South Parkland’s defense opened a door for Northern Valley early in their Lehigh Valley League elimination game Friday night at Parkland High School.

Instead of walking through that door, the Chargers had to watch as Parkland’s Brady Derr slammed the door shut and didn’t allow it to open again as the Trojans picked up a 2-0 win to advance to the tournament finals that begin on Monday.

The first two hitters in Northern Valley’s lineup – Nick Buskirk and Brayden Buskirk – both reached on fielding errors to start the game to put runners on second and third with nobody out and the heart of the Chargers lineup coming to the plate.

Derr, whose hat was constantly pushed off his head by his thick head of hair, increased his focus and struck out each of the next three hitters with a total of 15 pitches to strand the Buskirk brothers on the bases.

The all-too-familiar inability to get a hit when they needed it most had reared its ugly head again for Northern Valley.

“I was coaching third and I really thought we would somehow find that big hit; it just didn’t work out today,” said Northern Valley coach Ben Schaffer. Our guys were a little slow to pull the trigger at the plate today and lately, our success was in doing the opposite and swinging early in counts.

“You just have to say hats off to their guy (Derr) because he was hitting his spots really well today and did a great job.”

Derr extended his stretch of strikeouts to five in a row with two more to start the second inning. The right-hander finished with nine strikeouts and allowed just two hits and no walks to get the shutout.

Northern Valley’s Connor Simms allowed a leadoff walk to Sawyer Marsteller in the bottom of the inning, but with Derr at the plate and a 1-0 count, Simms picked Marsteller off at first before getting Derr and Carter Delong on softly hit balls to finish the first.

With a runner on first, a fielder’s choice, a walk, and a hit batter loaded the bases with just one out for the Trojans in the bottom of the second. Simms got Jack Streeter to ground to second, but Connor Gerhart came home from third to score the game’s first run. The potential big inning was put to bed when Simms got his first strikeout of the game to end the inning.

South Parkland again got something going in the fourth when Gerhart and Ben Weninger picked up back-to-back singles to put runners on first and third with nobody out. Grant Damweber came to the plate and skied a fly to center field that was deep enough for Gerhart to score for the second time in the game as the Trojans went up 2-0.

Brayden Buskirk got the first hit against Derr with two outs in the third before Derr retired 12 straight hitters before pinch hitter Braedon Dougherty singled with two outs in the seventh for Northern Valley, but Derr got the final out on a slow grounder back to the mound.

“The last five games or so, we were getting our share of hits, but not today,” said Schaffer. “When we did hit the ball today, it was right at somebody or one of their fielders would make a good play to get to the ball and turn it into an out. They played a good game all the way around.”

YEAR TWO … Schaffer will definitely lose one player who will be ineligible to play next season and there are a couple more who may not return, but he is hopeful that they will. Overall, Schaffer enjoyed his first season as the team’s coach and is optimistic about what year two may bring. “A lot of coaches in this league don’t run a lot of practices, but I do. The weather didn’t cooperate this summer and when it was nice, we were on the field making up games,” said Schaffer. “Hopefully, next summer will be a bit different and we can take advantage of some practices.”

ALL PARKLAND … South Parkland had already locked up a spot in the Regionals, which begin next week, by virtue of winning the regular season. The second spot at Regionals will be taken by North Parkland, who are 2-0 in the LVL tournament and face their Southern counterparts in Monday’s tournament finals. Since it is a double elimination tournament, South Parkland will need to defeat North Parkland twice to officially win the tournament. If South Parkland wins Monday, the championship game would be played on Tuesday. Monday and Tuesday’s games (if necessary) are both at Parkland.

No. Valley 000 000 0 - 0 2 1

S. Parkland 010 100 x - 2 5 1

Simms and B.Buskirk; Derr and Streeter. W - Derr. L - Simms.

Records: Northern Valley (8-6-1 overall, 2-2 LVL Tournament); South Parkland (14-3 overall, 2-1 LVL Tournament).