Berks Catholic, Fleetwood advance with wins in D3 baseball openers

Parker Nein collected as many hits as he allowed, throwing a six-inning two-hitter as fourth-seeded Berks Catholic advanced with a 10-0 District 3 Class 3A quarterfinal win over fifth-seeded Bermudian Springs at Berks Catholic Monday.

The Saints (13-8) advance to a semifinal Thursday against top-seeded Lancaster Catholic (18-3) at Riley Field in Lancaster. The Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 4 champs received a first-round bye.

The victory extended Berks Catholic’s district winning streak to four games. It last appeared in the postseason in 2018 when it beat East Pennsboro for the District 3 Class 4A title.

The Saints broke the game open with eight third-inning runs; RJ Emrich had an RBI double and Kevin Lawlor an RBI single. Three of the runs were unearned.

Nein went 2-for-4 and scored twice. He struck out five and walked two; he opened the game with four hitless innings.

Nein improved to 6-0 and lowered his team-best ERA to 0.93. He has struck out 42 over 45 innings, allowing 29 hits.

Matt Sterner went 2-for-4 for the Saints with an RBI and a run scored; he also stole a base. Chris Avram had a single, walk and scored two runs.

The Indians had more errors (three) than hits (two).

Fleetwood 3, Octorara 1

A.J. Knoll pitched a six-hitter and Jake Karnish had three hits as the ninth-seeded Tigers earned their first district playoff win in eight years by knocking off the eighth-seeded Braves Monday at Atglen.

Fleetwood (8-12) advances to the District 3 Class 4A quarterfinals, where it will play at top-seeded West Perry Thursday at 4:30. The Mustangs had a first-round bye.

The win was the first in district play for the Tigers since 2014, when they beat Greencastle 3-2 in a Class 3A opener. They had not played a district game since 2018.

Knoll (3-2) struck out one and walked one. He didn’t allow a run until the seventh.

The Tigers scored single runs in the first, fourth and seventh innings.

Karnish, an all-division shortstop, went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and scored a run. Travis Loy went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.