For Palmyra, The Beat Goes On « Lebanon Sports Buzz

5 years ago
For Palmyra, The Beat Goes On

Apr 29, 2019
Jeff Falk
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Baseball, FEATURE STORIES, Palmyra
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BY JEFF FALK

HARRISBURG – Almost always allies, there is one instance where the concept of team flies in the face of goals.

With one, if you take care of the individual things, the collective stuff will take care of themselves. And with the other, if you take care of the collective aspects, the individual stuff will take care of itself.

Right now, the Palmyra baseball team is focused on the things it can control, and not worried about the stuff it can’t.

On an overcast Monday evening at Central Dauphin East High School the Cougars took care of business and tallied a routine 13-0, five-inning, mercy-rule blanking of the home-town Panthers. Behind the shut-down pitching of ace Brian Coburn, Palmyra broke open the Mid-Penn Keystone Division contest with similar four-run, then six-run rallies in the third and fourth innings.

For the Cougars, the result moved them to 11-3 on the spring and 9-2 in the Keystone. Back on April 4th in Palmyra, the Cougars had drubbed the same C.D. East club, 20-5.

Palmyra was positioned seventh in the latest Distric Three Class AAAAA power rankings.

“To be honest, there are some things we can’t control,” said Palmyra head coach Neil Weber. “We’re trying to clean up things as games present themselves. Our goals are to take care of business and win the games in front of us. If we do, we’ll see where we are, and hopefully, we’ll be in the mix.

“We’re a team, first and foremost,” continued Weber. “On any given day, I feel comfortable putting different kids in starting positions. My hope is we’re always putting team first, on top of inidividual things.”

After threatening in the top of the opening inning, Palmyra broke through and grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second, on Coburn’s sacrifice fly to left field. Coburn’s sac plated Gage Miller, who had singled and then moved along on Jake Roe’s hit and Braden Drescher’s walk.

“It was just getting our timing down,” said Weber. “We got off the bus, stretched and started the game. After seeing the ball a little more, we started putting the barrel on it more. We really tried to take a line-drive approach.”

With some help from his defense, Coburn was efficiently effective. The sturdy right-hander needed just 47 pitches to get through his five innings of work.

Coburn was aided by a pair of double plays from his error-free defense, including one in the bottom of the second that short-circuited C.D. East’s two-on-and-nobody-out situation – the only threat the home team could mount against him. He retired the Panthers in order in the first and third frames.

Coburn allowed four hits, struck out two and didn’t walk a batter.

“It’s really two-fold with Brian,” said Weber. “When we take care of the baseball, his pitch count is low. And when he’s keeping his walks down, his pitch count is down.

“When Brian gets in that rhythm, he’ll pitch quickly,” Weber continued. “He relies on location and hitting spots. I don’t know if that’s his shortstop mentality or what. But today he got into that rhythm and he was throwing strikes.”

The Cougars’ first four batters – Christian Kreiser, Austin Ball, Austin Lefever and Trevor Binner – in the top of the third inning reached base, and all four scored, as Palmyra opened its advantage to 5-0. The big hit was Miller’s two-run single, while Lefever and Binner also drove home runs.

In the top of the fourth, Palmyra sent ten hitters to the plate and brought the mercy rule into play with six more runs. Six different Cougars contributed RBIs, Kreiser, Lefevere, Binner, Miller, Roe and Braden Drescher.

“I thought we played well,” said Weber. “We’ve been focusing on our infield play. We turned a couple of double plays and made the routine plays. We took care of the baseball.

“We’ve been humbled this year,” added Weber. “It’s one game at a time. It’s one inning at a time. We’re trying not to look too far down the road.”

In padding its lead with two fifth-inning runs, Palmyra received contributions off the bench from Jake Wagner, Ben Slusser, Daniel Bonawitz and Jake Kern. Wagner and Slusser scored runs, and Bonawitz and Kern drove them in.

“I’ve been fortunate to have great student-athletes at Palmyra,” said Weber. “I’ve been very fortunate to have never had any disciplinary issues. Our kids take care of it in the class room, and do it on the baseball field.

“Our coaching staff gets a long,” Weber added. “We all live in Palmyra and it’s a great baseball community. We’re trying to build an even better baseball community in Palmyra, and the boys enjoy helping with that.”

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to https://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/photo-gallery/.

2019 Palmyra Baseball Results

Date	Opponents	Outcomes
3/264:15p	@ Susquehanna Township (Harrisburg, PA) Location: Susquehanna Township High School Box Score	(W) 1 – 0
3/284:00p	@ Lower Dauphin (Hummelstown, PA) Location: Lower Dauphin High School Box Score	(W) 6 – 3
4/1TBA	Mechanicsburg (Mechanicsburg, PA) Box Score	(W) 9 – 2
4/34:15p	Central Dauphin East (Harrisburg, PA) Box Score	(W) 19 – 5
4/54:15p	@ Red Land (Lewisberry, PA) Location: Red Land High School Box Score	(L) 11 – 1
4/94:15p	Harrisburg (Harrisburg, PA) Box Score	(W) 12 – 0
4/114:15p	@ Hershey (Hershey, PA) Location: Hershey High School Box Score	(W) 12 – 0
4/13TBA	Lampeter-Strasburg (Lampeter, PA) Location: Palmyra High School
4/154:15p	Bishop McDevitt (Harrisburg, PA) Location: Palmyra High School Box Score	(L) 8 – 6
4/174:15p	Susquehanna Township (Harrisburg, PA) Location: Palmyra High School Box Score	(W) 10 – 0
4/184:15p	@ Cumberland Valley (Mechanicsburg, PA) Location: Cumberland Valley High School Box Score	(W) 2 – 0
4/194:30p	@ Big Spring (Newville, PA) Location: Big Spring High School Box Score	(W) 7 – 5
4/234:15p	Lower Dauphin (Hummelstown, PA) Location: Palmyra High School Box Score	(L) 8 – 7 (8)
4/294:00p	Central Dauphin East (Harrisburg, PA) Location: Palmyra High School
5/24:15p	Northern Lebanon (Fredericksburg, PA) Location: Palmyra High School
5/64:00p	Cedar Crest (Lebanon, PA) Location: Palmyra High School
5/74:15p	Hershey (Hershey, PA) Location: Palmyra High School
5/94:15p	@ Bishop McDevitt (Harrisburg, PA) Location: Bishop McDevitt High School

