Fleetwood turned back in District 3 semifinal
Fleetwood advanced through the first two rounds of the District 3 Tournament on the strength of its pitching and defense, but didn’t hit much.
Tuesday the ninth-seeded Tigers broke out with 10 hits but still couldn’t score, losing 4-0 in a Class 4A semifinal at fifth-seeded Littlestown.
“If you had told me we’d have 10 hits, with the way our pitching and defense has been, I thought we would’ve won,” said Tigers coach Rolland Green.
The Tigers (9-13) will play for a berth in the PIAA Tournament Thursday at third-seeded Susquehanna Township. The winner goes into the state tournament as the No. 3 seed, and will open against the District 12 champ. The loser is eliminated.
Fleetwood hasn’t reached the PIAA Tournament since 2008.
Fleetwood allowed just one run in its first two district victories but the Thunderbolts (14-6) busted out with two runs in the first inning and two in the third against senior AJ Noll.
“Knoll just didn’t get in the flow early in the game, and they were very aggressive at the plate,” Green said. “They hit the ball a lot better than I thought they would. They got the hit with the runners on when they needed and unfortunately we didn’t.”
The Tigers loaded the bases with two outs in the second but left them loaded. In the third they had runners on second and third with one out but the inning ended on a double play, with a runner being thrown out at home on Travis Loy’s fly ball.
Aiden Soumas, Zach Dillbeck, Dalton Young and Mark Piskorski each had two hits for Fleetwood.
Littlestown’s Bradin Peart went the distance to improve to 3-1. He needed just 82 pitches, didn’t walk a batter, struck out four and lowered his ERA to 1.55. Peart went the distance in a 6-4 win that eliminated Hamburg in the quarterfinals.
“They played a good game today, all around,” Green said of Littlestown. “Hat’s off to them; they played well.”
Tuesday marked the fifth time this season the Tigers have been shut out. They have scored two runs or less in 14 of their 22 games.
Knoll pitched a six-hitter in a 3-1 win over Octorara in the opening round.
