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Lottery Numbers for Monday, June 6

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Wyoming Valley West baseball triumphs in state opener

HANOVER TWP. &#8212; Lou DiPasquale never downplayed the fact that he believed his Northwest Area baseball squad expected to leave Hanover Area High School with a PIAA Class 2A victory.Then again, it doesn&#8217;t matter who is in the other dugout, the Ranger manager always has that mindset.&#8220;We came here expecting to win a baseball game, I can tell you that. Just as we would if we were playing the Yankees. We would expect to win,&#8221; DiPasquale said.He&#8217;s also a realist and knows you can&#8217;t win a state playoff game with five errors and only six hits.North Penn-Mansfield broke open a 2-2 game after three innings by scoring five runs in the fourth &#8211; only one of those earned &#8211; and ripping a trio of Ranger pitchers for 13 hits en route to a 9-2 victory Monday afternoon.&#8220;It just wasn&#8217;t our day. It&#8217;s sad for the seniors to go out like this because I had a great group,&#8221; DiPasquale said. &#8220;They have really done so much for this program. This team will always be special to me. They made a lot of doubters believers. We performed at a level that some in Northwest aren&#8217;t used to seeing. We are going to work hard, and we will celebrate that we are the District 2 champ now that our run is over.&#8221;Lady Luck appeared to be seated next to the Rangers through three innings.Northwest had escaped bases-loaded jams twice and were hitting NP-Mansfield starter JP Shaw pretty well.That all changed in the fourth.The Tigers sent 11 batters to the plate, and took advantage of three Ranger errors in the frame. Brendan Hill, Joel Whitteker and Shaw each had RBI in the fourth. One run scored after an errant throw by the third baseman sailed past the first-base bag. Another stepped on home via the team&#8217;s third fielding miscue.After stranding seven through three innings, the Tigers were able to finally score some runs. NP-Mansfield, though, still left 12 runners on base in seven innings &#8211; nine of those in scoring position.&#8220;We couldn&#8217;t find that big hit, and Northwest is a good team,&#8221; NP-Mansfield manager Matt Perry said. &#8220;They just battled and kept us off the board. I think we were one hit away from breaking this open, and their pitchers just battled and kept us in check.&#8221;It looked like Northwest could break through.Bryce Harrison drove a single through the infield to start off the second and scored two pitches later after Austin Ford found a gap in right-center. The ball rolled all the way to the fence as the triple allowed Harrison to score the game&#8217;s first run. Ford&#8217;s courtesy runner Matt Gleco also crossed home on Brian Hardiman&#8217;s perfectly-placed sacrifice squeeze up the first-base line as the Rangers had a 2-0 lead after two.That&#8217;s the last time Northwest had any type of success against Shaw, who improved to 4-0 in the postseason and picked up his 12th victory in 2016.Northwest was held hitless from the third inning through the sixth frame and didn&#8217;t break through until the seventh.An fielding error on Brandon Hardiman&#8217;s infield roller, followed by back-to-back singles from Brandon Reno and Andrew Boberick loaded the bases with two outs. But Shaw coaxed a grounder to second baseman Derrick Herbst to seal the seven-run victory.&#8220;We&#8217;ve been a resilient team, and have been down plenty of times this year,&#8221; Perry said. &#8220;One thing the guys have is a lot of confidence in JP. We know he will keep us in the game, and we will be able to battle back.&#8221;The trio of Northwest pitchers &#8211; Reese Godfrey, David Piestrak and Brandon Hardiman &#8211; struggled with the zone, walking nine batters with only four strikeouts. Out of the nine runs that crossed home, only three of those were earned.&#8220;We just played some sloppy defense, and we didn&#8217;t execute,&#8221; DiPasquale said. &#8220;Today, we did things we haven&#8217;t done all year. We have dodged some bullets like most teams that win championships do. We just couldn&#8217;t dodge them in this game. We didn&#8217;t panic, and we did some damage control when we had to. Sometimes, the damage just gets you. They were just better than us today.&#8221;North Penn-Mansfield 9, Northwest Area 2NP-M `AB`R`H`BIHill cf `4`1`2`1Shaw p `4`0`2`1Compton cr `0`2`0`0Hillson ss `4`1`1`0Wesneski lf `4`3`2`0Dinger 3b `4`1`3`1Adams 1b `5`0`1`0Williamson c `2`1`0`1Herbst 2b `0`0`0`0Weis dh `3`0`2`0Whitteker cf `3`0`0`1Totals `33`9`13`52B &#8212; Shaw.Northwest `AB`R`H`BIEvans cf `3`0`0`0Reno ss `3`0`1`0Boberick lf `4`0`2`0Godfrey p `0`0`0`0Campbell dh-3b `4`0`0`0Harrison rf `3`1`1`0Ford c `3`0`1`1Gleco cr `0`1`0`0Bi Hardiman 1b `1`0`0`1Br Hardiman 3b-2b-p `3`0`0`0Piestrak 2b-p `3`0`1`0Totals `27`2`6`23B &#8212; Ford.NP-Mansfield `002 `510 `1 &#8212; 9Northwest `020 `000 `0 &#8212; 2NP-Mansfield `IP `H`R`ER`BB`SOShaw (W) `7`6`2`2`1`6American `IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOGodfrey `2.1`5`2`2`3`3Piestrak (L) `1.1`3`5`1`3`0Br Hardiman `3.1`5`2`0`3`1<style>
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<div class="neCaption">5/16/16. Sean McKeag | Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_HatBat.jpg</photo0><caption0>5/16/16. Sean McKeag | Times Leader</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Tom FoxFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @tlsports.</shirttailMeta></div>

Errors doom Northwest in 9-2 loss to North Penn-Mansfield in states opener