The big event for the week was the state basketball finals. 3 days of games up at the Giant Center in Hershey. I took in all 8 boys games and it was a mixed bag. Attendance was low since the games were pushed back due to the snow last week and the usual lack of support from the Philly schools. The PIAA was probably upset when both Milton Hershey and Hazleton lost on the semifinals. Lot of ticket sales missed out on there. The girls games were better attended easily. I saw at least quarter of each and these games were much closer. One team blew a big fourth quarter lead and lost in OT and another forced a turnover at midcourt with about 6 seconds left of a tied game to win it.  The best player I saw there was Allie Campbell of Bellwood-Antis who had something like 30 of her team’s 40 points.

Monday’s games:

Class A: Kennedy Catholic defeated Lourdes Regional. Kennedy could play 6A, in fact they will be next year. It is utterly amazing that a bunch of foreign students that can play basketball just happen to end up there. Yep, a 6-10 kid from Africa (by way of another private school in Virginia) they have that is really good just happens to have a Kennedy supporter become their guardian. Another 6-8 kid from Italy just happens to be their foreign exchange student after playing AAU ball in Pittsburgh over the summer. Yep, just coincidental along with the other kids from Africa. Combine that with a kid who is actually from there that is really really good and Lourdes didn’t stand a chance and didn’t score a point until the second quarter. The mercy rule started before the end of the third quarter. This game was a farce.

Class 4A: Imhotep Charter defeated Sharon. Perennial state champ and one of the top teams in the nation Imhotep against Sharon, Sharon tried but Imhotep was far too strong. They can send a wave of 6-6 athletic guys at you and Sharon couldn’t. Imhotep could also overcome their top player scoring only 6 points. This was not a mercy rule game but if Imhotep wanted it to be it would have been. Sharon tried hard but had trouble just getting the ball over midcourt much less getting an open shot. They’ve never seen anyone like Imhotep. Probably made for a long drive back to Sharon and believe me I know the feeling.

Tuesday’s games:

Class 2A: Constitution defeated Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Finally a close(ish) game! OLSH started well, perhaps too well. They have a freshman player (who is very good) and he was showboating after hitting some shots. Constitution was not impressed and and after the middle of the second quarter he didn’t really do much. It looked like he was holding his stomach, was he cramping? Constitution was not overly tall but they were quicker and could drive to the hoop almost at will. In some cases not even being touched and they took advantage of that. Constitution got up in the second quarter and maintained a 5-10 point cushion for most of the rest of the game. OLSH didn’t give up but they they were never able to get back over the hump.

Class 5A: Abington Heights over Mars. We go cosmic here with the Abington Heights Comets facing off against the Mars Fighting Planets. Mars features the player who will probably be Mr. Basketball in PA, Robby Carmody, a Notre Dame commit. They’ve been here before but came up short. Abington Heights could shoot and had the height to match Mars. The X factor was the referees. This will hopefully be the only criticism but they let this get a bit out of hand and players were pushing and shoving and seemingly everything except body slamming people to the court. Fouls were called inconsistently in the first half and tightly in the second. Abington does not substitute but saw Jackson Danzig, their star player, foul out with 5 minutes to go but fortunately they had another guy who was clicking. He scored his 1,000th point during the game. With Danzig out Carmody then got extremely aggressive leading to a double foul and an offensive foul on him and when he fouled out with about 2 minutes to go the game was over. Mars did not have anyone who could step up. Abington led most if not all of the game. Apparently their coach has over 700 wins and this was his first state title.

Wednesday’s games:

Class 3A: Neumann-Goretti over Richland. Neumann’s been here before, almost to the point that they do not get seemingly excited when they win. At least their coach did not show up in a sweat suit like the girl’s coach did. Richland is the other end of the spectrum but they have never seen a team like Neumann though this was not one of Neumann’s better teams. Neumann got up by about 20 with good shooting and by being able to get to the hoop, Richland cut the lead down to about 10 but Neumann righted the ship and held them off for the rest of the game. If Richland had not started fouling at the end of the game there probably would have been less than 10 personal fouls called in this game. Nice and quick.

Class 6A: Roman Catholic defeated Abraham Lincoln. A rematch of the Philly championship game which Lincoln won with a much sparser attendance. A fairly even game both teams could get to the hoop and could hit the jumper and it made for an entertaining game (finally!). Lots of points scored but Roman got up about 5-7 points and for the most part maintained that lead. Lincoln would get it down to 1 and tied it once but Roman would respond and build the lead back up.

Also visited a few breweries. Hit the new Marzoni’s in Mechanicsburg on Tuesday, had a delicious pierogi pizza and got some bottles to go. I’ve never seen their beer in stores so I am looking forward to adding those bottles to the collection. Wednesday took me to Ever Grain for lunch and in between sessions to Troegs and Boneshire.

The sports week continued on Thursday when the Orioles opened up against the Minnesota Twins for Game #1 of the season. Hooray! Opening Day is a party in Baltimore, that is it is an excuse to drink. I got great amusement after the game watching one drunk fan try to get to the Light Rail platform. Anyway, a good effort from both starting pitchers, Dylan Bundy and Jake Odorizzi, on what turned into an absolutely gorgeous day in Baltimore. One minor quibble, why bat Chris Davis leadoff? Anyway, Caleb Joseph knocks in 2 with a triple but Brad Brach couldn’t hold the lead and the game went into extras. Adam Jones ended it with a walk-off. I left in the middle of the 8th, I don’t like fighting 45,000 people leaving the game as well as those who are leaving work. It can make for a very difficult time getting out of town. I knew the Orioles won when the cheers started in the Light Rail train somewhere near Mt. Washington. All-in-all baseball season is off to a great start!

Saturday took me down to Washington to take in the National Cherry Blossom festival. It’s been awhile since I’ve been on the National Mall and I also wanted to see the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. It was a gorgeous day, that’s for sure. Most of the trees were not in peak bloom though a few by the George Mason Memorial seemed to be.

Had lunch/dinner at Capitol City Brewing downtown and then headed back to Baltimore. Made a brief stop at Heavy Seas brewing and then into Baltimore to take in the Orioles game for game #2. It was a cold night in Baltimore with a cold breeze blowing in my face. Andrew Cashner made his Orioles debut but did not do well. The Twins knocked 3 long balls off of him and it was 5-0 by the time he left the game. With a bit of a hole the Orioles used that time to bring in their two Rule 5 draft picks to pitch so I have my first major league debuts off the list for the year. Nestor Cortes was wobbly but did escape a bases loaded one out jam with no damage. Pedro Araujo looked good. He might be a keeper. Of course I neglected to mention that the Orioles did not get a hit until the 8th inning. This ties the longest I have ever seen a no-hitter in the major leagues, tying this effort with the immortal Jerome Williams effort in 2006 with the Nationals against the Mets. Sunday was Easter so I skipped the Orioles game. It was a cold and cloudy day so I felt better off.

Coming up this is a pretty dull week for baseball as no games are on the docket until Thursday. Thursday will take me to Reading for their opener, Friday down to Bowie to see them play Harrisburg, Saturday to Reading to get a Rhys Hoskins bobblehead and finally on Sunday to Washington to watch the Nationals play the Mets. All of this is of course weather permitting.