Brad Rauch’s wife may have won the Wife of the Year Award Monday morning. While on vacation with his family in Lake Seneca, New York, Rauch’s wife pulled him aside and told him that “you belong with your boys.” When his 6-year-old son was consulted, he too said that dad should drive home four-and-a-half hours for the playoff game against South Parkland.

With that, Rauch and his son jumped in the car and headed for DeSales University where Northern Valley was playing undefeated South Parkland (20-0) for the Lehigh Valley Legion championship.

Unfortunately, the ride back to Lake Seneca probably seemed much longer as Rauch’s Chargers dropped a 2-0 game to South Parkland, ending the season for Northern Valley (11-11).

The game was a matchup of top pitchers, with Adam Smith going for the Trojans and Ryan King pitching for Northern Valley. South Parkland was able to squeeze out a first inning run, to take an early lead against Northern Valley. They also threatened in the third inning, but a baserunning error resulted in Gabe Stay being caught in a rundown between third and home and he was tagged out. The Trojans still had runners on first and third, but King got a pop-up to end the inning.

“We knew this was going to be a tough game, not just because they’re undefeated, but because they have Smith on the mound and he can be really tough,” said Rauch. “The good thing was that we had Ryan pitching and he’s one of the best around, too, so we knew every run was going to count. We just couldn’t bunch enough hits today and, in the end, they got us.”

For their part, the Chargers put runners on first and second in the second inning, but Smith then struck out the next three batters to end the inning. They put a runner on in both the third and fourth innings, and appeared to get something going in the fifth when King reached on an error to open the inning. Smith again responded and got the next two batters before Aaron Rudolph singled to put runners on first and second, but Northern Valley couldn’t capitalize.

“One of the differences was that they were successful stealing bases and we got thrown out twice trying to steal,” Rauch noted. “We knew we had to get runners in scoring position and were trying to be aggressive, but they were able to shut us down.”

South Parkland stole four bases in the game, with two of them coming around to score on a base-hit. Adam Mellinger’s first inning stolen base set up the first run and Matt Ervolina singled and stole second with one out in the sixth. Alex Oliver, who was named the MVP of the Lehigh Valley Legion playoffs, then singled up the middle to score Ervolina and give the Trojans a little insurance.

Smith sensed victory, and did allow a sixth inning single to Derek Holmes, but recorded the final five outs on strikeouts to record the win for South Parkland.

“You have to hand it to them,” said Rauch. “They’ve got good players and T.K. [coach Tom Kahn] and Mitch [assistant coach Mitch Ohl] do a great job with them, so they come prepared and ready to go. I think they’re going to represent the league very well in the regionals and I think they’re going to go a long way and show everybody just how good this league really is. That’s a team that you could even see playing in states.”

TROJAN ACCOLADES

... Oliver hit .417 in the playoffs with four RBIs and a run scored to capture the MVP honor. He had two hits, two stolen bases and drove in both runs against Northern Valley. Meanwhile, the win was No. 100 for Kahn and his coaching staff.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

... Had Northern Valley won the championship, it’s likely that either Derek Holmes or King would have been the MVP. Holmes hit .429 in the postseason with four RBIs and five runs scored, while King hit .300 with two RBIs. Both players also contributed on the mound, with Holmes recording a win and a save, posting a 3.37 ERA. King allowed just four earned runs over 13 innings of work in two starts.

PLAYING ‘EM TOUGH

... While South Parkland went undefeated this season, Northern Valley was a bit of a thorn in their side. The Chargers played the Trojans twice in the regular season and twice in the playoffs and lost all four games by a combined nine runs. On the season, the Trojans average margin of victory was five-and-a-half runs.

Northern Vy. 000 000 0 - 0 4 1

South Parkland 100 001 x - 2 5 1

King and Rudolph; Smith and Giovenco. W - A. Smith. L - R. King