Perkiomen School's baseball team struggled to deal with the psychological turmoil it experienced during the third inning Tuesday. Penn Charter's

Panthers shortstop Ryan Stubblefield misses the tag as  the ball escapes his glove as a Penn Charter runner slides safely into second.

offensive outburst delivered an insurmountable deficit.

            The Panthers stay in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association State Tournament ended quickly. They lost 12-1 in five innings in the quarterfinal round at Baker Field.

            A four home run outburst in the third inning by the visiting Quakers propelled them to the semifinals. Head coach Ken Baker described it as Perkiomen School's first loss by 10-run rule in the state tournament during his long tenure.

            Chris Catania and Juan Sanchez accounted for the Panthers' two hits. Erick Diaz drove in their only run in the first inning.

            Penn Charter, the No. 7 seed, exploded for seven runs on eight hits, including four long home runs to snap a 1-1 tie. Five different hitters went deep.

            "Hitting is contagious," Baker said. "It's just like COVID. When one person gets it, everyone else does, too."

            Down 1-0, the Quakers forced a 1-1 tie by ...

            Upper Perkiomen benefitted partially from the wide-open nature of last week's Pioneer Athletic Conference Tournament. However, the team missed its chance to capture a league championship. Boyertown lefthander Ella Hurter made sure of that.

            Hurter, a sophomore, dominated the Indians in the conference title game on

Ashley Forrest reaches first base safely during the third inning agains Boyertown in the Pioneer Athletic Conf- erence Tournament Championship game.

Wednesday, May 18. She allowed just one hit and struck out 10 in a 2-0 victory at Bear Park.  "We were not able to put anything together offensively," Tribe center fielder Lynnsi Joyce said.

            The host Bears (15-4) scored single runs in the first and third innings off Madalyn Dyer. Upper Perkiomen (13-7) managed just two base runners in its first appearance in the conference title game since 2017. Ashley Forrest reached on an infield error with one out in the third inning. Makenzie Schaffer broke up a no-hitter two innings later.

            "Hats off to (Boyertown)," Indians head coach Dean Sullivan said. "Tonight was not our night."

            A pair of upsets in Tuesday's semifinal round – including the Tribe's 1-0 win over Owen J. Roberts – created an atmosphere that either team had a good chance to win the title. One month earlier, on the same field, Sullivan's team rolled to a 7-2 victory. On April 19, the Indians built a ...