Palmerton Connie Mack reaches state tournament
The Palmerton Connie Mack team includes: Front Row, from left, Isaac George, Justin Nunn, Ty Achtermann, Lee Kuntz, Garrett Krome and Casey Cook Back Row, same order, Coach Bob Frey, Coach Travis Williams, Alex Raub, Adam Smiley, Tyler Grammes, Jonathan Schwarz, Cody Peters, Nick Frey, Eli Borger and Coach Steve Krome. Nick Sander and Mark Quinn are also team members.
The Palmerton Connie Mack team finished the Lehigh Valley League with a 14-5-1 record, qualified for the league playoffs and earned its first trip to the Pennsylvania State Playoffs.
Palmerton opened up a best-of-three series with a 8-2 win over Norther Valley. Northern Valley evened up the series with a 4-2 win in the second game before Palmerton rolled to a 4 1/2 inning win by a 11-0 score in the finale.
Palmerton enters the state tournament as the Lehigh Valley No. 4 seed and will play Montgomery Township, the No. 5 seed out of the Bux-Mont League this Friday at 5 p.m. at Limeport Stadium.
In the 11-0 win over Northern Lehigh, Palmerton scored five runs in the first inning, one in the second and five in the third.
Ty Achterman had two singles, Cody Peters had two doubles, Nick Frey had a single and a triple and Eli Borger had two singles for Palmerton.
Lee Kuntz was the winning pitcher, allowing three hits and striking out 10 in five innings of work.
Borger helped preserve the shutout when Northern Valley got runners on first and second with one out. Hunserberger singled to center and Borger fired a perfect throw to Peters, who blocked the plate for the out.
