Bears, Indians, Panthers breeze in baseball

Pleasant Valley and Lehighton both posted mercy-rule victories over Lehigh Valley Conference baseball teams on Saturday, while Panther Valley handed MMI a setback.

BASEBALL

Pleasant Vy.-Parkland

Pleasant Valley showed its muscle by downing Lehigh Valley Conference power Parkland, 19-9, in a non-league contest.

The Bears blew up for five first-inning runs and tacked on nine more in the fifth to seal the mercy rule win.

Chris Kershner, Rob Getz and Tim Shea all had big games to lead Pleasant Valley (12-2). Kershner had a double and five RBIs to lead the way. Getz added a triple and three RBIs and Shea also knocked in three runs.

For Parkland (10-4), Michael Tenaglia had a home run with three RBIs and Matt Tulio had a double and three RBIs.

Pleasant Vy. 502 39 - 19 7 1

Parkland 003 24 - 9 13 3

Jimenez, Beidelman (3), Kregeloh (4) and Chamberlain; Tenaglia, O'Leary (1), Curry (3), Nelson (4), Brandstetter (5) and Abeln.

Dieruff-Lehighton

Lehighton posted a non-league, mercy-rule victory over Dieruff, 12-2.

The Indians (11-4) were led by Dave Behler who was 3-for-3 with two home runs and five RBIs. Kyle Hunter and Jacen Nalesnik were both 2-for-3, with a double and two RBIs.

Dieruff 010 01 - 2 4 3

Lehighton 570 0x - 12 10 1

Hoffman and Vidal; Harris and Nalesnik. WP - Harris. HR: Behler 2 (1st), (2nd).

MMI-Panther Vy.

Jeff Corby blasted a pair of home runs and had four hits total to lead the Panthers over MMI 18-11.

Corby hit a solo homer in the third and a three-run homer in the sixth. Casey Lawrence and Zach Stanko added three hits apiece for the Panthers.

MMI 015 103 1 - 11 16 2

PV 401 418 x - 18 18 0

Hinkel, Hopt (3), Kollar (6) and Swankoski; Poeldnurk, Ogozalek (2), McAvoy (4), Gurka (6) and Pecha. W - McAvoy. HR: PV - Corby (3rd, none on; 6th, two on).

SOFTBALL

Tamaqua-Tri-Valley

Tri-Valley rolled to a three-inning 16-1 victory over Tamaqua for its third straight win.

Julie Weber finished 3-for-3 with four runs, while Morganne Starr went 3-for-3 with three runs and three RBIs and Sam Wetzel went 2-for-4 with four RBIs.

Tamaqua 100 - 1 1 1

Tri-Valley 32(11) - 16 15 0

Sotak, K. Bates (3) and Burkett; Weber and H. Nuemeister. W - Weber. L - Sotak.

MMI-Panther Valley

The Panthers attempted a late comeback, but the Preppers held on for a 8-7 win.

Rosie Bauer had four RBIs for PV, including a two-run double in a three-run seventh and Demi Ogozalek also drove in a run, but that was all the Panthers (1-12) could muster.

MMI 223 001 0 - 8 10 2

PV 002 002 3 - 7 9 6

Wenner and Purcell; Ogozalek and Gates. W - Wenner.

Jim Thorpe-Palmerton

The Lady Bombers had a pair of four run innings and rode the hot bat of Jenna Ritter to a 11-1 win over the Olympians in five innings.

Ritter went two-for-two with a triple, home run and drove in four runs for the Bombers, while Alexa Harleman also had a pair of hits, including a triple and two RBIs. Liz Raub also had a triple.

Martina Herring was the winning pitcher, allowing one hit and striking out 10 and getting her 100th of the season.

Jim Thorpe 000 10 - 1 1 3

Palmerton 140 42 - 11 10 1

Tillou and Malliard; Herring and Arner. W - Herring. HR: Palmerton - Ritter.

GIRLS SOCCER

Northwestern

-Lehighton

Northwestern rolled to a 6-0 non-league victory over Lehighton.

