PINE GROVE - Pine Grove entered the Schuylkill-Berks Legion League championship tournament last week as the North Division's fourth seed.
But the Grovers never played like it.
Tuesday's 7-3 win over Southern Area put Pine Grove (13-10) in the Region 2 Tournament for the first time since 2003 and pitted the Grovers against Muhlenberg in the league championship Tuesday night, a game that ended in a 0-0 draw after 10 innings declaring Pine Grove and Muhlenberg co-champions.
The Grovers used yet another impressive offensive display to punch their ticket to the first round of the Region 2 Tournament on Saturday. Pine Grove will play the Northampton County League runner-up at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Muhlenberg's Gochnauer Field in Laureldale.
"It's been a long time," Pine Grove coach Frank D'Agostino III said. "These guys I don't think really know what it's all about when you get to that point. There are a lot of good ball clubs in that regional tournament we're going to be at - it's very similar to districts or early stages of states in high school."
D'Agostino should know what it's like at that level. The last time Pine Grove made it that far, he was playing for the Grovers.
"I'm glad they get a chance to experience it and extend their season - hopefully for the next week or two."
Southern Area (14-7) grabbed an early 2-0 lead, getting three straight singles from Brett Moore, Dean Stramara and Shane Grapsy to lead off the bottom of the first.
The Grovers cut the deficit to one run in the top of the second after Logan Levan led off the inning with a single and scored on a squeeze bunt by Zach Boltz.
Brian Reichert tripled with one out in the Pine Grove third and scored on a throwing error to tie the game. Steve Zimmerman followed with a single and Kobe D'Agostino scored him with an RBI double in the next at-bat. Nick Cataldo drove in D'Agostino with an RBI single later in the inning to put the Grovers ahead 4-2.
A solo home run by the A's Sean Greenawalt in the bottom of the third was the last run Southern Area scored.
"They hit balls where we weren't in key situations and we didn't," Southern Area coach Jerry Freiwald said. "That's basically the ball game. Gotta' play seven innings."
In the sixth, a two-run single by Zimmerman and an RBI single by D'Agostino gave the Grovers their final runs.
The offensive showing continues a trend for Pine Grove, which has produced lofty run totals all postseason after struggling in the final leg of the regular season.
"We changed our approach in practice, believe it or not," Frank D'Agostino said. "I don't know if that's really what it was, but that was when it really turned around."
Zimmerman came on in relief of Pine Grove starter Austin Fick and threw 3.2 innings of no-hit baseball to pick up the win and send the Grovers to the regional tournament for the first time in 11 years.
"That's a long time to not go to regionals," Zimmerman said. "It feels great. We've accomplished so much since the first game of Legion."
Game Summary