PIAA Baseball First Round
- © Keystone Sports Extra
- Jun 3
- 3 min read
Center Valley, PA - June 2, 2025: In the opening round of the PIAA baseball tournament Monday afternoon at DeSales University’s Weiland Park, two District XI teams looked to extend their season and make a run at a state championship.
The first game saw Notre Dame Green Pond High School play against the District XII runner-up, Philadelphia Academy Charter, in the 3A championship with Notre Dame easily winning this matchup 11-4.
The second game saw Bangor Area High School play against the third seeded team out of District I, Hatboro-Horsham High School, with Hatboro-Horsham winning this matchup in a ten inning thriller 4-3.
In the Notre Dame victory, Jason Frederick, Clemente Cintron, Christian Rivituso, and Colin Pevorus each had a big day at the plate. Frederick went three for three with a double and two runs scored. Cintron went two for four with a double, two runs scored, and a stolen base. Rivituso and Pevorus had two hits and two RBI’s each. Notre Dame tallied twelve hits as a team to Philadelphia Academy’s seven.
On the mound for Notre Dame, Michael Martino picked up the win. Martino pitched five innings, gave up three runs on three hits and struck out six. Rivituso pitched two innings, gave up one run on four hits.
The later game at DeSales saw an excellent matchup go into extra innings with Hatboro-Horsham able to pick up a run in the top of the 10th inning to edge a tough Bangor team.
The game was scoreless through three innings in a pitching duel. Hatboro-Horsham’s Jamie O’Neill and Bangor’s Nolan Koza threw well. O’Neill struck out nine before leaving the game in the sixth inning after reaching the max pitch count. Koza, although only striking out one, had help from some excellent defense behind him. O’Neill gave up one run on five hits while Koza gave up three runs on eight hits. Koza would also leave the game, in the seventh inning, after reaching his max pitch count.
Hatboro-Horsham scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning and it seemed that would be enough for the Hatters to advance. Bangor fought back however, scoring a run in the bottom of the sixth inning before scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, with two outs, to tie the game at 3-3.
Dylan Keith led Bangor with two hits, including the seventh inning shot over the center fielder’s head for a double which scored Jaxon Kreider and Tyler Balok. Balok also scored Bangor’s run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a groundout by Koza. Kurtis Snyder, Gianni Goodrich, Alex Farensbach, Luke Rinaldi, and Koza all had one hit for Bangor.
Hatboro-Horsham’s Dominic Rapino led his team, going four for four with a double and a run scored. Rapino came up big in the top of the tenth inning with a base hit that scored O’Neill. Ricky Klenk and Ryan Thomas each had two hits for Hatboro-Horsham.
Hatboro-Horsham’s Shane Mills, who came on in relief, recorded the win for the Hatters while Bangor’s Gino Merlo, who also came on in relief, recorded the loss. Hatboro-Horsham had eleven hits to Bangor’s seven. Bangor did commit two costly errors in the field.
In other PIAA (District XI) first round games, Parkland lost to Neshaminy 3-1 in 6A, Liberty defeated West Chester Henderson 11-3 in 6A, Northwestern Lehigh lost to Pope John Paul II 15-3 in 4A, Tri-Valley defeated Holy Redeemer 6-5 in 2A, and Nativity BVM defeated Dock Mennonite 7-6 in 1A.
Quarterfinal games will be played on Thursday, June 5th.
