Palmyra baseball ready for the title stage
There are pleasant surprises and then there's the second half of the Palmyra baseball team's season.
Ten ball games, all victories, leading to one more first pitch that could transform its memorable campaign into a historic one. And in the process, these Cougars have already gone from middling to menacing.
So how about district champions? Well, seven more innings will tell.
Sprung by the hottest streak in District Three, No. 5 Palmyra has made its first title game since 2003 and will battle 14th-seeded Hamburg for the district crown at 6:30 p.m. Senior Zach Yingst is fittingly slated to get the start inside Reading's First Energy Stadium, as it's been his mound work in concert with junior Isaac Blatt that's founded much of the Cougars' success.
His last outing held 2015 district finalist Spring Grove to a pair of runs, while the Cougars cranked out 10 in a blowout quarterfinal win. Over the entirety of its recent stretch, Palmyra (17-6) has held opponents to an average of 1.6 runs per game.
Pitching and defense, it seems, can not only win ball games, but dominate them.
"We're coming together as a family," said senior center fielder Evan Hallowell after the Spring Grove win. "We really want to be here now and we can win. Everyone's coming together and doing their jobs."
Hallowell's explanation for his team's success is often summarized in the Cougars' dugout as "we're playing our best ball." Undoubtedly, the upstart Hawks (13-7) can offer the same reasons for their own tournament run.
They've upset No. 3 Northeastern, sixth-seeded Daniel Boone and Susquehanna Twp., the last division foe to best Palmyra, en route to Thursday's championship. Previously, Hamburg limped into the tournament by racking up more losses than wins in early May.
The Hawks' resurgent methods are right in line with Palmyra's, as they've allowed only a half-dozen runs during 23 innings of district tournament play. Janson Youndt, as prime a candidate to start the district title as any, posted a 2-0 shutout last week against Daniel Boone in the quarterfinals. He struck out five, scattered three hits and walked one.
Though the biggest threats to cooling off the Cougars likely stand at the plate, where middle-of-the-order hitters Ryan Smith and Nick Kuhn have combined for nearly a dozen hits in their last two games. They propelled Hamburg to nine runs against Susquehanna Twp., the same squad that held Palmyra to a combined one over a pair of regular-season meetings.
The only other mutual opponent this spring between the district finalists was Northern Lebanon, which dropped a 7-4 home decision to the Cougars and an 8-4 contest while visiting the Hawks. Both games took place more than six weeks ago, rendering their respective meaning for Thursday's perhaps useless.
After all, these are two brand new ball clubs with identical goals and a wealth of recent, winning experience to draw from.
Pleasant surprise? Perhaps not anymore.
"You don't think you're going to get this far to begin with, usually," Palmyra coach Tim Gingrich said. "I'd say the last three games when we really start to get it all. The confidence is sky high."