ALLENTOWN - Bo knows pitching.

He just needed a little reintroduction.In the last couple of months, Tamaqua's Bo Rottet has gone from a non-pitcher, to an emergency pitcher, to a star pitcher.Thursday night, in Tamaqua's 7-1 victory over Blue Mountain for the District 11 Class AAA baseball championship, Rottet was once again masterful on the mound.The Blue Raider junior pitched three and two-thirds scoreless innings of relief, allowing just two hits and striking out seven."Bo is such a competitor," said Tamaqua coach Jeff Reading. "He wants the ball and that's something you love as a coach. He did another fantastic job tonight."He's been a huge contributor to our success all season. We expected that from him offensively and defensively, but I have to admit that I'm even a little surprised with how much and how well he has pitched."Thursday, Rottet pitched for the 13th time in 24 Tamaqua games this season with 11 of those appearances coming in relief.But Rottet hasn't just pitched often, he has been awesome.He has recorded five wins and two saves in those 13 appearances, including victories in both the Raiders' District 11 semifinal and final games. He has a miniscule 1.75 ERA and has struck out an astounding 34 percent (46 of 137) of the batters he has faced this season.By themselves, the numbers are incredible. But when you consider that Rottet hasn't pitched competitively in about four years, they become almost legendary."The last time I really pitched was Little League," said Rottet with a laugh when asked about his pitching background. "I didn't pitch at all my freshman and sophomore years. Not batting practice, not on the sideline, not at all."But coach Reading knew I had a pretty strong arm at shortstop so when we found out Brett (Kosciolek) had some arm problems and was going to be limited in his pitching, coach told me he might need to use me as an emergency pitcher this year."And as they say… the rest is history.With his ace Kosciolek limited to just 17 innings of pitching so far this season, Reading has mixed and matched on the mound.Tamaqua had used 10 different pitchers this season with six pitchers making at least five appearances and throwing at least 17 innings. But none of the pitchers has been more effective - or more of a surprise - than Rottet."A lot of guys have come through for us on the mound this year," said Reading. "When we realized Brett was going to be limited with his pitching, everyone on the staff had to assume a new role. We just tried to piece the staff together."With how cool and calm Bo is, he was a natural fit coming into games in relief and closing them out. It didn't matter if we were winning or losing or what the situation was at the time, Bo seemed to always do the job."Rottet said he loves his new found role as the Raiders' ace reliever."Coach Reading usually lets me know ahead of time if he plans on using me to finish out a game," said Rottet. "That's what he did today. I knew Brett was getting close to his pitch count limit, so I was already mentally prepared to go in when coach came out to make the switch."Rottet was lights out from the time he took the mound with one out in the fourth inning and a Blue Mountain runner on first base.His mixture of a fastball that was consistently clocked around 84 miles an hour and a knee-locking, drop-off-the-table curveball kept the Blue Eagles' batters off balance the rest of the game."The curveball was my out pitch in Little League and I still rely on it a lot," said Rottet. "But I think playing so much shortstop the last few years has helped me increase my arm strength. So now my fastball is a lot better pitch than it ever was."It's obvious that Bo really does know pitching.And with a .472 batting average, a team-leading 26 runs scored and impressive totals of 20 RBIs and 13 extra base hits out of the leadoff spot, it's apparent that Bo knows hitting as well.But most importantly, with the Raiders now having won back-to-back District 11 titles, Bo has shown that he knows championships.