Southern Lehigh Lineup Produces Plenty to Push Past North Bethlehem

	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
Southern Lehigh	1	0	0	2	6	1	10	14	1
North Bethlehem	0	0	0	2	0	2	4	4	0

WP: Davis LP: Tyrell

Southern Lehigh pounded out 14 hits, using a five-run sixth inning to secure victory in an elimination game at Living Memorial Park.

The Spartans were the road team at their home park, having lost the coin toss. This played to their advantage early. Beckett Spigelmyer, son of manager BJ, opened things up with a base hit to left. Starting pitcher Logan Davis helped his own cause by lining one into right to put Southern Lehigh ahead 1-0.

Things stayed that way for the first half of the game. The lone base runner for North Bethlehem was, who walked in the second inning. For North, Tyrell made a nice play to avoid trouble in the top of the third. Spigelmyer lined a hard one back to him and he flipped to first to get Sawyer Templeton trying to get back in. Templeton had reached on a bunt single.

In the bottom of the third, Logan Davis struck out the side. On the evening, he fanned six and walked only one, allowing no hits through 3.1 innings.

The fourth inning saw Southern Lehigh tack on two runs. Trevor Price reached on a bunt single and Austin Showalter followed up with a hit to deep center. Both runners moved up on the throw from near the fence, giving the Spartans two in scoring position with no outs. Davis flew out to left, allowing a run to come home. Mike Magazzu then notched his first hit of the tournament, knocking in Showalter and doing older brother Lucian proud. Before things snowballed further, Tyrell fanned the next two batters to limit the damage.

North Bethlehem finally got something going in their half of the fourth, as Carter Duarte reached on an misplayed catch at first base. He advanced on two wild pitches thrown by Magazzu, who entered when Davis hit the 50-pitch threshold, ensuring he would need two calendar days of rest. Magazzu struck out his counterpart in Tyrell, but then lost the strike zone for a while. With two outs, Tyler Wagner walked before a scary moment occurred. Silas Chamberlain was hit by an errant pitch in the face and went down in pain for several minutes. He eventually was helped off the field and did not return to action.

Luke Wagner then came through with a 2RBI hit back through the middle to cut the North Bethlehem deficit to 3-2. Magazzu then walked Tommy McClarin to load the bases. On the verge of a breakout inning and with Magazzu laboring, Magazzu dug deep and was able to strike out Jacob Wasilewski. With 31 pitches expended to get through the inning, Magazzu had pitched himself squarely into and out of trouble.

“Logan Davis, first of all, did a terrific job. I was holding him under 50 pitches because I have to look ahead. Michael struggled a little bit in that inning, but he battled through it and got us through that inning. And the huge part of that game was we put up six runs in the top of the fifth–I felt confident in Bennett finishing up that game. When he’s on the mound we have our best defense behind him.” Manager BJ Spigelmyer talked about his pitchers and managing them through the game.

As the innings grew later, so did Southern Lehigh’s will to create separation one more time and put the game to bed. Logan Traub kicked off the fifth with the first of three consecutive singles. Matthew Allen, from his 10-spot in the lineup, singled home Traub and Bennet Will to increase the Solehi lead to 5-2. Templeton brought Allen home, driving one into center field. Austin Showalter knocked another run in with his smash back up the middle. Spigelmyer came in on a wild pitch to balloon the lead to 8-2.

North Bethlehem tried to rally in the fifth, leading off with a Lochlan Price walk. But sometimes, the ball just bounces in your favor in unexpected ways. That was the case for the Spartans when Avery Morton hit one back towards fith inning pitcher Bennett Will. Will had the ball tick off his glove and skip to Spigelmyer, who threw back to Will who had run to cover second base. Price was thrown out by a step sliding into second base for a critical first out.

The final inning saw North Bethlehem briefly rally again on a 2RBI single by Lucas Wagner, bringing the score to 10-4. McClarin was struck out by Will to end the game and send the Spartans to a Tuesday night meeting with Hellertown/Lower Saucon. That game will be played at Living Memorial Park, as Solehi is the top seed in the tournament.

The bottom of the order was crucial for Southern Lehigh, with the bottom four batters combined for six hits and 3 runs batted in. Defensively, Southern saw an outstanding effort by Magazzu at third base.

“I was making sure they were strikes–i didn’t want to swing at one outside,” said Sawyer Templeton, “You have to just stay and do well and make sure you’re contributing–stay hyped and wait to do good.”

Manager BJ Spigelmyer offered his thoughts on the victory, “We hit the ball hard–what I was really proud of was our execution. We got a couple of bunts down today. Good things happen when they do. Sawyer did a terrific job hitting with two strikes.”

“We’re doing high school and college stuff and it’s hard for them, but I thought today we did a really good job of executing.”

On the upcoming elimination game with Hellertown/Lower Saucon, a rematch of last year’s District 20 title game, Spigelmyer added: “It’s going to be a battle, my kids know that. It’s going to come down to little things and who makes the least mistakes. My kids will give me everything they have and hopefully we play mistake-free and if we do I like our chances.”