ALLENTOWN - As fans tried to get comfortable in their seats, "Mother Nature" had different plans on Monday night for the Triple A Home Run Derby as part of a prelude to Wednesday's All-Star game at Coca-Cola Park.
Just after the eight contestants were introduced, the skies opened up for what turned out to be a 90-minute delay. Intermittent rain drops continued to fall once the festivities began, but it didn't stop the overflow crowd from witnessing a bitter battle to the end by Andy Tracy of the host IronPigs and Durham's Dan Johnson.
Northern Lehigh's girls softball program has been successful over the years because it always seems to have talented pitchers come up through the system.
The latest to fill the bill has been Julie Wagaman, who just finished her senior season and fourth as a member of the Lady Bulldogs varsity.
Brian Schell, who returned for his second stint as head coach of the team three years ago, loves it that he has more than one pitcher he can count on. He also loved having a pitcher like Wagaman as the ace of his staff.
Jim Kester may have received a bit of a message of what the future holds for his Northern Valley baseball team yesterday afternoon.
"It seems like every year we start off as gang busters and then we end up with a little bit of a lull in the middle of the season as far as the bats go," Kester said, with the Lehigh Valley Legion playoffs right around the corner. "Then, we end up coming around just in time for the playoffs.
"Now, it seems we're just coming out of that lull right now."
Entering their baseball game against the powerful Franklin Township Patriots, Lansford Elk Lighting Head Coach Bob Pavlik knew that in order to pull out a win, his squad would require a full team effort.
After the contest ended, Pavlik was pleased with the result.
Lasford received offense from all its starters to pull out a 21-13 win over the Patriots to improve to 8-7, but more importantly, receive the springboard boost heading into this weekend's playoffs.
Lehighton and Northern Valley rolled to easy wins in their respective youth baseball leagues.
LV LEGION
Lehighton-So. Lehigh
Lehighton banged out 16 hits and rolled to a 22-1 mercy-rule victory over Southern Lehigh.
Jacen Nalesnik went 4-for-4 with a double, a home run and three RBI to lead Lehighton. Casey Lawrence had three hits, including a triple, and drove in three runs.
Greg Pecha went the distance to pick up the pitching win.
SWIFTWATER - Pleasant Valley's magical 2010 season has come to an end.
Four days after winning the program's first district title in nearly three decades, the Bears had to come back out and take the field against Owen J. Roberts in their first-round state playoff game.
Whether it was Pleasant Valley's complacency with its district championship or the fact that it was simply over-matched, the Bears were beat up by the No. 3 seed from District 1, 16-0.
ALLENTOWN – With 12 days off, pitchers can have a tendency to be a bit rusty. Not Nelson Figueroa.
Figueroa had spent his time with the Phillies as a reliever and only pitched 18 innings this year. After clearing waivers, the right-hander stepped into the role of a starter and went a surprising six innings of solid-shutout work as the IronPigs won their second straight game, downing the Charlotte Knights, 1-0.
READING - Conrad Weiser starting pitcher Mike Weinhold was in a zone.
The short lefthander struck out 19 batters and took advantage of the four runs his team put on the scoreboard in the first inning for a 4-1 victory over Lehighton in a PIAA Class AAA first round playoff game at Muhlenberg Township High School on Monday afternoon.
The only two outs that weren't strikeouts for the Indians was a sacrifice fly by Dave Behler in the fourth and a fly out to center field by Jacen Nalesnik in the sixth.
LIMEPORT It was basically Northwestern and Northern Lehigh against the rest of the Colonial League in the second game of the Howard E. Deppe All-Star Baseball Classic at Limeport Stadium on Saturday evening.
Due to no-shows and playoff conflicts, the Tigers and Bulldogs made up five of the seven players on the roster of the short-handed Red team.
Despite getting down 10-1 in the fifth inning, the Red squad put together a furious rally before falling short in a 10-9 loss to the Purple team.
