Lehigh Valley Carpenter Cup team one win away from championship

FROM THE MORNING CALL

PHILADELPHIA — Normal soreness could limit Nazareth right-hander Karl Keglovits' mound time in the Carpenter Cup final.

Lehigh Valley wouldn't have a chance to capture its third title in the all-star baseball tournament's 26-year history without his work through the first three rounds.

Keglovits collected five more strikeouts in three innings Monday, earning the win when Lehigh Valley rallied for three sixth-inning runs en route to a 9-6 win over Tri-Cape (N.J.) in the first Carpenter Cup semifinal at Citizens Bank Park.

Lehigh Valley will face Burlington (N.J.) County or the Philadelphia Catholic League in Tuesday's 10 a.m. championship game at CBP as it goes for its first title since 2001. The Lehigh Valley franchise, which has been in existence for 18 years, also won the Carpenter Cup in 1998.

Keglovits could not quite match the dominating effort he produced in Lehigh Valley's 8-4 quarterfinal over Olympic/Colonial, when he struck out eight in three scoreless innings Friday. He was plenty good again, allowing one run and three hits in his three innings.

Keglovits, a starter in high school, has pitched in relief during all three of his Carpenter Cup appearances. It hasn't fazed him a bit; he has 16 strikeouts in eight innings during the tournament.

"I kind of like it," he said. "I get to loosen up and stretch more between innings. Only throwing three innings, it's a lot easier to warm up and throw my hardest."

Keglovits started his day with a 1-2-3 top of the sixth that included two strikeouts, keeping the game tied 5-5. Lehigh Valley snagged the lead for good in its half of the sixth, taking advantage of two Tri-Cape errors to score three times.

Drew Borger (Pleasant Valley) drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on an error. Parkland's Nick Rabasco followed with an infield single that led to another throwing error, allowing Borger to score the go-ahead run.

Nazareth catcher Justin Pacchioli added an RBI-double, stole third and scored on a single by Stroudsburg's Rob Bennie for an 8-5 lead.

"It was definitely a good time," Pacchioli said. "When you're playing at a stadium like this, you seem to play a little looser than normal. When we first stepped into the stadium today, we all just looked up and looked around. It's like a dream come true playing here on the field that you see MLB players playing on every day.

"It was a great experience for us. We're lucky to be able to experience it again [Tuesday]."

Nazareth's Drew Hercik added Lehigh Valley's final run in the seventh, getting hit by a pitch, stealing second, moving to third on a fielder's choice and scoring on an error. It was the second time in the game Lehigh Valley scored in an inning without collecting a hit.

Lehigh Valley also took advantage of a three-error second inning by Tri-Cape to score four times. Pocono Mountain East's Evan Fardella delivered the big blow with a three-run double into the gap in left-center field.

"We handed some runs to them, and they were very kind to hand them back to us as well," Lehigh Valley coach Ted Plessl said.

Keglovits and Notre Dame-Green Pond's Shane Simpkins helped Lehigh Valley stay in the lead for the final three innings. Simpkins followed Keglovits with a scoreless ninth inning that included two strikeouts, giving him the save.

Four Lehigh Valley pitchers combined for 12 strikeouts.

"We just go out there and pitch the best we can, and take every batter as they come," Simpkins said.

"It felt awesome [to pitch at Citizens Bank Park]. I'm still pretty pumped up right now."