SCRANTON – Old Forge teams returned to the top of District 2 baseball and softball, capturing Class A titles in both.
The Blue Devils baseball team opened the series of six championship games at PNC Field May 26 by defeating MMI Prep, 2-1.
Old Forge had won the district title five straight years through 2011 and won it again in 2013.
The Lady Devils softball team defeated Blue Ridge, 12-7, Thursday at the University of Scranton’s Magis Field.
Old Forge also had a stretch of six titles in seven years in softball, winning 2008-11 and 2013-14 championships.
CLASS A BASEBALL
Old Forge scored runs in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings to pull out the victory over MMI Prep, beginning a series of six championship games that featured five games decided by one run and another decided by two.
Freshman second baseman Mario Samony was part of the three double plays that Old Forge turned before he drove in the game-winning run with a single.
The Blue Devils outhit the Preppers, 7-2.
Sean Donovan got the win with two innings of hitless relief.
Cooper Grochowski limited MMI Prep to two hits and one run before leaving the mound after the first two runners reached in the sixth inning. He also was the only player in the game with two hits and scored the run that tied the game.
CLASS A SOFTBALL
Old Forge built leads of 5-0 after 2 ½ innings and 10-1 after 4 ½ before holding off a Blue Ridge comeback.
Nina Zimmerman had three of the team’s dozen hits and drove in two runs.
Makayla Parker had two hits and scored three times. Olivia Shimonis had two hits and two runs scored.
Camryn Domiano and Corianne Holzman also had two hits.
LOCAL CONNECTIONS
The Scranton Prep softball team that won the District 2 Class 4A championship has five players from the Pittston Area School District and one from the Wyoming Area School District.
Senior Lauren Cawley played center field and batted second, going 2-for-3 with a double, a walk and two runs scored in Thursday’s 9-2 championship game victory over Honesdale at Magis Field.
Bella Gorzkowski, another senior who followed Cawley in the batting order and played third base, went 1-for-2 with two runs. She doubled in two runs for the biggest hit in the five-run bottom of the fourth after the game had been tied, 1-1.
Sophomore Gwen Balavage started at catcher and had a hit.
Meredith Purcell and Gracie Giordina are the others from Pittston Area and Lily Harden is from Wyoming Area.
Scranton Prep also had two players from Pittston Area on the baseball team that reached the District 2 Class 4A final before falling to Dallas, 2-1.
Cameron Kohut went 3-for-3 and drove in the only Cavaliers run in the top of the first.
Kohut played first base and batted first while Lanzendorfer played left field and batted sixth.
Nick Prociak, a basketball all-star who is playing the sport for the first time, is a starting hitter on the Holy Redeemer boys volleyball team that won the District 2 title and was playing in the state Class 2A quarterfinals Saturday.
Prociak, from Jenkins Township, had five blocks and five kills when Holy Redeemer rallied to defeat Bethlehem Catholic in the District 1-2-11 Class 2A Subregional championship to clinch its return to the state tournament.
Aubrey Mytych, a Penn State field hockey commit from Wyoming, is the starting center field and third hitter on a Wyoming Seminary softball team that reached Friday’s Class 3A final before losing to Mid Valley, 4-1.
