Lehigh Bethlehem’s Senior Connie Mack baseball team began its quest for a Lehigh Valley championship as one of 12 teams that qualified for postseason playoffs, hosting East Stroudsburg to a 6-1 victory in their first game on July 16.

Lehigh Bethlehem took an early 3-0 lead on Colin Panik’s 2 RBI double to right field and Xavier Ryan’s sacrifice fly when East Stroudsburg brought in pitcher Josiah Cacares.

“He threw really well. He threw hard,” said Lehigh manager Paul Erfle. “He was hitting the strike zone, and I think our boys struggled the first couple times around with the velocity, but we adjusted to it the second, third time around.”

East Stroudsburg plated its only run in the top of the second inning when Sam Rabbitt’s RBI skipped through the infield to score Orion Tucker who doubled to the right field corner.

Lehigh Bethlehem starting pitcher Ryan tossed the first three innings, followed by Willie Cruz for two innings and Andrew Erfle for two innings.

“We made a decision to see our first pitcher Xavier Ryan to see whether or not he was gonna throw less that 50 or more than 50,” said Coach Erfle. “If we kept him under, we could still pitch him on Friday, so we made that decision to do that and then piece it together with our other pitchers as well, and the lead helped us to do that.”

Lehigh Bethlehem added two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on Panik’s bases-loaded 2 RBI double to center field.

“I moved back in the box and prepared for anything coming in fast,” Panik said. “It was a fastball that he threw me. I watched it go. I wanted to make sure it got past the shortstop, and then I kind of started celebrating down the line. We just knew we had to get some insurance runs in there.”

Panik also had an outstanding defensive game at third base whether catching sky-high foul balls or making plays to first baseman Brady Heffernan.

“His footwork is fantastic, but he’s a great guy too,” said Coach Erfle. “He’s a team player, and defensively, he’s one of the best third basemen in the league, but his hitting has come along too.”

Lehigh Bethlehem scored its last run on Ryan’s ground out RBI and advanced to its next contest two days later.

Lehigh Bethlehem hosted Hellertown on July 18 and claimed a 9-2 victory in a revenge game from last season’s Junior Connie Mack championship final.

“This was a big win for us to get back at them this year,” said Heffernan.

Panik’s 2 RBI triple to left center field put Lehigh Bethlehem on the board in the bottom of the first inning.

Hellertown’s Brady Flores led off the second inning with a base hit but was thrown out in a rundown.

Hellertown had another scoring chance in the fourth inning on singles by Joseph Dries and Flores, but Dries was caught off base on a pop out by Eli Szlachtanshyn.

Adding to Hellertown’s woes had been a game-stopping injury to first baseman Joshua Hollinger, who was immediately replaced by Jacob Peters.

Then came the final blow, Heffernan’s leadoff triple to deep right field and a seven-run fourth inning for Lehigh Bethlehem.

“I got behind early, 0-2, and I leveled up, and I was seeing a pitch away,” Heffernan said. “He threw me a curveball, and I got all of it. I put my best possible swing on it, trying to attack the ball in front of the plate.

I thought it was a fly out, but it kept carrying. I saw it go up, and I started running.”

Panik was hit by a pitch, Ryan singled to center for 2 RBI, and pitcher Cole Collins followed with the same hit.

Joel Schreckinger had an RBI single to left field when Collins got caught in a rundown trying to score but made it safely back to third base.

“I rounded third, and my coach was like, go, go, go, and all of a sudden he said stop, so I kind of stumbled, and they threw it back to third, so I just tried to stay alive,” Collins said. “They didn’t play that very well, but I just went back to the base in any way to be safe.”

After Will Cresci’s RBI double down the third base line, Hellertown brought in pitcher Tianchun Hu, but Cruz delivered the same hit as Cresci, Erfle singled over the second baseman, and Heffernan singled to center.

Hellertown left the bases loaded in the sixth inning but plated two runs in the seventh after base hits by Mason Brown, Rylan Marcincin, a walk by Blake Gordon, and a wild pitch, when David Dunham took over for Collins on the mound.

“That last inning, I struggled a little bit. My arm was getting tired. I also wasn’t locating it that well,” said Collins, who had praise for his teammates. “I wasn’t necessarily throwing that hard, but my defense, especially my center fielder (Xavier Ryan) made a lot of plays, and at third (Colin Panik). Everyone played their part. It was a really good defensive game.”