This is always a light week. The PIAA tournament doesn’t start until Friday and the NCAA Tournament for Division 3 doesn’t as well. PIAA brackets were out on Sunday but the NCAA tournament selection was on Monday afternoon while also entering the top 25 at #25. No waiting and wondering if they would make it as an at-large with baited breath since York won the CAC, which is a good thing and Christopher Newport made it too. Where would they play, when would they play and against who? They will head to Alliance, Ohio and #5 Mt. Union College on Friday to play St. John Fisher from Rochester, New York. Alliance is between Canton and Youngstown and about 5 hours away so I will not be heading there. They’re in a tough pod as one would expect Mt. Union to take out Cairn and should they win they would play them on Saturday and should they get past them perennial power Wittenburg could be waiting.
The closest game for me was at Johns Hopkins and in fact that was the only game that was even close to me. Couldn’t go there since Hopkins closed the games to fans due to Coronavirus concerns. Well, Swarthmore was too and I guess they’re close(ish). That’s not too surprising since a lot of local colleges weren’t really that good. The ones that are close that made it (York, Susquehanna, Lycoming, PSU Harrisburg) all had to play on the road and in some cases pretty far away. Not much you can do sometimes as the hosting decision is not up to me nor was I consulted.
Got a bat in my house on Monday night. Not sure how it got in but it did. I locked it in a room and opened a window for it to escape. Didn’t see it later so I am guessing it took its freedom. I might know in a few days by the smell if it didn’t. I was alerted when both cats’ ears perked up and followed them. I think they were a bit scared because they slept on the bed with me that night. One on one side and the other on the other. And they slept tight against me. When I would move slightly one or the other would move to adjust. It would have been more adorable if I would’ve gotten a better night’s sleep.
Didn’t head up to Bethlehem to watch York High take on Southern Lehigh. Just too far to go on a Friday night with traffic around Allentown and some lousy weather. It wasn’t because of the coronavirus though I am glad I got my grocery shopping done early and I did stock up with some extra items. York High came back with a big 4th quarter to take the win 69-59. A good day for District 3 as 8 of the 10 teams advanced. York College also won their game 88-67.
Saturday took me to West York for a triple header. First surprise district champ York Catholic took on Constitution from Philly in a game that no one in their right mind thought would be close. One would think that Steel-High would have put up a better fight. But it was close. This was not my older brother’s Con High and they struggled against York Catholic’s defense. The Irish played a slow down game and kept this one close, even taking the lead in the 4th quarter. Con High was never able to separate themselves and with a 2 point lead an Irish player hit a turnaround to send it to overtime. In OT Con High did what they needed to do to win 43-39.
Next the Eastern girls took on Villa Marie Joseph from outside of Philly. Eastern got up big, let Villa Marie Joseph come back, got back up big and let them come back. But they never lost the lead and took a 72-66 victory. The most entertaining thing was Villa Marie Joseph’s coach was wearing what looked like a faded baseball cap with a Bluetooth earpice and looked like a trucker. Even one of the referees got a chuckle when someone yelled out a comment along those lines. Then Central took on Pittsburgh Central Catholic. Central has not had a good record in the PIAA tournament but PCC had a long way to go to reach here. This game was close for about 3 quarters and then PCC fell apart, Central advances 60-39. They will have some serious travel next as they play McDowell from Erie.
And to no one’s surprise York Colelge fell to Mt. Union 90-77.
Headed up to Reading on Sunday to watch the Reading Royals take on the Brampton Beast in some hot ECHL action. Pregame stops at Stoudt’s (final time there possibly since they are closing for good) Chatty Monks and Broken Chair in Wyomissing. Have to like the 4 PM starts there. I’ll save the other two for baseball season or for the fall when hockey resumes in the fall. For the most part this was a boring effort for the first two periods. That might be because Reading clinched a playoff spot the night before. The first period highlights was a couple of shots hitting off of the post and a guy getting drilled against the boards. Brampton finally broke a scoreless tie in the 3rd with a putback goal that beat Royals goalie Tom McCollum. They added a power play goal a few minutes later. Reading got on the board with a Frank DiChiara tally but Brampton added a final tally to take a 3-1 win.
Hard to believe but baseball season is less than 3 weeks away.
