Salisbury Press

The expectations were high this spring for the Salisbury baseball team, especially considering the amount of success this year’s group of players had last summer.

The Falcon legion team made it to regionals and was crowned the regular season champions of the Lehigh Valley Legion Baseball League in 2017.

But this group of Falcons will be the first ones to tell you the team underachieved in 2018.

Salisbury finished .500 in the Colonial League, going 9-9 and missing out on the sixth and final league playoff spot by 2.5 games.

The Lehigh Carbon Community College softball team did something this season that no other Cougar team had accomplished in the program’s history.

Plenty of local softball players were at the center of the memorable campaign.

LCCC became the first team from Pennsylvania to win the Region XIX Championship. The Cougars also advanced to the Division 3 NJCAA National Championship Tournament for the first time and won a game before their season came to a close in mid-May.

Lindsay Bauer earned dozens of track and field medals in high school, four dozen to be exact. That includes six from states and 13 from districts over her career at Salisbury High School.

The Rider University sophomore picked up her first collegiate medal a few weeks ago.

For numerous reasons, Salisbury senior Jack Reichenbach admitted he didn’t have his best jumps at this past week’s District 11 Class 2A Track and Field Championships. But it didn’t seem to matter much.

Reichenbach was crowned champion in both the high jump and long jump events on Day 1 at Whitehall High School. It was the second straight gold medal for Reichenbach in the long jump, but the first time he was able to capture gold in the high jump.

While the rest of the Salisbury baseball players were celebrating in the dugout and starting to rake the infield dirt, Ryan Miller took a jog through left field and into the woods behind the fence.

Moments earlier he had connected on a walk-off homerun that completed Salisbury’s comeback bid to keep its district playoff hopes alive. He wanted that ball back as a souvenir.

Five Salisbury softball seniors were honored before last week’s game against Northwestern. But it was a junior that got the Falcons’ offense rolling.

Junior outfielder Peyton Stauffer connected on a two-run single in the fifth inning that sparked the Falcons. Salisbury (12-3 in Colonial League) scored four runs in that fifth inning to retake the lead, and the Falcons staved off a Northwestern (10-7) rally for a 5-4 victory at Patriots Park on Friday night.

Lil Crouthamel spent the last two seasons, as well as half of this spring, behind home plate catching for pitcher Emily Silberman.

But after a two-game skid, head coach Jeff Appleman made a change, putting Crouthamel back to her natural position in center field. The move paid huge dividends against rival Southern Lehigh last week.

For much of his high school career, John Yurconic spent his time on the tennis court at No. 1 singles. He was routinely matched up against opposing teams’ best players.

Yurconic, now a freshman at Lafayette, has found his way back to that No. 1 singles position. But he’s also been occupying consistent court time at No. 2 doubles this spring, a change that he’s still getting accustomed to.

Even before the season, Salisbury head coach Mike Pochron was aware that solid defensive play would be key to the Falcons’ success. Thus far it’s been an up-and-down spring in that regard.

During Saturday’s game against Saucon Valley, Salisbury felt the effect of being on the wrong side of that pendulum. Four errors played a big part in helping the Panthers (9-3 in Colonial League) take an early lead and hold off the Falcons for a 6-4 win at Saucon Valley High School.

The Colonial League Boys Tennis Championships were held last Friday at Saucon Valley High School, and a number of Salisbury players had impressive outings.

The duo of Tyler Sechler-Stone and Dylan Weber at No. 2 doubles had the best showing of the day. After a win over Bangor’s Grant Kaye and Dan Rubel (8-5) in the first round, the No. 3 seeded Salisbury duo downed Wilson’s Matt Glovas and Jon Fischer, the No. 7 seed, 8-5. The Falcons’ run came to an end in the championship match against Moravian Academy’s Matt Barnes and Jules Bemporad, 8-1.