PHOTO: Crestwood and Lake-Lehman both play in the state girls lacrosse tournament today. (Zachary Allen Photo)
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association brings back the concept of state tournament doubleheaders Tuesday while on the District 2 level championship games are remaining at the sites of higher-seeded teams through the end of the school year.
State volleyball and lacrosse tournaments open with local champions playing near home in doubleheaders. On the district level, baseball and softball championships get started with the highest-rated remaining teams enjoying a home-field advantage.
The Tuesday schedule for District 2 teams includes three state volleyball matches, two games each in state boys and girls lacrosse and two district or subregional championship games each in baseball and softball.
Holy Redeemer and Delaware Valley, the top two teams in the Wyoming Valley Conference and the No. 1 and 2 teams in the Riverfront Sports Super Six Boys Volleyball Power Rankings, are part of a doubleheader at the Solomon Plains Junior High School.
Manheim Central will face WVC champion Holy Redeemer, which has won 10 straight District 2 titles, in a Class 2A match at 4:30 p.m.
Delaware Valley, which has won six straight District 2 Class 3A titles, and Emmaus will follow. The match is listed for 6 p.m., but will likely start later.
The Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association has Manheim Central ranked eighth and Holy Redeemer ranked ninth in Class 2A in its top 10. Holy Redeemer moved up a spot after beating District 1’s Dock Mennonite in the District 1-2-11 Class 2A Subregional final.
Emmaus is ranked 10th and Delaware Valley is not ranked by the PVCA in Class 3A.
Blue Ridge, which finished third in the subregional, plays Archbishop Wood in Class 2A boys volleyball at Center Valley at 5.
The first action of the day is at Lake-Lehman’s Eddie Edwards Stadium where the Crestwood girls will attempt to post the first state tournament win in program history before the Crestwood boys try to continue their state success in a lacrosse doubleheader.
Crestwood, coming off the first WVC and District 2 titles in school history in girls lacrosse, plays Villa Maria from District 1 in a 1:45 Class 2A girls opener.
The Comets play District 4 champion Lewisburg at 4 in Class 2A boys where Crestwood’s trip to the state semifinals in 2019 was the first ever by any District 2 lacrosse team.
Both District 2 Class 2A second-place lacrosse teams also qualified for the state tournament.
Lake-Lehman faces Bishop Shanahan in Class 2A girls at Avon Grove at 6.
Wyoming Seminary plays Penncrest in Class 2A boys at Penncrest at 6.
Local championships include a baseball showdown between the Lackawanna League Division 1 and 2 champions.
Host North Pocono and Abington Heights are ranked second and third among Big Schools in the Riverfront Sports Super Six Baseball Power Rankings of District 2 teams going into their District 2-4 Class 5A Subregional baseball final.
North Pocono, the Lackawanna Division 2 champion, is the top seed. Abington Heights, the Lackawanna Division 1 champ, fell to a sixth seed in a deep field because of a late-season slump.
The teams met in the regular season with North Pocono (16-3) winning, 6-2, May 12. That game was the last one of a four-game losing streak for Abington Heights, which has bounced back with five straight wins to improve to 12-6.
The Trojans’ three losses have come by a total of four runs.
North Pocono is batting .344 as a team and averaging 9.4 runs per game. The 8 players with the most at-bats are all hitting over .300, led by Jake Millan with 7 homers, 25 RBI and a .463 average. The Florida Atlantic commit is also 6-0 on the mound with a 1.75 earned run average and 64 strikeouts in 36 innings.
Scott Gilbert, who is committed to Bloomsburg University, has 81 strikeouts and a 1.24 ERA for Abington Heights. Matt Show leads the offense, batting .460 and averaging a run scored per game.
The other baseball final has Scranton Prep, the seventh seed in an eight-team field, going to Lake-Lehman to play the top-seeded Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 champions.
Scranton Prep started 0-7 and 1-10, but the Cavaliers are coming off a 17-2, five-inning rout of Wyoming Seminary, just the third Small School they faced all season while competing in Division 1 of the Lackawanna League.
The Super Six has Lake-Lehman second and Scranton Prep sixth among Small Schools.
The softball championship schedule also includes one subregional and one district final.
Hazleton Area, a state finalist in 2019, travels into District 4 to play Williamsport in the District 2-4 Class 6A Subregional final.
Williamsport is 19-1, including an 8-3 victory over WVC Division 1 champion Tunkhannock in its only regular-season game against a District 2 opponent. The Millionaires had a much harder time in the semifinals against Scranton in an 8-6 victory.
Holy Cross, which has won all three Class 2A titles since the PIAA went to six softball classifications in time for the 2017 season, is at Lackawanna League Division 4 champion Elk Lake in the District 2 Class 4A championship game.
The latest Riverfront Sports Super Six Softball Power Rankings have Holy Cross third and Elk Lake fourth among District 2 Small Schools.
