The final score was 52-3.

No, this was not the result of a football game. It was a baseball score.Earlier this month in New Jersey, Buena High School defeated Pleasantville by 49 runs, and, by the way, the game was played for only four and a half innings.Most states have a mercy rule for baseball and softball games as a courtesy to a team that is losing by a double-digit deficit.In New Jersey baseball, the mercy rule that would end a one-sided victory doesn't take effect until the losing team has batted five times. Even though Buena led 44-0 after three innings, the game was not official until Pleasantville, the visitors in this case, completed its at bats in the top of the fifth inning.In Pennsylvania, specifically in both the Schuylkill and Colonial leagues, that game would have ended after two and a half innings because the leagues' mercy rule for both baseball and softball states that if a team is ahead by 15 or more runs and the team losing has batted in the third inning, the game is official and is ended. The rule continues to state that the game would also officially end after a team losing has batted in the fifth inning if it is, at that point, behind by 10 or more runs.Longtime Tamaqua baseball head coach, Jeff Reading, has mixed feelings about the mercy rule."Let the kids play," said Reading. "I would like to see every game go at least seven innings, but when the outcome is determined before the official number of innings is played because one team dominates another, the rule can make sense. But then again, can a team come back from 10 runs down in the fifth inning? It's not often, but this kind of comeback can happen."Reading believes the lopsided NJ score is not the fault of the Buena coach who did use 24 of his players in the game in which Pleasantville walked more than 30 batters and made 10 errors in the field."It's not like they were stealing or taking extra bases on hits," he said. "And I agree with what the winning coach said after the game. Whether we are winning by a large margin, baseball players should not strike out on purpose. That shows no respect for the integrity of the game or for the opponent who is still trying to compete."Reading says that if his team is closing in on a mercy rule victory, the rest of the game can act as a skills practice. He tells his hitters to go up to bat thinking they have two strikes at the start. Swing at anything close rather then try to work out a walk."In what looks like a mercy rule game, some umpires will call anything close a strike anyway, so why not practice two-strike hitting?"The other question that comes to mind is whether a team who is in position to win by the rule should try for the "kill shot" or should they have "mercy" on their opponent."With so many make up games and playing four and five times a week this season, I would now go for the mercy rule win if given the chance just to save pitching arms," said Reading.Joe DeAngelo, who is in his sixth year as head softball coach at Marian, believes the mercy rule is fine the way it is stated because the rule allows a team losing by a large deficit to have enough innings to make a comeback."When the game's outcome becomes no longer in doubt than there is no need to continue," he said. "In high school sports, there is never a reason to embarrass or disrespect an opponent by running up a score."DeAngelo describes a situation where a coach whose team is about to "mercy rule" an opponent can use good judgment to keep good sportsmanship front and center."Let's say you get up by 10 in the top of the fifth inning as the visiting team, and your pitcher has the game well in hand, there is no need to score more than is necessary," he says. "In softball, you can help your opponent get out of an inning by running yourself out on the bases or taking leads too early."Northwestern coach, Len Smith, says he doesn't like the mercy rule, but he realizes its purpose."The problem I find with the rule is when to pull your starters out and play your substitutes. When you have eight or nine runs and you start to sub and you score quickly, they haven't really played enough of the game to gain worthwhile experience," said Smith, who has coached the Tigers for 33 years.Although he thinks there is no easy solution to improving the rule, Smith suggests the 10-run rule could be increased to a 15-run advantage after five at-bats."I recall a game where we were about to be 10 runned, but in the fourth inning we came back and ended up mercy ruling our opponent one inning later. You never know about the momentum swings in high school baseball."Palmerton softball coach, Robert Hock, likes the rule as is, but he also sees issues that confront coaches during these one-sided games."You want to get your subs in while you approach the mercy rule, but you can't tell them not to try just because you have a big lead so what does that do to show mercy against your opponent?"Hock has also seen what he calls the ugly of blowout games."Winning big sometimes creates a scene which lacks courtesy," said Hock. "The team ahead laughs and clowns around while the team behind loses interest in competing and just wants it all to end. Teams that get mercy ruled often can get so discouraged that kids will drop out of the program. Coaches do whatever they can to tell their players to never give up, but some kids see the reality and losing often like that takes its toll."The irony of the rule is that coaches who lose games by big scores want their teams to gain more experience by playing as much as they can, but the mercy rule can limit that. For example, if a team loses eight games in a season by fifth inning mercy rules, it will have played 16 fewer innings or more than two fewer games than they should have played."That's one way of looking at it," said Hock. "Yet another way to see it is that these teams have had opportunities to keep the scores close enough, but failed to do so it's not like they were cheated from playing the rest of these games."The mercy rule's intent to prohibit a team from being discouraged can actually have the reverse effect when a team loses often by the rule. The repetition of losing blowout games can cause long term consequences upon the psyches of baseball or softball players, which then in turn makes it difficult for their coaches to try to change an historical culture of losing in these sports.**********RECORDS, RECORDS, RECORDS! ... A total of eight meet records were set at the Tamaqua Invitational, which was held on Apr. 17. Three of the new marks were set by Times News athletes.Tamaqua's Monika Shimko set a new standard in the 800 (2:24.65) while Jim Thorpe's Colleen Hoffman tied the pole vault record of 10-0. The Olympian boys 3200 relay squad also set a new meet record, as the team of Dylan Bucior, Jake Saxon, Ben Saxon and Johnathan Condly completed the race in 8:20.31.**********MILESTONE ACHIEVED ... The Lehighton tennis team has clinched a District 11 playoff berth for the first time in school history.The co-ed 2015 Lehighton team owns an overall record of 9-4 this year and is currently seeded seventh in Class AA. The Indians are scheduled to play a quarterfinal round contest on Tuesday, May 5.**********MORE POSTSEASON TENNIS ... Pleasant Valley's Jon White and Erik Ammermann both competed in the District 11 Class AAA singles tournament.Erik Ammermann fell to Nate Lyman (Parkland) in the round of 32.Third-seeded Jon White defeated Mike Fishcler of Nazareth, Ross Sonnenblick of Freedom, and Will Kyaw of East Stroudsburg North. White came up short in the semifinals against second-seeded Matt Fitzmaurice of Emmaus, 6-1, 6-0.White and Ammermann will look to make a splash in the District 11 AAA doubles tournament, which starts on Wednesday.Times News area qualifiers in Class AA included Jim Thorpe's John Lowin, Brett Luicana and Luke Eggert, Lehighton's Tegan Durishin, and Palmerton's Rich Roselli. Luiciana was the only local player to advance to the second round of action.**********EXTRA SOFTBALL NEEDED ... Lehighton squared off in a long, thrilling, Schuylkill League contest against Blue Mountain on Thursday. Blue Mountain scored four runs in the bottom of its final inning to send the game to extras, tied 12-12. After both teams scored once in the eighth, the Indians pushed across four runs in the top of the 11th inning. The Lady Eagles rallied for three runs in the home half but Lehighton hung on for the 17-16 win. The teams combined for 33 runs, 40 hits, and eight errors. Joclyn Hunsicker and Amanda Loudon of Lehighton both had four hits apiece during the slugfest.**********ON A ROLL … Palmerton's softball team recently enjoyed a seven-game winning streak. During that stretch, The Blue Bombers outscored their opponents by a 44-6 margin and posted three shutouts. Palmerton, which saw the streak come o an end Friday against Pen Argyl, currently enjoys a 9-3 record.