The Lehigh Valley took home hardware from this year’s Keystone State Games, as the Junior Division team took home silver medals from the tournament on the last weekend in July.

The home team defeated Capital 3-2 in 10 innings to receive silver, as the gold medal game between LV and West was canceled due to torrential rains. According to KSG rules, LV was the second seed and was awarded the silver medal.

LV Juniors opened the tournament with a rough start by losing to Nittany 8-3. The nightcap against the West was rained out and then became the first of three games on Friday. West beat the LV squad 10-0 but the Junior Division team rebounded to beat Pocono 4-2 and then beat Blue Mountain in early evening 4-2.

That win put the team in position to control their own destiny. A win over Capital would give LV a tiebreaker with both teams holding 3-2 records.

Phil Schoch (Parkland) pitched a gem against an outstanding Capital team, going nine innings. A key defensive play was made by Ben Serfass (Palmerton) in center field potentially saving three runs.

LV could not push across a run in their half of the ninth, so the game went to extra innings with Ryan King (Palmerton) taking the mound.

After giving up a lead off double, he slammed the door shut. In the bottom half of the tenth, LV proceeded to load the bases with two outs. The game ended on a catcher’s interference and gave LV the win and the silver medal.

Defensively, the last three games were decided by solid pitching by the Parkland trio of Jeremy Piatkiewicz, Adam Smith and Schoch, to go along with King on the mound.

The team got great infield play from Luke Storm (Easton), Piatkiewicz,

Nate Petke (Bethlehem Catholic), and Smith.

Luke Storm, a power switch-hitting infielder was the team MVP.

The Scholastic LV team took fifth place in the tournament. After a solid KSG Showcase, the LV squad opened with a tie against Nittany 4-4.

Jake Morgan of Liberty and a four year LV Keystone player had a bases-clearing double to give LV a 4-1 lead and then the team beat a very good Del Val team (last year’s gold medal winner) 8-4.

But LV then lost to Capital 3-0, which ruined their chance to be in medal contention.

Unfortunately, for the LV Scholastic Team errors and not being able to get the big hit at the right time ruined the medal hunt.