STROUDSBURG - Pleasant Valley has struggled to manufacture runs all season long.

If the Bears were going to keep their season alive, they would have to find a way to do that on Tuesday against a Stroudsburg team that was undefeated in the Mountain Valley Conference play.Thanks to a stellar performance on the mound from senior Chris Burke and just enough offense, Pleasant Valley upset top-seeded and heavily favored Stroudsburg, 4-1, in an MVC playoff semifinal."We talked all last week about MVC teams in the past few years that haven't played well in the regular season and were able to upset higher seeds in the tournament," said Pleasant Valley head coach Charlie Inserra. "Stroudsburg is an extremely dangerous team and I have a ton of respect for them. We just wanted to take it one day at a time and play a clean game."The Bears did indeed play a clean game thanks in large part to Burke. Burke showed great poise pitching out of a ton of tough spots and consistently throwing strikes. Burke yielded four hits, walked four (all intentional), and struck out five in a complete-game performance."I threw a lot of strikes today," Burke said. "I knew that I could beat them. It helps having a lot of faith in my defense and not being afraid to let them make plays behind me."The Bears' defense was impressive. Stroudsburg (15-6) had a chance to change the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. However, Burke got Stroudsburg's Ryan Noonan to roll into a 6-4-3 double play to keep the momentum on Pleasant Valley's side.Stroudsburg's Mike Nikorak is the Mountain Valley Conference MVP and Pleasant Valley was determined to let hime beat them. Nikorak was intentionally walked all four times he visited the plate."What hasn't he done against us,?" said Inserra. "His numbers are astronomical. This is my third year as a head coach and he's the best player we've had to face on the mound, at the plate, and even defensively at times. The amount of respect I have for him is tremendous. Our philosophy was to see if someone else on their team could beat us if they did I would be able to live with it."While the Bears avoided Nikorak when he was at the plate, they made him work hard on the mound as they drew seven walks in the game. They also had two beautiful sacrifice bunts in the game by Brendan Kearns, which allowed teammate Matthew Pearce to score on two separate occasions during the contest. Pearce was a Pleasant Valley standout as he racked up two singles in the contest as well."The bottom of our lineup has been producing all season long," said Inserra. "The real key for us coming into today was that we were honest with ourselves. We struggle offensively and the best way for us to score some runs was to play small ball."The small ball theory was proven productive when James Shank came to the plate with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. Shank laid down a beautiful suicide squeeze bunt as Kearns scored from third in thrilling fashion. The Bears added another insurance run in the seventh inning on a Nikorak wild pitch to help seal the deal."Today was frustrating for our kids," said Stroudsburg head coach Phil Stokes, whose team was 12-0 during the MVC regular season. "I think the world of them with the season we've had and it's going to sting for a while that we came up short in this one."Stokes continued, "This is a close knit bunch who have been playing together successfully since little league. The good thing is that we have a chance to play in the district tournament next week."Pleasant Valley (8-11) will take on third-seeded East Stroudsburg South on Thursday at 5 p.m in the Mountain Valley Conference championship game at Pocono Mountain East High School.Pleasant Vy. 001 010 2 - 4 4 2Stroudsburg 000 010 0 - 1 4 1Burke and Shank; Nikorak and Dunne. W - Burke. L - Nikorak.