A sign of the season

A sure sign of the season. Was just on the Phillies web site -- their equipment truck loaded up yesterday to head to Clearwater.

The four favorite words in the English language come Thursday -- "Pitchers and catchers report."

Can it be long before we hear, "Long Drive, that ball is out of here!"

First round vs. Hanover

The second season officially starts for the Columbia boys' basketball team on Wednesday night.

The top-seeded Tide will meet Hanover from the York-Adams League in the first round of the District 3 Class AA playoffs at Hempfield High School. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m.
There is a girls' game before that, so I don't think it will be that hard to get a seat.

Hanover comes into the game with a 5-16 record. They finished 3-10 in Division IV of the York-Adams League. Delone Catholic won the division with an 11-2 record. Bermudian was second at 6-7. Other teams in the division are Biglerville and Fairfield.

The Nighthawks scored wins over Pine Grove, 48-33; Lititz Christian, 74-33; Biglerville, 71-60 and 61-55; York Tech, 57-56.
They lost three times to Fairfield. As for how they did against Class AA heavyweights York Catholic and Delone, the answer would be not good.

Hanover lost to Delone, 79-38 and 67-32 and to York Catohlic, 85-52. They also lost to York-Adams champ West York, 80-55 and 78-28.

There are two common opponents-- Eastern and Northeastern. Hanover lost to Eastern 72-42 and Northeastern 62-35.

On paper, this looks like a "mercy rule" game. Columbia needs to come to play and not look ahead to playing the winner of the Pequea Valley-Upper Dauphin game in the second round.

I'll have more of a Class AA preview by Monday.

L-L Scores

Here are the semi-final boys' scores

McCaskey 61, Columbia 54
Hempfield 61, Lancaster Catholic 45

Finals, 2 p.m., tomorrow at Township.

A good night in a loss

Okay, the Lancaster-Lebanon League finals are tomorrow afternoon at Manheim Township. It matches Hempfield and McCaskey. But like many, I think the true finals were played last night at Lampeter-Strasburg High School.

That's where the league's two best teams -- the Tide and McCaskey played. McCaskey, the Section 1 champs were able to hold on for a 61-54 win over the Tide.

This one also had the David and Goliath aspect as well. The biggest school in the L-L League against the smallest. Well, the little guy almost beat the big guy.

The Tide rallied from a 16-point deficit at the half and got the game tied at 51-51 on a Mike Seibert three-ball with 4:10 left in the game. McCaskey was able to make a few foul shots in the final minute to hold on for the win.

Columbia stood toe-to-toe with the much bigger and more physical Tornado. They scored the first five points of the game, led 10-5 at one point in the first quarter and only trailed 19-16 after eight minutes.

Some of the keys in the first eight minutes for McCaskey were the six points they got from Leontae Turner and the seven points from Jarren Harris.

For the Tide, they were able to get some easy shots in the paint and held their own on the boards.

The game started to get away from the Tide in the second quarter. A three-point play by Turner started McCaskey on a 13-2 run, which put the Section 1 champs up 41-25 at the half.

Yes, it did look bleak for the Tide at the half.

They needed to make some adjustments and they did. They junked their man-to-man defense in favor of a 2-3 zone. It had the Red Tornado baffled. At the other end, Columbia started to warm up.

Yahya McIntyre, who had a huge night on the boards, scored off feeds from Adam Pittman and Mike Seibert. Pittman and Seibert got free for some good shots and three minutes into the second half, McCaskey’s lead was down to seven.

That’s when McCaskey went on a 5-0 run (their only five points of the quarters) to go back up five. But McIntyre scored four more and Ben Guiles hit two from the foul line. After three, the Tide and its fans were back into the game as McCaskey led just 46-40.

With the Tide turning more toward Columbia, Pittman smoked a three-pointer to open the quarter, but McCaskey answered with five points by Pitt recruit Lamar Patterson gave the Red Tornado a 51-45 lead.

Seibert and Guiles hit back-to-back threes to tie the game with 4:10 lead.

McCaskey weathered the storm to pull out the win.

The Tide and its fans should be proud of their efforts and now get a few days to regroup for the start of what should be a good run through the district playoffs.

Despite the loss, the Tide did well.