The Lehigh Valley Carpenter Cup baseball team lost in the opening round of this year’s tournament, falling to Jersey Shore Thursday 4-2.

Lehigh Valley struck out 15 times in the nine-inning game and managed just three hits off Jersey Shore, which used five pitchers in the game.

“We expected more out of our bats,” said LV head coach Ted Plessl. “Other than one hanging curveball we were in the ballgame, but down here we know you have to score runs in order to compete. They’re all good hitters but we just didn’t get it done today at the plate.”

Jersey Shore got on the board in the first inning after Bethlehem Catholic pitcher Matthew Morrow walked the first two batters and Jersey Shore’s Sal Monticiollo (Holmdel) singled to make it 1-0.

Jersey Shore got its leadoff batter on base in seven of the eight innings, but only managed to push across runs in the three frames.

“Our pitching is a little of the bend-but-don’t-break type of thing,” said Plessl. “I think we followed that throughout. We put ourselves in stressful situations each and every inning. We made the plays when we had to. It’s hard to walk people down here and hit batters and expect you’re going to have a clean inning.”

After the Lehigh Valley went down on three straight strike outs in the second inning, Jersey Shore posted another run on a single, two walks and a hit batter in the bottom of the second.

Lehigh Valley scored in the top of the third inning when Alejandro Santiago (Pen Argyl) reached base on an error and came in on a Casey Rother (Tamaqua) fielder’s choice to make it 2-1.

Lehigh Valley tied the game in the fourth inning when Northwestern’s Jacob Haas singled with two outs and scored on an error to make it 2-2.

Lehigh Valley had runners in scoring position in the sixth inning after Chris Burke (North Schuylkill) hit a leadoff single and Matt Mellinger (Parkland) drew a one-out walk. But Jersey Shore pitcher Dan Chiusano (Freehold Boro) struck out the next batter before being relieved by Austin Nappi (Red Bank Catholic) with two outs.

Nappi induced a ground ball for the third out on a fielder’s choice.

Steven Luke (Notre Dame), who relieved Morrow with the bases loaded and two outs in the first inning, held Jersey Shore to just two runs until coming out in the fourth for Parkland’s Ryan Giovenco. The Trojan seemed to be in a groove for a couple innings before giving up a two-run home run in the sixth inning that turned out to be the difference in the game.

Mike Jenkins (Parkland) took the mound in the bottom of the sixth and held Jersey Shore hitless over the final two innings, including retiring Jersey Shore in order in the seventh, the only 1-2-3 inning that occurred for LV all game as it was the only inning Jersey Shore didn’t put its leadoff batter on base.

Jenkins struck out three and allowed no hits in two and a third innings.

“He is exactly what he’s been in the Lehigh Valley for Parkland,” Plessl said of the Parkland ace who is headed to LaSalle. “He’s not only a fantastic pitcher, he’s probably one of the best competitors. He’s a throwback player.”

Northwestern’s Tyler and Trevor Schreiner rounded out the trio of Northwestern players on this year’s LV team.

Plessl had hoped to get his team four games in the single-elimination tournament that concludes this week with semifinals and finals and Citizen’s Bank Park, he knows the players who got on the field at Philly’s FDR Park last week benefitted from the experience.

“Our goal is to come down here and get four wins,” he said. “But when you come down here our kids now start seeing some of the speed of the game.

“We didn’t win today, but our kids experienced a faster game and they’re going to be better for it in the long run.”