Upper Perkiomen's bid to reach the Pioneer Athletic Conference title game fizzled during the seventh inning Monday night. Pope John Paul II rallied for a 6-3 victory in the Final Four at Spring-Ford High School.
 

Upper Perkiomen catcher Ryan Cairns, right, tags out Pope John Paul II basrunner Kayden Witter at the plate during the seventh inning Monday at Ram Stadium.

            The No. 4-seeded Panthers scored four runs off Jack Rieg and Benjamin Godshall to overcome a 3-2 deficit. A leadoff walk sparked the rally at Ram Stadium.
            "The hardest thing about this is that the players put 100 percent effort into winning a conference championship," head coach Bobby Saeger said. "Not getting it hurts. They wanted it in the worst way."
            The No. 1-seeded Indians (16-4), who reeled off nine straight victories to earn the program's initial Frontier Division title, nearly overcame early wildness by their starting pitcher.
            Rieg, the team's usually reliable high-leverage reliever, tossed two scoreless innings before struggling in the seventh. Consecutive doubles by Carson Glose and Billy Tighe propelled Pope John Paul II into Wednesday's conference title game against Owen J. Roberts.
            "It was a bad time to have a bad half-inning," Saeger said. "We did some things that didn't occur during our winning streak."
            Rieg, who started the fifth inning on the mound with a 3-2 advantage, opened his outing with two shutout innings. He worked around a leadoff triple in the fifth before catcher Ryan Cairns picked off Tony Tosco at second base to end the sixth.
In the seventh inning, Pope John Paul II's initial five hitters reached base safely. Saeger described the rally as glaring.
            Gavin Gross worked a walk and Sam Buckey followed with a single to right. Then Glose – described by Saeger as the ...