Catasauqua head baseball coach Steve Bradley was optimistic that the strengths that brought his team to the postseason would again surface in their favor.

The Roughies committed some uncharacteristic and untimely errors against eventual league champion Notre Dame that resulted in a 3-1 defeat to the Crusaders in a semifinal game of the Colonial League playoffs.

Catty committed five errors, but only allowed two hits in the loss. As a result, the Roughies waited for their opening-round District 11 2A game at Pen Argyl Wednesday afternoon.

"Defense was one our strengths all year long," said Bradley. "I don't know what happened but we could make less than routine plays against the (Notre Dame). It is a shame to lose a game like that considering we only gave up two hits.

"But we have hit the ball pretty consistently, and we didn't get the timely hits we needed. One of our major flaws all season was leaving men on base."

Catasauqua was looking to put all of its pieces back into place against Pen Argyl Wednesday, a game that will take place after Press deadlines. They won the opening game of the season against the Green Knights, 5-4, when they scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh primarily due to pitcher wildness. But Pen Argyl returned the favor when they blanked the Roughies 8-0 April 28.

The Roughies had got off to their best start during Bradley's four-year reign this spring as they won six of their first eight games. From there, they seesawed back and forth to finish with an overall 12-9 mark.

Senior Tyler Correll was a first-team Colonial League selection and runner-up in the league MVP balloting this season as he anchored the pitching staff along with junior Dakota Schiffer.

"We should have had 15 wins because we really let three games get away from us," said Bradley. "We went through a period where we seem to win one and then lose one, but we come up for four consecutive wins late in the year when we needed them the most. It helped us get into the league playoffs, and now we're back in districts."

Should they survive their opening round game, the sixth-seeded Roughies will face the winner between second-seeded Pine Grove and seventh-seeded Minersville Friday. Bradley, though, expects a wide-open tournament.

"There really hasn't been a dominant team out there," he said. "When you look at Notre Dame who won the league title, they had three hits in the playoffs and won. Any team can really win this.

"We just have to continue to get good pitching and good defense. It was a good year for us to get back to districts, but we want to keep it going."