PHOTO: Graedon Finarelli follows through on the game-ending hit for Lake-Lehman Monday. (Tom Robinson Photo)
By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
LEHMAN TWP. – Graedon Finarelli made sure Lake-Lehman kept the opening round of the District 2 Class 3A playoffs routine.
Finarelli drove in five runs, including the one that ended Monday’s quarterfinal on the 10-run rule and advanced the top-seeded Black Knights with a 13-3, five-inning victory over visiting Dunmore.
The Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 champions rolled while the tournament’s second and third seeds both lost at home and the fourth seed needed a late rally to pull out a one-run victory.
Scranton Prep defeated Holy Redeemer, 7-4, and Wyoming Seminary shut out Nanticoke, 5-0, to set up their Wednesday semifinal at Wyoming Seminary.
Lakeland edged Western Wayne, 4-3, and will play at Lake-Lehman Wednesday.
Finarelli was one of three Lake-Lehman players to go 3-for-3 in the quarterfinal romp. He had a game-ending double with one out in the bottom of the fifth and a triple.
Luke Spencer and winning pitcher Ty Federici also were 3-for-3. Spencer doubled, drove in two runs and scored. Federici, who did not allow an earned run while striking out six in four innings, doubled, drove in a run and scored the clinching run.
Max Paczewski, Cole Morio and Connor Morgan each added two hits and an RBI to the 17-hit attack for the Black Knights. Paczewski scored three times and Morgan twice.
Lake-Lehman put together a pair of five-run innings. The first made it 7-0 after two innings and the second pushed the lead to 12-3 after four innings.
Nick Sinkevich led Dunmore, going 2-for-2 with a double and an RBI.
Scranton Prep scored four times in the top of the first and three more in the second, then held on to knock off second-seeded Holy Redeemer.
The Cavaliers improved to 5-11 by winning for the fourth time in five games after starting out 0-7 and 1-10.
The Royals took the opposite path, starting 7-0 and 10-1, but they wound up 12-5 by losing consecutive games for the second time.
Freshman Roman Valvano went 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored to lead Scranton Prep.
Vito Gianello went 2-for-3 with two RBI.
Ethan Muha doubled and scored twice. Noah Sorensen also had a hit and scored twice.
Cam Krugel hit a two-run homer for Holy Redeemer.
Ethan Elmes had a hit, run and RBI. Jake Griffin doubled.
Aiden Murphy threw a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts and did not walk a batter to lead sixth-seeded Wyoming Seminary past third-seeded Nanticoke.
Owen Brown’s bunt single in the third inning was the only hit for the Trojans.
Murphy singled in the game’s first run in the top of the first and the Blue Knights added two runs each in the fourth and seventh innings.
Jaron Bullick singled in Kyle Lidy in the bottom of the seventh to lift Lakeland over Western Wayne.
Although Lakeland had earned the home field, the teams played at Schautz Stadium in Dunmore.
The teams had split their regular-season meetings when Lakeland finished second in Lackawanna League Division 3 and Western Wayne was third.
