The visitors, who went on to finish second after losing to Trinity in the finals, built a 6-4 lead in the first quarter which proved to be the difference as the rest of the game was all but dead-even. Lampeter’s 4-3 edge in the third left them on top 9-8 but it wasn’t quite enough.

“That was a tough loss,” said head coach Mike McConomy. “I felt the game came down to the fact that we gave up several bad goals in the first half and had to play catch up the whole game.”

That catch-up saw L-S fall behind 7-4 and 8-5 in the second quarter and 11-8 in the third. They finally tied the game at 1212 on a goal by Stewart McClain (5g, 1a) with 11:02 remaining but never got over the hump.

“Stewart and Conner Nolt kept us in the game with timely goals,” McConomy said. “And I thought Barrett Denlinger had a great game. This was the first time in program history we’ve made it to the district semis and to qualify for states.”

Also scoring was Nolt (4g, 1a), Denlinger with a hat trick, and Collin Sullivan who led with four assists and added one goal.

BASEBALL

The Pioneers were looking for a second straight L-L League crown. Manheim Central played spoiler and upended LampeterStrasburg 2-0 on May 20 at Ephrata’s War Memorial Field.

The Barons (20-1) took a 1-0 lead in the first on a walk, an error and a two out run scoring single. And the score stood at 1-0 until Manheim’s Colton Book sent one over the fence.

The Pioneers were held to just two hits, a single by Gio Malatesta in the second and a base hit by Owen Fikkert in the sixth and in three different innings they had two runners on via walks and hit batters but could not deliver the key hit.

“We had some opportunities but some baserunning errors hurt our cause,” said head coach Jeff Swarr. “It was just a matter of the guys trying so hard. We are proud of the effort they give every game.

“Jack Swarr and Peyton Harsh combined to pitch well (5K, 3W),” he added. “We look forward to districts.”

That District tournament got underway last Monday when the No. 6 seed Pioneers (16-6) hosted Spring Grove (13-7). And, in a similar fashion to the Central game, ended with a home run. Both teams scored single runs in the third inning and came up empty for the next five. Then, in the bottom of the ninth, Braedon Karpathios sent one over the right field fence and sent the Pioneers into the quarterfinals.

Spring Grove took the initial lead on a two out error and a base hit. L-S answered in the bottom half when Alex Knapp’s fielder’s choice ground out sent courtesy runner Myles McQueen home. Neither team sent more than four batters to the plate over the next five innings.

“What a great baseball game,” said Swarr. “Their pitcher threw strikes and was around the plate the whole game. We had good at bats and when we hit the ball

photo by Mona Steinhauer

Lampeter-Strasburg’s softball team celebrates their Lancaster-Lebanon League Championship victory over Elizabethtown Thursday, May 20 at Seaber Stadium on the campus of Millersville University.

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