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Raiders rally to reach 3A championship

OREFIELD - Often times in baseball when a team's back is against the wall, it's the top of the lienup that comes through with the big hits to bring that team back.

However, once in awhile it's the unsung hero that gets the job done. For those of you not familiar with the term in the sports world, basically an unsung hero is someone who does good things throughout the season for their team, but they tend to fly below the radar.In Tamaqua's quest for a second consecutive District 11 AAA Championship there were two unsung heroes that helped it get one step closer to that goal.The Raiders (17-6) rallied from a 3-0 deficit to the Lehigh Valley Conference's Bethlehem Catholic, holding the Golden Hawks (11-11) scoreless after the third, and coming through with seven of their own runs to advance to the District 11 AAA Championship.As noted, there were two Raiders that were pivotal to the their success on the day.Freshman center fielder Daylon Barron and sophomore right fielder Matt Minchhoff each had their unsung moment in the bottom of the fourth inning. At the time the score was 3-1 in favor of Becahi with the Raiders lone run coming when Barron scored off a fielder's choice RBI from Bo Rottet in the third.Barron, who is usually just used as a defensive specialist had his chance to make his mark in the ball game and that's exactly what he did. The youngster tattooed a three-two pitch to center field off of Ryan Kokulus, scoring Adam Bates from second. The Raiders were now within one.Next up was Barron's unsung partner Matt Minchhoff. The sophomore wasted no time, slicing the second pitch of the at bat to the right field gap, scoring Barron. Minchhoff was on his horse as well, sliding into third and an errant throw by the Becahi second baseman enabled him to score, giving Tamaqua a 4-3 lead."I wouldn't be telling the truth if I told you it wasn't nerve racking being in the lineup, with being a freshman and everything," said Barron, who got on base in all three of his at bats, scoring three runs, and knocking in a run. "My coach gave me confidence though, he just told me to stay focused and keep my eye on the ball and everything will workout. It just felt good to do that for my team today, I was battling three-two and I just did what coach told me to do, which was to keep my eye on the ball."Another reason for the Raiders success was in the form of Bo Rottet. The junior came on to relieve Ian Nicholls in the third, who had a bit of a rough time, surrendering eight hits and three runs. Rottet on the other hand was dominant. He shut down the Becahi bats, using a nasty breaking ball that was catching the outside of the plate with consistency. That pitch mixed in with his fastball held the Golden Hawks scoreless the rest of the way."My last start I didn't really have my breaking ball working, but this start I felt like I was really able to control it. It gave me a definite advantage out there," said Rottet. "I knew I wasn't going to start, so I told myself to be ready to come in and pitch no matter what the situation was. So, I was prepared fo anything, but we won this game as a team today, which says a lot about the character of these guys, especially with how we battled back."Tamaqua kept its bats going after the big fourth, adding a run in the fifth and two more runs in the sixth.Owen bates knocked in a run in the fifth and Rottet came up with his second RBI of the day in the sixth on a double that scored Barron."We got off to a good start, but I knew three runs wasn't going to win this game," said Becahi coach Mike Grasso. "Then Rottet comes in and we can't come up with the big hit at the right time and they were able to. Rottet did a nice job coming in and shutting us down. He throws very well, once again we just couldn't come up with the big hit at the right time."For Tamaqua, it will now head to Coca-Cola Park, home of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs for a 6:30 p.m. match-up later today with fellow Schuylkill League Division I foe Blue Mountain. It's the Raiders second consecutive appearance in the District 11 AAA Championship game."I'm proud that we have an all Schuylkill League championship game at the district level," said Tamaqua coach Jeff Reading. "We have a very familiar and tough opponent in Blue Mountain. Both of the games we played with them were tight this season, but we just need to continue to do what we've been doing. We know what Blue Mountain does well, so we're going to try and disrupt that by doing what we do well. That's what has got us here."Tamaqua's Matt Roberts continued his tremendous 2014 season, coming through with two hits on the day.For Becahi, Collin McGeary led the Golden Hawks with four hits.Becahi 102 000 0 - 3 11 3Tamaqua 001 312 X - 7 7 0Kokulus, Cari Cari (5), and McGeary; Nicholls, Rottet (3), and Roberts; W - Rottet L - Kokolus.