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DALLAS TWP. — Perhaps if the Back Mountain baseball rivalry game was played when originally scheduled — way back on April 9 — the approach would have been different.
Lake-Lehman, though, was looking at the big picture Thursday, namely a District 2 Class 3A playoffs next week. Those even supersede Saturday’s matchup with Wyoming Area for the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 championship.
Meanwhile, Dallas was looking to slide into a narrow opening to replace Wyoming Area as the top seed in the D2-4A playoffs and get a bye that comes with the spot. The Mountaineers did that — for now — with the 12-3 victory over Lehman.
Dallas (14-4) entered Thursday trailing Wyoming Area (17-3) by 0.002 in the power ratings to determine district seeding. The Mountaineers jumped ahead of the Warriors, who lost 8-7 to current D2-5A top seed Wallenpaupack, but still have a game remaining Saturday morning against West Scranton (3-15). Wyoming Area’s game with Lehman for the WVC Division 2 crown will have no effect on the power ratings as only regular-season games are part of the formula.
Lehman (14-5) had the D2-3A top seed locked up, so ace Nick Finarelli threw only three innings.
“We started this year with the goal to win the district, get to the state tournament and make a run,” Lehman coach Mike Sholtis said. “We need Nick available, all our pitchers available, for Monday. So today was like a bullpen session for him. A quick three innings, 50 pitches.”
Dallas got consecutive singles from Nick Nocito, Mike Timinski and Zach Paczewski plus a throwing error on Paczewski’s hit and an RBI groundout by Chris Killian to take a 3-2 lead in Finarelli’s final inning of work.
“I’m really glad we put the ball in play quite a bit against Finarelli,” Dallas coach Ken Kashatus said. “He didn’t blow everyone away. About a month ago, I would have been afraid he would have struck out two out of every three guys he faced. But now we’re hitting the ball fair, which is a big point at this time of the season.”
Paczewski’s three-run homer in the fifth, which just cleared the right field fence, helped boost the lead to 7-3. Dallas added five more runs in the sixth on four bases-loaded walks and an infield single by Gavin Adamski.
Dallas starter Gary Weaver overcame a tough first inning where he surrendered three hits, including a two-run single to Finarelli. He pitched 6.2 innings, striking out eight and allowing four singles after the first inning.
Dallas 12, Lake-Lehman 3
Lehman`AB`R`H`BI
C.Kaiser cf-p`2`1`1`0
Naugle ph`1`0`0`0
G.Finarelli c`3`1`1`0
T.Jones ph`1`0`0`0
Federici 1b`3`0`0`1
Corio lf-rf`3`0`1`0
N.Finarelli p-lf`3`0`2`2
M.Sholtis 2b`3`0`0`0
C.Sholtis dh`3`0`1`0
Wallace ss-p`0`0`0`0
Bean 3b-ss`1`0`0`0
E.Kaiser rf`2`0`0`0
S.Finarelli 3b`1`1`1`0
Totals`26`3`7`3
Dallas`AB`R`H`BI
Nocito 2b`4`2`2`0
Timinski cf`3`2`1`1
Paczewski ss`3`3`2`4
Killian 1b`3`1`0`2
Peters rf`2`0`2`1
Osipower dh`3`0`0`0
Rischawy lf`0`0`0`0
Healey ph`1`0`0`0
J.Adamski 3b`2`1`0`0
G.Adamski c`4`0`1`1
Shaver cr-p`0`1`0`0
Weaver p`2`0`1`0
Burkhardt cr`0`2`0`0
Totals`27`12`9`9
Lake-Lehman`200`010`0 — 3
Dallas`003`405`x — 12
HR — Paczewski.
Lehman`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
N.Finarelli L`3.0`5`3`0`0`2
Wallace`2.0`2`4`3`2`1
C.Kaiser`0.1`1`5`5`4`0
Bean`0.2`1`0`0`2`1
Dallas`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Weaver W`6.2`7`3`3`2`8
Shaver`0.1`0`0`0`0`0