Record crowd attends Green Lane competition and festival

        Earlier in the season, Charlie Barebo took his coach's advice to choke up on the bat with two strikes.

        On Monday, the Perkiomen School senior heeded a suggestion to choke up on every swing. Barebo finished with three hits and scored three runs to help lead his team to a 13-3 victory over Barrack Hebrew Academy in the Tri-County Independent School League championship game.

        His two-run double in the bottom of the fifth inning at Baker Field invoked the 10-run rule and clinched the Panthers' 21st consecutive league championship.

        Barebo says he's going to continue hitting with his hands a few inches above the knob of his bat.

         "The advice really helped," said Barebo, an Emmaus resident.

        Levi Stoudt contributed two hits and drove in five runs for the Panthers (15-4), who captured their seventh consecutive Tri-County league title. Javi Quinones delivered two RBI doubles. Tom Aaron recorded the final four outs on the mound in relief of Quinones.

        "Even though it has happened 21 years in a row, winning the league title is very important to the kids," head coach Ken Baker said. "It's part of our tradition."

        Barebo, who transferred from Notre Dame High School in Easton shortly after Christmas, has played a major role in that success. According to Baker, the player made the most of his opportunity created by a knee injury to Naquan Holden.

        "Charlie has some power at the plate,"" the coach said. "And he can really run."

        According to Baker, Barebo joined the team with an opportunity to earn some playing time. The coach said with three returning outfielders, the player understood those at-bats could be limited.

        "Once Charlie bought into the program, he really took off," Baker said.

        Next spring, Barebo plans on playing baseball Rowan University, a Division III school in Glassboro, NJ.

        "Had Charlie been with us a few years, he could be playing at a Division I school," Baker said.

        Before he became a Panther, Barebo said was used to jogging on and off the field, not going all out.

        "I didn't hustle everywhere, the way (Coach) Baker instructs us," the player said. "He has taught us to respect the game, play it the right way. That hard work has paid off."

        Perkiomen School will play at The Hill School in Pottstown on Tuesday, then host the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy on Friday in preparation for the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association state tournament, which begins next week.

        According to Baker, the Panthers will likely be one of the top eight seeds, which means they will probably have at least one home game in the tournament.

        Returning to the title game won't be easy, according to the coach. He said any team that reaches the quarterfinal round has the ability to win the single-elimination tournament.

        "It's just a matter of who gets hot at the right time," Baker said.

        According to the coach, several losses to challenging non-league opponents are the reason for Perkiomen School's relatively low projected seed.

        Baker said miscues cost the team a tough non-league loss to Malvern Prep on Saturday.