The Lehigh Valley Carpenter Cup team will play at Citizens Bank Park for the first time since 2013.
The local entry in the all-star baseball tournament clinched its trip to the home of the Phillies and a Cup semifinal with a 3-2 come-from-behind defeat of Berks County at the UYA Showcase Field in Franklin D. Roosevelt Park in South Philadelphia on Saturday.
Lehigh Valley will meet Delaware South at CBP 1 p.m. Monday with the winner advancing to Tuesday’s championship game.
Lehigh Valley won Saturday despite just getting five hits over the nine-inning affair.
“I can remember losing with five hits,” said Lehigh Valley manager Ted Plessl, in his 27th season with the squad. “But I can’t ever remember winning with five hits.”
But when it mattered, Plessl’s team found its bats.
“We never lost confidence that we would win,” said Northwestern Lehigh rising junior Nick Henry, who played a major if unexpected role in the winning rally. “We were hoping to get it done in the ninth.”
And they did.
In the top of the ninth, Lehigh Valley, which had trailed the entire game after Berks scored two in the bottom of the first, got a single by Stroudsburg’s Braden Breithaupt to start the winning rally.
“Braden hit a rocket just over the third baseman’s glove,” Plessl said.
Liberty’s Ben Piripavel bunted Breithaupt to second and that brought up Henry, who was not even dressed to play beforehand, but when a player did not show up, Plessl needed a designated hitter.
“I was just sitting in the bleachers beforehand; I had been at the first game but didn’t play,” Henry said. “Coach Plessl came over and said, ‘You’re playing.’ I had all my stuff with me and they got me a jersey. I was not expecting to play.”
Henry’s single tied the game, and he went from first to third on a hit-and-run play where Emmaus’ Brandon Robinson hit a grounder where the shortstop would have been had he not been covering second.
Stroudsburg’s Ben Stokes then made it 3-2 with a sacrifice fly.
In the bottom of the ninth, Pleasant Valley’s Daniel McEvoy escaped a second-and-third, one-out jam with a pair of strikeouts.
Lehigh Valley was in position to rally to win thanks to impeccable defense (no errors) and strong pitching.
Easton rising senior Eric Gustofson pitched three perfect innings from the fourth through the sixth. Berks managed just seven hits overall and Lehigh Valley walked just one.
“Eric really slammed the door,” Plessl said. “Our pitchers really did their job. This was a hell of a game.”
Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradwsports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.