BASEBALL

The 2023 PA Baseball season has been nothing short of amazing. We had a large and talented group of middle school players who worked hard in the off season and were rewarded with a 19-7 record. Ford Bowman led the team with a .469 batting average while Port Conger led the team with 23 RBI's (Runs Batted In). Levi Torbett, Ryan Kastings, and Nash Martinez led a pitching staff that kept opponents batting average to a dismal .229 average.

Our JV team ended the season with a 8-6-1 record. Austin Price led all hitters with a .389 batting average, with 6 doubles, 8 RBI's and 12 runs scored. Cole Blanton recorded 8 hits on the season and had a very strong .537 on base percentage. Price, Charlie Walker, Mason Macdonald and Riley Long led a pitching staff that struck out 118 batters and had a team ERA (Earned Run Average) of 2.89.

The PA Varsity team exceeded all expectations in 2023 by tying for the best district regular season lead with a 9-1 record, winning the district tournament to earn the #1 seed for the regional tournament and earning the #2 seed in the East Region for the Division II-A State Tournament. As of May 10th, the team had a 23-7 overall record. For the 3rd year in a row, the offense was led by Nathan Eisfelder. He was the co-district offensive player of the year and led the PA Varsity team in batting average (.416), On Base Percentage (.478), hits (42), doubles (10), home runs (8), runs scored (35), RBI’s (38), and stolen bases (21).

The catalyst of the 2023 team was their pitching staff led by ace Tyner Simpson. Tyner led the team in innings pitched (45), wins (8-0 record), and strikeouts (68). Josh Owens, Lucas Belcher, Aidan Sproles, Merrit Runnels, and Nathan Eisfelder also contributed meaningful innings on the mound. The pitching staff had 6 shutouts and held opponents to 1 run in 5 games and 2 runs in another 3 games. The defense was led by shortstop Caleb Cross, catcher Rinaldo Matti, and first baseman Tine Bowman. Cross and Matti shared the district defensive player of the year award.

The team got timely hitting and defense from Manny Leslie, Drew Niebauer, and Levi Hooven.

As of May 10th, the team is still alive for a berth in the TSSAA DII-A State Championship. They will host a best 2 out of 3 series on May 17th and May 18th (if necessary) against either the #2 seed out of the west region or the #4 seed out of the middle region. The winner of that series will advance to the final 4 state tournament.