Waking up this Friday morning and just starting to digest a memorable night of championship softball at Patriots Park.
First thing that stood out is the crowd, or shall we say, crowds.
I have seen some slippage in interest in recent years. But Pates Park looked like it often did for the big games in the 1980s and 1990s last night with a full house nearly all night.
The Pen Argyl and Bangor people really deserve credit. They came down at rush hour from the Slate Belt and packed the place early.
And when they left, the Emmaus and Parkland groups kept the joint jumping deep into the night. The rivalry between the Green Hornets and Trojans is intense, too. It's a little different than the Slate Belt where everybody knows everybody, but Emmaus and Parkland are neighboring communities and like many neighbors, they don't see eye-to-eye, even though the rest of the Lehigh Valley tends to lump these two schools together.
It was great to see students from the participating schools at the games and even kids from other schools out in full force.
Second thing that stood out is the Groller Curse is still in effect.
I've been talking about it all year about how I tend to jinx the teams and some of the people I write about.
Someone commented on this blog and called me a Mush, as in Eddie Mush, a hard-luck, never-gets-it-right character in the movie "A Bronx Tale." I looked it up, and it does fit. Sadly, some might say, I even look a bit like Eddie Mush.
Thursdays have been my Eddie Mush days this season. I write glowingly about teams, players and coaches on Thursday afternoons, and as soon as the column is done, those same teams, players and coaches often go out and have a disappointing performance.
I did it to Bangor, Northern Lehigh and Northampton, among others, this season.
Yesterday was Pen Argyl's turn. I made Green Knights third baseman Laura Zanette (below left) my player of the week and featured coach Bill Schankel (below right) in my weekly softball column.
What happens? Well, it was not really Zanette or Schankel's fault, but it wasn't the kind of Knights performance we've grown accustomed to. They got down early and never recovered in a 7-5 loss to Bangor.
I don't want to take all the credit for the Slaters win. The Slaters absolutely came out and hit the ball and hit the ball hard. They didn't back into this one.
They had a game plan and followed that game plan perfectly and with all of the young talent on their roster, especially freshman Lexi Kessler and Kaitlyn Caleen, I believe they are here to stay as a Colonial League contender.
Schankel's team will regroup in districts, I have no doubt. He did it last year.
But the difference was last year, the Green Knights got a second crack at Catty after a 6-0 loss in the league title game. They made the most of that second opportunity.
This year, Pen Argyl won't get a second shot at Bangor because they go into separate tournaments. Plus, losing to your arch-rival always has a little extra sting to it. It'll be interesting to see how Pen Argyl, which had won seven in a row before Thursday and my column, responds.
And then, of course, what about that ending in the Emmaus and Parkland game?
I had a good look at it from the press box and I still want to see a replay.
What I saw was a collision at the plate between Parkland's Madi Marshall, the runner, and Emmaus catcher Alyssa Krasnansky.
I saw the ball come loose and sit there on the ground. And I saw Marshall, who was clearly blocked by Krasnansky, nowhere near the plate.
I believe home plate umpire John DeLucia, a former Whitehall baseball coach by the way, was already signalling safe at that point. But Marshall hadn't touched the plate.
What happened in the next three to five seconds, I want to see again.
Marshall did eventually touch the plate and Krasnansky eventually made the tag, but who did what first?
I need to see again.
I talked to both girls after the game. And they're both nice girls, by the way.
Both insisted with equal certainty things should have been called their way.
Krasnansky was sure she tagged Marshall before she reached home.
Marshall was "absolutely" sure she touched home before being tagged.
Neither one is lying. I think in their hearts, they both think they are right.
In some regard, it's a shame the game ended that way.
But in another way, it's good it ended that way because both teams felt like they were winners.
No matter what, it was a great game -- a throwback to an era when teams pitched well and played solid defense. I will be honest -- I haven't seen a lot of either this season.
So for me, I was just thrilled to see softball played the way I grew to love the sport as a young reporter back in the 1980s.
And I will be watching the Service Electric replay at 4 today and maybe even at 12:30 on Sunday to get a more definitive answer as to what happened at the end.
Controversy aside, it was the perfect way for the Lehigh Valley Conference to go out.
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