While I was away...

Hello everyone, I'm back. I know you missed me, didn't you. You did. Right? Anywho, I realize now that I took my vacation at the worst possible time in terms of high school sports playoffs, but it was a planned family trip with my in-laws and, let's face it, when your wife tells you that you are going on vacation with her family, you don't argue. Well, you could argue, but you'd just end up packing the car anyway – except you'd have your wife's footprint somewhere you don't want it. Bad times. Anyone who is married knows where I'm coming from.

So I'm back now, and I missed all of the district playoffs. My apologies to anyone waiting for that coverage, but I will try and get it done the best I can for this week's Chronicle, especially considering that I wasn't at any of these games. In the meantime, I'll be posting season recaps over the next couple of days here on the Bears Den for every EAHS spring sports team.

In the meantime, though, let's catch up with the teams who saw district playoff action this past week and a half...

Baseball

(Nick Reginella and the Bears couldn't keep up with L-S' bats.)

The Bears earned the top seed in the District Three Class AAA playoffs after winning the Section Two title and going 14-5 in the regular season. However, E-town's run at a state berth ended last night in Ephrata as the top-seeded Bears lost to No. 9 Lampeter-Strasburg 14-4.

L-S struck for three runs in the top of the first inning off of E-town starter Preston Faith, but the Bears came right back in the home half, scoring twice to trim the deficit to 3-2. In the second inning, however, the Pioneers, who missed the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs, broke the game wide open. L-S touched Faith up for seven runs to take a commanding 10-2 lead in the second, highlighted by Mark Thiboldeaux's home run.

E-town was never able to recover from the second, managing only single runs in the third and fifth innings. Erick Baker, Shane Long and Andrew Weller all had RBIs for E-town (16-7).

The 10-run loss was the largest margin of defeat of the season for the Bears.

Softball

(Becca Bigler hit a two-run homer in E-town's first district game, but it wasn't enough.)
Coming off a thrilling 6-5 win over Solanco in the Lancaster-Lebanon League championship game, E-town saw its season come to an end in the first round of the District Three Class AAAA playoffs on Wednesday, as the ninth-seeded Bears fell to No. 8 Cedar Crest 6-2 at Manetas Park in Denver.

The Bears jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Becca Bigler smashed a two-run home run off of Falcon starter Jen Garloff, Bigler's fourth homer of the year. But Garloff shut E-town down from there, keeping the Bears scoreless over the final six innings.

E-town had several scoring opportunities in the game, but couldn't cash in. The Bears had runners at second and third with no outs in both the fifth and sixth innings, but came away both times without scoring. Meanwhile, the Bears' 2-0 lead held up until the sixth inning.

Cedar Crest scored once in the fifth off of Jillian Ditzler to trim the Bears' lead to 2-1. Ditzler went five innings and allowed one run on one hit.

The Falcons completed their comeback in the sixth, as they scored five times off of Tricia Stone to take the lead for good. Cedar Crest's sixth-inning rally was capped by Garloff, who helped her own cause by hitting a grand slam. She also struck out 11.

The loss snapped E-town's eight-game winning streak and ended E-town's season two games short of a state berth. The Bears won 17 games this season, however, and a league title – which is an impressive campaign by any standards.

OK, that's all for now. Back later with looks at girls soccer and track and field and their endeavors at districts.