5/10/25
 
WEST WINDSOR TWP., NJ – The bats got hot early, and Liam O'Leary threw his best game of the year, as Lackawanna College baseball secured its tenth Region XIX championship with a 13-6 triumph over Mercer County CC on a sunny Saturday afternoon in New Jersey.
 
The Falcons (31-16) scored ten runs through the first five innings, taking advantage of four Mercer errors and using extra-base knocks from Tyler Lepage (Macungie, PA), Deacon Brown (Williamsport, PA), and Brooks Henderson IV (Feasterville, PA) to build their advantage. Meanwhile, on the mound, O'Leary (Souderton, PA) was sparkling, striking out a season-best 13 batters and scattering seven hits over eight innings of work, giving up two runs. Jack Hughes (Hamilton, NJ) and Louis Kegerreis (Murrysville, PA) each had three RBIs, while Lepage and Henderson added two apiece. Jake Kelleher (Exeter, PA) had two hits and three runs, while Jack Friend (East Setauket, NY) added two hits and two runs.
 
Lackawanna jumped early on the Vikings (34-18), who had won an elimination game the previous day against Sussex to make the title game. Kelleher led the game off with a single to left, and Brown doubled to put two on with nobody out, instantly. A hit batter loaded the bases and brought up Kegerreis. He lifted a liner to center, but the fielder misplayed the ball with a swirling wind, and it sailed past him for extra bases, scoring a pair to put the Falcons up. Lepage hammered a double to right field to score two more, and the Falcons led 4-0 after the top of the first.
 
Mercer wasted a leadoff double, as O'Leary struck out a pair of batters and got a fly out. The Falcons added another run in the second on a wild pitch, then two more in the top of the fourth, when Henderson connected on a first-pitch swing to deep left field for his sixth home run of the season, pushing the Lackawanna advantage to 7-0 after 3.5 innings.
 
O'Leary threw up another zero in the fourth, part of 16-straight outs he forced, and the Falcons scored three more in the top of the fifth, thanks to a double from Grant Dalton (Bedford, IN), an RBI ground out, and a single from Kegerreis. After 4.5 innings, the Falcons led 10-0.
 
Mercer finally got on the board in the sixth. The Vikings got their first baserunner since the first inning with a dribbler to O'Leary, whose throw to first was a bit off-line, though the runner beat it anyway. Another single, this one to left, put two on. A fielder's choice made it runners on the corners with two outs, and an infield single to third got the Vikings on the scoresheet at 10-1. O'Leary bounced back for a strikeout, his eighth to that point, to strand the pair of runners and head into the seventh.
 
The Falcons stranded a pair in the top of the seventh, and O'Leary pitched around a one-out single and a walk to keep the Vikings off the board in the bottom frame, sending the game to the eighth with the Falcons still in front, 10-1.
 
With two outs in the top of the eighth, and a runner on first, Friend singled to left to put two on. Kelleher followed with a single the opposite way to right, scoring a runner to make it 11-1. A walk loaded the bases, and Hughes delivered with an opposite field single to score two, pushing the Lackawanna lead out to 13-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth.
 
Some two-out magic for Mercer plated a run, but O'Leary struck out the side to keep it at a double-digit advantage and ended his day at 127 pitches and 13 strikeouts in eight innings. It's the longest outing for Lackawanna pitcher since at least 2019, and O'Leary's 13 K's are the most strikeouts since Nick Biasi threw 15 strikeouts in March 2024.
 
Josiah Williams (Emmaus, PA) came on to pitch the ninth, and Mercer finally started to make some headway. An error in left let the leadoff batter get to second, and the Vikings quickly singled him in for a run to make it 13-3. Two more singles loaded the bases, and a fielder's choice scored a run to make it 13-4. Now with one out, Mercer got another single, this to right field, which plated another run and made it 13-5, Falcons. With runners on the corners and still just one out, Lackawanna chose to bring Nick Matson (Nanticoke, PA) in from center field and onto the mound to get the final two outs. A walk loaded the bases, but Matson got a sac fly to trade a run for that crucial second out. With runners on first and second and two down, Matson induced a ground ball to the right side, which Hughes scooped up and flipped to Matson, who was sprinting to cover first. Nick stepped on the bag, and the Falcons secured their tenth region title, and fourth championship under head coach Mike McCarry.
 
The win carries with it implications for next weekend's NJCAA East District tournament, as the Falcons will now be the host for the tournament. Mercer County CC, as the region runner-up, is also qualified. The two Region XIX squads will await the winner from the Region XV tournament, as well as the winner in the sub-district series between Region III's Monroe CC and Region XXI's UConn Avery Point. The East District tournament will start on Friday, May 16^th, at sites and times to be determined.