DISTRICT BASEBALL & MUCH MORE!
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
I love high school baseball.
It’s a great sport with so many inside nuances if you are really into it…cat-and-mouse games between pitchers and hitters…or pitchers and baserunners…where to position your outfielders. If you understand the game (and little patience is needed at times) and you have teams that play the game the right way, it’s really a lot of fun.
Fortunately in our viewing area, we have an abundance of teams that play fundamentally-smart baseball programs that makes for some very enjoyable viewing. With the district playoffs upon us, it’s time to delve headlong into our discussion of teams and games in our viewing area. In addition to recapping the regular season and the EPC championship game (which is now available on RCN On-Demand), we’ll be looking at the district baseball playoffs.
The brackets are out and we’re looking forward to all the matchups over the next 9 days, culminating with the District XI 6A title contest, which you will be able to watch live on RCN-TV (bookmark our broadcast schedule and keep checking back to our website for specific game information and “first pitch” time.
Meanwhile on this week’s “RCN SportsTalk,” RCN Sports Director Gary Laubach will join us to break down all the elements and preview the next week-and-a-half worth of games with Co-Host Keith Groller and myself.
We have some great storylines already in place:
Liberty’s dominating run through the regular season, only to be tripped up in the semifinal by Pocono Mountain East. Can the Hurricanes bounce back?
Emmaus won the EPC championship but it has been decades since the same team has won both the big schools’ league and district titles in the same season. Can the Hornets break the curse?
Perennial power Parkland was also upset in the league playoffs and a few other schools who traditionally do well have been struggling of late. Will one of those teams get hot in time to contend for a championship?
Plus, on the girls side, there’s some very intriguing matchups coming up after a very entertaining league playoffs in both the EPC and Colonial League. We’ll talk about those storylines as well.
But baseball is not the only thing we are working on for our upcoming “SportsTalk” programs. Here’s just a sample of the guests we are lining up over the next several weeks:
- PIAA Assistant Executive Director Melissa Mertz talks Pennsylvania state sports issues including the spring state playoff format, current rule and procedure adjustments in the works and possible changes for the fall and winter sports seasons
- Maret HS (DC) Head Football Coach Mike Engelberg talks about his undefeated spring sports season in the DMV after missing out on the entire fall campaign after his team won the DC state title in 2019.
- Allentown Central Catholic’s tennis team did something no other team in our viewing area did this spring and also accomplished another feat that no one in school history had ever done. First year Head Coach Jared Smith will explain.
- Multi-sport Wilson HS standout Jeff Breidinger will return to his alma mater as the school’s athletic director after some successful stops as a coach at other schools and has some major changes in store for his new programs.
- The Morning Call’s Tom Housenick and Dante Terenzio will recap this spring’s track-and-field, tennis and volleyball seasons and also get us up to date on local golf, wrestling and other sports news and issues.
- First-time new HS football head coaches are taking over at Allen and Liberty high schools. We’ll introduce you to them and their captains — one already is making a guarantee about this fall’s season.
- Spring sports district champions and state playoff participants
- … and more!
Make sure you tune in, set your DVR or check out these guests and more over the next several weeks on RCN-TV and RCN On-Demand!
