Once the postseason arrives, it's usually the hottest teams that tend to advance.

History shows that in the world of sports that if a team gets hot at the right time, it can ride that momentum to a championship.The 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers, 2007 New York Giants, and most recently the 2011 UCONN Huskies men's basketball team were all squads that got hot and put together strong postseason runs to bring home a title.The Tamaqua baseball team is trying to do just that and it got off to a good start on Wednesday in the quarterfinal round of the District 11 AAA tournament.The Raiders' one, three, and four hitters went a combined 6-for-8 at the plate, knocking in all eight of Tamaqua's runs, en route to a 8-1 victory over seventh seeded Southern Lehigh.Tamaqua catcher Matt Roberts got the Raider barrage started with a two-run homer in the first inning. Roberts homerun was a towering shot to left field, which scored leadoff man Bo Rottet after he singled to start the ball game."We haven't been hitting that great in our last three games, but we came out swinging the bat well," said Roberts. "Personally I was seeing the ball real well out there and I did what I had to in order for us to get the lead. What you saw today is the kind of potential this lineup has and hopefully we can continue hitting like this moving forward."Tamaqua junior Brett Kosciolek got himself out of a bit of a hitting slump, coming through with three RBIs and a homerun. Kosciolek's two-run homer came in the fifth inning, with the Raiders scoring a total of three runs in the frame, extending their lead to eight runs.Another positive for the Raiders was Kosciolek's performance from the mound.The 6-8 hard throwing Kosciolek was the Raiders ace a year ago, but some shoulder and elbow issues have kept him limited this season. On Wednesday, he saw his most significant work of the year, throwing four innings. Needless to say, Kosciolek looked good tossing four innings of shutout baseball, allowing just three hits. On the season, he has gotten 14 innings of work, allowing just one run, while striking out 13 batters. It looks like Kosciolek is getting stronger and at just the right time for the Raiders."I was mainly focused on my mechanics today and throwing my fastball in good spots," said Kosciolek. "I felt good and I also felt really focused out there. It was also good for us to put eight runs up on the board today as well. Hopefully we can carry that momentum into our next game."From the onset, it was easy to tell that Tamaqua was going to be aggressive at the plate with almost all of their hitters attacking Southern Lehigh pitcher Derek Barnes' first pitch of an at bat. Tamaqua's aggressive approach was an obvious success."Our plan was to definitely jump on them early," said Tamaqua coach Jeff Reading. "We wanted to be aggressive and we were. To get out to an early lead was big for us. Bo (Rottet) put himself in scoring position and then Matt (Roberts) hits a big one and now you're up 2-0. That puts everybody at ease a little bit and then Brett (Kosciolek) goes out to the mound in the second with a 2-0 lead, relieving some of the pressure off of him. That's the kind of baseball you need to play at this point in the season. Now is the time to shine, you have to come with your best every time, because everybody is 0-0 once the playoffs start. At the end of the day we want to keep a zero behind our record."For Southern Lehigh, once it fell behind it couldn't rally, tallying just four hits as a team on the day."We knew there were three guys in their lineup that could beat us and that's who we let beat us," said Southern Lehigh coach Todd Miller. "Our pitches needed to be more down and away and we were just leaking stuff inside and across the middle of the plate. With just their statistical numbers alone, it tells you that they're going to take advantage of that. They're a very good team, there's a reason why they're here, and I would be shocked if they didn't make a run at the district title."Roberts finished with five RBIs on the day, while Kosciolek finished with three. Rottet had two hits and Matt Minchhoff added a hit.Tamaqua will now face Becahi on Friday in the District 11 AAA semifinals at a time and site to be determined.Tamaqua 203 030 x - 8 7 0So. Lehigh 000 001 0 - 1 4 1Barnes, Boyd (4), and Del Priore; Kosciolek, Hartung (5), Rottet (7), and Roberts; HR - Roberts (two on in the first), Kosciolek (one on in the fifth); W - Kosciolek L - Boyd.