Panther Vy. edges Forks Twp.
Postseason baseball can come down to one single game-changing play.
On Monday, the Forks Township Falcons and Panther Valley Black Diamonds battled until the game's final out in their Keystone Senior Babe Ruth quarterfinal playoff matchup.With two outs in the top of the seventh inning, Forks Township outfielder James Warga smacked a rocket to the left-field gap in which Panther Valley center fielder Frank Nietz laid out for and couldn't come up with cleanly. Nietz fired the ball into second base but it was mishandled, and eventually picked up by Black Diamond first basemen Luke Stawick. Stawick thew a dart across the diamond to nail a sliding Warga at third base in a bang-bang play which ended the game and ensured the 3-2 victory for Panther Valley."I thought Frank (Nietz) came up with the ball," said Panther Valley head coach Rich Evanko. "He made a nice throw to second base that got away. Luke picked up the ball from first base and threw a perfect strike to get him (Warga) at third."Forks Township had RBIs from Kris Juan and Aaron Gasparetti in the first two innings but that was all the scoring it would do.Falcon starting pitcher Ryan Schaming more than kept his squad in the game as he struck out four and scattered five hits over five innings.Matt Baker, the Forks head coach, was extremely pleased with the way Schaming and the rest of his pitching staffed performed this season."It was one heck of a game and they put their heart in it," said Baker. "Over the past few years we haven't been playing too well. This year the pitching and hitting finally came together. Panther Valley just played a little better than us today."A big reason why the Black Diamonds were so successful was the dominance on the mound by Luke Stano.Stano came into the game in the third inning and blanked Forks Township the rest of the way, as he struck out four and didn't walk a single batter."He's very cool and calm," said Evanko of Stano. "Luke never gets rattled out there. If there's a mistake made, he tries to pick it up on the mound. He's been excellent all season long for us."Panther Valley has faced a few obstacles this season; whether it's the rescheduling of games or having key players miss a few games here and there."We've played a lot of games in a short period of time this year," said the Panther Valley coach. "It was good once we got everyone back to get in a rhythm. We had a few days off to give our bodies rest but we're getting back into it again. It's not a bad thing that some of our younger guys got playing time earlier on."The Black Diamonds will continue their playoff run later today as they travel to Towamensing in a semifinal contest. The winner will advance to the best-of-three championship round.Forks Township 110 000 0 - 2 5 2Panther Valley 102 000 x - 3 5 2Schaming and Bachert; Stawick, Stano (3) and Buss. W - Stano. L - Schaming.