LANCASTER — Greencastle-Antrim ran into a quality team in the first round of the District 3 Class 5A playoffs on Friday and was eliminated by No. 3 seed Lampeter-Strasburg.
Elvin Robles
The Pioneers scored 3 runs in the bottom of the first inning and 4 more in the third — before a delay of about an hour for lightning — and sent the Blue Devils home with a 9-2 defeat.
“They are like a blueprint for a good playoff team,” G-A coach Eric Shaner said. “They are a really good team, but we competed. We never gave up.”
Greencastle, which finishes 10-9, scored a run in the top of the first off Pioneer starter Devin Aponte. Carter McCauley drew a one-hit walk and Nolan Sullivan hit into a fielder’s choice. Sullivan stole second base and was chased home by a single off the bat of Elvin Roles.
McCauley, who has been an extremely reliable pitcher throughout the season, did not have his best outing. In 2.1 innings, he walked 5 batters, gave up 5 hits and had 7 earned runs charged to him. Jaxson Bostick relieved, and in 3.2 innings allowed 3 hits, 2 runs and 3 walks.
“Carter was not his usual sharp self,” Shaner said. “He’s been really good this year, but he didn’t have his best stuff and he was facing a really good team.”
The Blue Devils scored their second run in the top of the sixth. McCauley walked and Sullivan singled to left. After a wild pitch moved both runners up, Robles hit a sacrifice fly to plate McCauley.
Shaner said, “We were a young team this year, but we’ll miss the seniors. They showed great leadership this year. At times we played like we should have, and at other times we didn’t. But they were a good team.”
Lampeter-Strasburg (16-5) will play either Manheim Central or Donegal in a quarterfinal on Monday.