NAZARETH - Between the high school seasons and summer legion schedules, Pleasant Valley and Nazareth have familiarized themselves with each other over the years.

With high-quality programs on both sides, a fair share of wins over each other, and talent up-and-down both teams' rosters, a rivalry has blossomed.In the District 11 Class 6A first-round contest on Tuesday, the Bears and Eagles tangled once again.And on this day, it was Nazareth (13-9) that earned a come-from-behind 6-2 victory to move into the quarterfinals.Despite trailing early, Blue Eagles starting pitcher Noah McMullen claimed the 'relaxed atmosphere' in the dugout helped his effort on the mound, as he collected the pitching victory."I wasn't really too tight out there at all," McMullen, a senior, said. "I was just relaxed and joking around with my teammates throughout, and honestly I think that was the key to winning today - keeping loose."Four strikeouts, four hits, one earned run and no walks allowed by McMullen gave way to his team's offense having some time to adapt and take control of the scoreboard.He pitched all seven frames, throwing just 83 pitches - 63 for strikes."He's a three-year starter for us, and knowing he was with us three years ago, when we finished 3-17, he has just worked so hard over the last three years," Nazareth head coach Bryan Wolf said."I told him he'd get the ball for us, and he came through."In the first frame, PV's Dakota George singled, stole second and scored on a throwing error to give the Bears (10-11) the early lead.McMullen and his counterpart, the Bears' Kieran Kearns, dominated the batters for the majority of the first four frames, until the Eagles made some noise in the bottom of the fourth.A Cade Stoneback single began the spree, and Steven Stasolla followed with a bunt single. When Ben Suter walked to load the bases, the pressure mounted. A hit batter yielded a tie game, and a walk and a wild pitch gave the hosts a 3-1 edge.However, the Bears responded with a double play that involved five different Bear fielders and outs at home and second.Suter and Cameron Farmer both poured salt in the wound in the fifth, as they drilled back-to-back doubles to tack on three more runs."Pleasant Valley is a tough team and we expected that," Wolf said. "Their top six hitters are so tough. They're very, very good hitters, and they never go away and fight until the end."In the sixth, the Bears tacked on a run when Kearns smacked an RBI single.However, the Eagles closed out the game behind McMullen's strong arm."We're happy to get another shot at Liberty (in the semis), who we lost to in the EPCs," Wolf said. "We are looking forward to it because they're 20-3 for a reason."But we're confident going in because we played with them."REFLECTIONS ... With their season over, Pleasant Valley head coach Jeff Lazowski said, "Early on this season, we had focus and intensity. At some point, some things didn't go our way, and then it leads to another thing, and then another thing, and it snowballed. It's tough to recover from it. We gave ourselves a slight deficit today, and we just couldn't get back from it."AT THE PLATE ... No batter had more than one hit on either team, but the winners got two RBIs on a Suter double. For the Bears, Kearns had the RBI single, while George had a single and scored a run.NEXT UP ... Nazareth travels to Liberty today for a quarterfinal contest against the Hurricanes.Pleasant Vy. 100 001 0 - 2 4 1Nazareth 000 330 x - 6 5 1Kearns, Guzman (4) and Pandolfo; McMullen and Pokrivsak. W - McMullen. L - Kearns.