Return Trips

Here we are, at the District 2 Baseball Championships at PNC Field. All 12 teams have played in the District Championship game at least one time since the Championships returned to PNC Field in 2013. Several are making a return trip from last season. Forest City and MMI is a rematch of last year's Single-A championship game which Forest City won. Dallas and Valley View played for the 4A title where Dallas won and then took the State Title. Several others returning are defending champions in Old Forge and Williamsport. Last year's runner-ups in Lakeland and Crestwood. The others have been in a District Final or have won a District Title before. Mid Valley went to the District Final in 2013. North Pocono won the District Title in 2016 and Hazleton Area won the District Championship in 2014 and lost in 2015. Northwest made it to PNC Field in 2016 and won the District Title. However in the end, only six teams will emerge as District 2 Champions. Let's get into the matchups in this year's District Finals

5A District Final
Crestwood vs North Pocono
6 PM Sunday
Crestwood comes in as the number two seed and are the WVC Division 1 Champions. North Pocono is the number one seed and are the Lackawanna League Division 2 Champions. Crestwood is making their second straight appearance in the District Finals. The Comets are led by several senior players. Senior Justin Darden is hitting .381 with three doubles, two triples, one home run and a team leading 14 RBIs. North Pocono is back in the Finals since 2016 when they won the title and advanced to the state semifinals. Cory Wall has been impressive for North Pocono. He's hitting .500 with four doubles, a triple and 13 RBIs. On the mound, he's 4-0 with a 0.77 ERA and 54 strikeouts. Both teams have been on long winning streaks. Crestwood has won seven straight games. North Pocono has won eight straight games.

6A District 2/4 Subregional Final
Hazleton Area vs Williamsport
6 PM Monday
Hazleton Area comes in as the number three seed. Williamsport comes in as the number one seed. The Cougars had a rough start to their season due to off the field problems. Through that, they were able to secure the three seed and knocked off Delaware Valley on Wednesday. Chris Heim is hitting .467 with three doubles, three home runs and 13 RBIs. For Williamsport, Quentin Brown is hitting .551 with 21 RBIs on the season.

Single-A District Final
MMI vs Forest City
5 PM Tuesday
MMI comes in as the number 2 seed. Forest City is the top seed in the tournament. A rematch of last year's matchup in the District Finals and the same thing is at stake, a finals spot in the District 2/11 Subregional Championship game. Preppers sophomore CF Marcus Kassick is batting .318 with four doubles, a home run and 15 RBIs. Foresters pitcher Kyle Shema is 3-0 with a 1.17 ERA and 60 strikeouts on the season.

3A District Final
Mid Valley vs Lakeland
7:30 PM Tuesday
Mid Valley comes in as the number three seed. Lakeland comes in as the number one seed and is the Lackawanna League Division 4 Champion. Mid Valley first basemen Brendan Kuharski is one of District 2's premier power hitters. He's hitting .324 with nine home runs and 24 RBIs on the season. Lakeland first basemen Matt Hayes has been impressive this season. He's hitting an impressive .634 with six doubles, three triples, four home runs and 22 RBIs.

2A District Final
Northwest vs Old Forge
5 PM Wednesday
Northwest is the lowest seeded team to make the District Final as the sixth seed. Old Forge comes in as the top seed and the defending District Champions. Junior David Piestrak is hitting .529 with five doubles, four triples and seven RBIs. He's also added 21 runs on the season in the leadoff spot. Blue Devils OF Brendan Mozeleski has been impressive this season. He's hitting .444 with two doubles, two triples, three home runs and 21 RBIs. On the mound, he is 3-1 with 3.38 ERA and 41 strikeouts.

4A District Final
Valley View vs Dallas
7:30 PM Wednesday
Valley View comes in as the number 2 seed and is the Lackawanna League Division 3 Champions. Dallas is the top seed, is the WVC Division 2 Champions and defending 4A State Champions. Valley View's Mason Black is hitting .343 with seven doubles and 11 RBIs. On the mound, he is 5-0 with a 0.39 ERA with 48 strikeouts. Nick Kocher followed his amazing run from last year into another incredible season. He's hitting .340 with three doubles and 15 RBIs. On the mound, he is 5-0 with a 0.84 ERA and 48 strikeouts.

That will be it for the District Championship previews. Stay tuned into the blog for several games over the course of the week.