After two days of play, the American Legion Region 2 playoffs came down to four teams – West Lawn, Quakertown, North Parkland and South Parkland.

The Trojans opened the tournament having to play each of the three other competitors in the final four. The winners of the Lehigh Valley Legion regular season made it past West Lawn in the tournament opener before beating the two-time defending state champion Quakertown Blue Jays to start 2-0.

That’s when SP ran into rival North Parkland and lost for the first time in the double elimination tournament.

Andrew Bowser got the start against West Lawn and delivered a strong 5 1/3 innings, allowing just two earned runs along the way as the Trojans edged the Owls 3-2.

West Lawn got to Bowser for two runs in the top of the fifth, but the offense came firing right back in the bottom of the inning.

With one out, Carter Delong and Grant Damweber both walked and Julian Santiago sacrificed to move both runners into scoring position.

Connor Gerhart singled to drive in Delong and an error on the play allowed Damweber to score and Gerhart to move up to second.

Will Dobil followed with a single to score Gerhart as the Trojans took a 3-2 lead through five innings.

Bowser got the first out in the sixth and then gave way to Mack Parsell, who got the next two outs.

South Parkland went down in order in the bottom of the sixth to allow West Lawn to stay just one run down going to the final inning. After a leadoff walk, Parsell settled in to get a pop out for the first out and then throw a double play ball to end the game.

Parsell needed just 14 pitches to get through 1 2/3 innings of relief, which allowed coach Will Algard to turn to him to start the next day against Quakertown.

Parsell kept the defending champ’s offense well in check as he finished off a 5-1 win needing just 88 pitches to throw a complete game, holding Quakertown to just four hits.

The top two hitters in the order, Gerhart and Dobil, finished the game 4-for-7 with both scoring a run and Dobil driving in a run to lead the offense.

South Parkland opened the scoring in the top of the third when Bowser, Santiago, Gerhart, and Dobil all singled to open the inning and make it 1-0. An infield pop-up and a strikeout kept the bases loaded as Quakertown looked to get away with just one run scoring, but Delong worked a bases-loaded walk to force in the second run of the inning.

The Blue Jays got a run back, but the Trojans added one in the fifth and it all started with Gerhart and Dobil again reaching base.

This time it was a single from Gerhart and Dobil was hit by a pitch. Brady Derr then singled to load the bases and one out later, Delong worked a bases-loaded walk for the second time in the game to make it 3-1.

Dobil led off the seventh with a single and one out later was bunted to second by Andrew Klotz. A single by Delong and a double by Ben Weninger made it a 5-1 lead and Parsell put down the Jays in the bottom of the inning to keep South Parkland in the winner’s bracket.

“When you beat a two-time defending state champion you know that you beat a good team,” said Algard. “We played really well in both of those games, and we had to because they were both against good teams. It gave us a lot of confidence for the rest of the tournament.”