Katie Hallingstad led the way for the winners with two goals and an assist. Emily Bartlett opened up the scoring with her goal. Cassy Yost followed with a goal and Emily Iobst tacked on another before halftime. The second half sawa Hallingstad take control with a Anna Fricchione score in the mix, as well.

Lehighton's Jourdan Semmel had a busy time in goal as she stopped 12 attempts from the Lady Tigers.

With the win, NW improved to 10-3 on the season. Lehighton dropped to 2-9 overall

TRACK

Pine Grove

Invitational

One week after capturing the team titles at the Olympian Invitational, the Jim Thorpe boys and Tamaqua girls repeated the feat at the Pine Grove Invitational Friday night.

Jim Thorpe won the boys team championship with 102 points, ahead of Millersburg's 96. Tamaqua placed fifth and Panther Valley finished in 10th.

The Tamaqua girls took the title with 120 points, with Thorpe in second place at 99.

Headlining the Lady Raiders' victory was another record-breaking performance by Allison Updike in the javelin. Updike won the event with a heave of 156 feet, eight inches, surpassing her own personal record of 147-3 and setting new school, meet, stadium and all-time TIMES NEWS area records.

Updike's record throw is now ranked second nationally among scholastic girls this season, according to the Penn Track website. Hannah Carson of Chandler High School in Arizona is the national leader at 171-9.

The Jim Thorpe boys registered four firsts and four seconds. Taking home gold medals were Kareem Mickens in the 400 (51.7), Ben Moore in the javelin (165-2) and two Olympian relays, the 4x100 of Talon Fogel, Carl St. Hill, Alex Garcia and P.J. Johnson (45.1) and the 4x400 of Mickens, Garcia, Scott Lignore and St. Hill (3:30).

Mickens and the 4x400 set new school records while the 4x400 was also a meet and stadium record.

Placing second for Thorpe were St. Hill in the 200, Johnson in the long jump, Garcia in the triple jump, and the 4x800 team. Garcia set a new school record in the triple jump with a leap of 42-1 1/2.

Tamaqua's Zach Lakitsky won the long jump with a leap of 20-6 and finished second in the 100.

For Panther Valley, Justin Christman placed third in the 800 while Kyle Picht was fourth in the 3,200 and sixth in the 1,600.

In the girls meet, Tamaqua received firsts from Updike, Amber Carroll in the 1,600 (5:22) and the 4x800 quartet of Cecily Kohlmeir, Dana Ansbach, Kelsey Patrick and Carroll (a meet and stadium record of 10:03).

The Raiders also received second places from Kayla Hope in the triple jump, Updike in the shot put, Christine Streisel in the discus and the 4x100 and 4x00 teams.

The Lady Olympians had five first places, led by JaAshia Page, who had a hand in four of them, winning the 100 (12.9), 200 (26.5), triple jump (36-2 1/2) and running the anchor leg on the 4x100 team that included Mylena Gilkes, Ashley Nicola and Amelia Herman (51.08). Page's 100 and 200 times, as well as the 4x100 time, were meet and stadium records, while her 200 and triple jumps were new Thorpe school standards. Hilary Reis won the high jump (5-0).

Thorpe got seconds from Nicola (100), Reis (400) and also set new school marks in the 1,600 (Kayla Susko's 5:42, which was fourth) and the 4x800 team of Reis, Angelica Poalillo, Susko and Nicola (4:20, third place).

JV BASEBALL

Lehighton-PM East

Lehighton dropped a 6-4 decision to Pocono Mountain East. Alex Storm's two-run homer led the Indians' offensively. Jayden Hensley and Joe Oriel chipped in with two hits apiece.

Lehighton

-Stroudsburg

AJ Wenrich complete game and a six-run third inning allowed Lehighton to beat Stroudsburg, 7-5.

Josh Kern had two doubles and two RBIs to pace Lehighton. PJ Salerno also had two hits.

Lehighton-Dieruff

Lehighton posted an 8-4 victory over Dieruff.

Steven Shanton earned the win for the Indians (9-5) and Anthony Farole picked up the save. Shanton helped himself with three hits. Alex Storm, AJ Wenrich and PJ Salerno all had two hits.