PIAA District Three

Class AAAAA Power Rankings

AAAAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP	TWPW	OWPW	TWPL	OWPL
1	Lampeter Strasburg	12-	1-	0	0.779216	0.950820	0.569478	14.5	154.3	0.8	116.7
2	Red Land	13-	1-	0	0.771104	0.948795	0.553926	15.8	137.9	0.9	111.1
3	Northern York	11-	1-	0	0.756516	0.932000	0.542035	11.7	134.8	0.9	113.9
4	Cedar Cliff	11-	1-	0	0.751002	0.946809	0.511683	13.4	130.3	0.8	124.4
5	Gettysburg	10-	2-	0	0.726768	0.873134	0.547876	11.7	141.3	1.7	116.6
6	Manheim Central	13-	2-	0	0.714706	0.886288	0.504995	13.3	136.5	1.7	133.8
7	Lower Dauphin	9-	4-	0	0.688984	0.769517	0.590554	10.4	158.8	3.1	110.1
8	Palmyra	10-	3-	0	0.686547	0.814035	0.530729	11.6	130.4	2.7	115.3
9	Ephrata	10-	5-	0	0.676746	0.758621	0.576677	12.1	162.5	3.9	119.3
10	Solanco	9-	5-	0	0.676602	0.736667	0.603189	11.1	170.3	4.0	112.0
11	Exeter Township	10-	4-	0	0.664738	0.800000	0.499418	12.0	128.6	3.0	128.9
12	Mechanicsburg	9-	4-	0	0.660333	0.754513	0.545224	10.5	139.6	3.4	116.4
13	Daniel Boone	8-	4-	0	0.659363	0.738462	0.562686	9.6	145.6	3.4	113.2
14	West York	10-	3-	0	0.656860	0.771536	0.516701	10.3	138.5	3.1	129.5
15	Twin Valley	11-	4-	0	0.653641	0.766562	0.515627	12.2	136.1	3.7	127.9
16	Cocalico	9-	4-	0	0.625305	0.705179	0.527680	8.9	143.9	3.7	128.8
17	Dover	8-	7-	0	0.599440	0.613861	0.581813	9.3	140.6	5.9	101.1
18	Northeastern	6-	8-	0	0.565322	0.514706	0.627187	7.0	164.2	6.6	97.6
19	New Oxford	6-	7-	0	0.552226	0.541833	0.564929	6.8	148.1	5.8	114.1
20	Muhlenberg	6-	8-	0	0.539326	0.518248	0.565087	7.1	154.5	6.6	118.9
21	Shippensburg	5-	7-	0	0.539158	0.457983	0.638373	5.5	154.6	6.5	87.6
22	South Western	5-	8-	0	0.534283	0.473684	0.608348	5.9	163.8	6.5	105.5
23	Garden Spot	7-	7-	0	0.528767	0.511194	0.550246	6.9	150.0	6.6	122.6
24	Spring Grove	5-	9-	0	0.524062	0.442308	0.623985	5.8	166.7	7.3	100.5
25	Big Spring	5-	8-	0	0.503892	0.444898	0.575997	5.5	149.5	6.8	110.1
26	Hershey	4-	9-	0	0.497484	0.372470	0.650280	4.6	174.0	7.8	93.6
27	Greencastle Antrim	3-	7-	0	0.453365	0.376289	0.547570	3.7	120.0	6.1	99.2
28	Elizabethtown	3-	11-	0	0.448913	0.300000	0.630917	3.8	180.6	8.8	105.7
29	York Suburban	2-	10-	0	0.399883	0.227273	0.610851	2.5	152.8	8.5	97.3
30	William Penn	2-	11-	0	0.321340	0.148148	0.533019	1.8	141.3	10.4	123.8
31	Milton Hershey	1-	9-	0	0.308604	0.088542	0.577569	0.9	113.6	8.8	83.1

Mid-Penn Conference

Keystone Division Standings

School	Division	%	Overall	%
Lower Dauphin High School	7-1-0	0.875	7-1-0	0.875
Palmyra Area High School	8-2-0	0.800	8-2-0	0.800
Mechanicsburg Area High School	7-3-0	0.700	7-3-0	0.700
Bishop McDevitt High School	7-4-0	0.636	7-4-0	0.636
Hershey High School	4-6-0	0.400	4-6-0	0.400
Harrisburg High School	0-0-0	0.000	0-0-0	0.000
Central Dauphin East High School	0-1-0	0.000	0-1-0	0.000
Susquehanna Township High School	0-6-0	0.000	0-6-0	0.000