NEW TRIPOLI — With a heavy heart and his team’s season on the line, Brett Kosciolek threw a one-hit gem.
Tamaqua’s senior right-hander struck out eight and walked two in a complete-game shutout to lead the Blue Raiders over Northwestern Lehigh 2-0 in a District 11 Class AAA quarterfinal Wednesday.
What’s even more admirable about Kosciolek’s performance is when you consider the recent passing of his grandmother, which the Rider-bound pitcher coped with well on the mound.
“I’m going to miss her, she was a fantastic woman,” Kosciolek said of his late relative. “But it just felt like it was a normal game.
“My mechanics felt smooth. My change-up and my cutter were working pretty well, and I was locating my fastball.”
The win advances two-time defending District 11 champion Tamaqua (14-7) to Saturday’s semifinals, where the Blue Raiders will face Schuylkill League Division I rival Pottsville at 2:45 p.m. Saturday at Blue Mountain.
Pottsville advanced with an 8-0 winner over Palmerton.
Tamaqua and Northwestern Lehigh battled through four scoreless innings before the Blue Raiders got on board in the fifth.
The Tigers’ starter, Jake Augustus, was also in top form, allowing two runs on four hits. Augustus walked two and struck out three in a complete-game effort.
The junior righty didn’t allow a hit until the third and even managed to hurl a four-pitch fourth inning.
“He’s a good pitcher,” Kosciolek said. “He was throwing strikes, and that’s all you can do. He had some good off-speed stuff and kept us off-balance a little bit.”
In the fifth, freshman Casey Rother led off the frame with a single, and Matt Minchhoff followed with a single. A sacrifice bunt by Zach Coleman put runners at second and third, and a walk to Jake Humes loaded the bases with one out.
Nate MacDonald hit a grounder to the third baseman, whose throw home was wide, allowing courtesy runner Harold Moll to score.
Tamaqua got its second run of the inning on Daylon Barron’s sacrifice fly to center that plated Minchhoff.
“It’s always good when we’re able to play small ball,” Tamaqua head coach Jeff Reading said. “We were able to capitalize on the other team’s mistakes.
“We were struggling finding base hits tonight, so making them make extra plays worked to our advantage.”
The Tigers threatened in the bottom half of the inning when Nicholas Rodriguez drew a walk with one out and Jordan Storm delivered a hard-hit single up the middle.
With the count full, Tyler Wilk hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning and keep Northwestern Lehigh scoreless.
“I walked a batter, and it would have been a lot easier of an inning if I hadn’t,” Kosciolek said. “I was just focusing on every pitch. I made one, he hit a ground ball, and my defense made the play.”
Both starters rolled once again through the final two innings, with Kosciolek pulling off a 1-2-3 seventh to preserve his shutout.
“Pitching and defense wins you ballgames,” Reading said. “You don’t have to get a hit. You can get on base, you can steal bases and you can get a run across.”
Both Reading and Kosciolek agreed that the Raiders will still need to work on their hitting when they face the Schuylkill League champion Crimson Tide for the third time this season.
“It always feels good to move on, because when you don’t, that’s when you’re giving the end-of-the-year speech and collecting jerseys and things like that,” Reading said. “Now we need to get our hitting the right direction because Pottsville is next in line, but it’s not somebody we haven’t played before.
“We had a great game between the two of us this past year and the past couple years, so it’s going to be another classic Tamaqua-Pottsville game.”
Game Summary
District 11 Class AAA Quarterfinal
TAMAQUA (2) — MacDonald 2b 4 0 0 0, Barron cf 3 0 0 1, Rottet ss 3 0 0 0, Kosciolek p 3 0 0 0, Bates 1b 2 0 0 0, Rother c 3 0 1 0, Moll cr 0 1 0 0, Minchhoff rf 3 1 1 0, Coleman 3b 1 0 0 0, Hartung dh 1 0 0 0, Humes lb 2 0 2 0. Totals 25 2 4 1.
NORTHWESTERN LEHIGH (0) — Augustus p 2 0 0 0, Schreiner 1b 3 0 0 0, Mengel 2b 3 0 0 0, Williamson 3b 3 0 0 0, Rodriguez rf 2 0 0 0, Fager ss 0 0 0 0, Storm dh 2 0 1 0, Wilk c 2 0 0 0, Fairinger lf 2 0 0 0, Breininger cf 2 0 0 0. Totals 21 0 1 0.
Tamaqua (14-7) 000 020 0 — 2
NW Lehigh (16-8) 000 000 0 — 0
E — Tamaqua 0, Northwestern Lehigh 1. DP — Tamaqua 1, Northwestern Lehigh 0. LOB — Tamaqua 5, Northwestern Lehigh 2. S — Coleman. SF — Barron.
Tamaqua IP H R ER BB K
Kosciolk W,3-0 7 1 0 0 2 8
NW Lehigh IP H R ER BB K
Augustus L 7 4 2 1 2 3
PB — Wilk. T — 1:23.