Tamaqua Area head coach Jeff Reading embraces his players, including Mason Ligenza (7), while distributing silver medals after an 11-6 loss to Northwestern Lehigh on Thursday in the District 11 Class 4A championship game at Robert Wetzel Field. (Photo by Bob Lipsky)

FOUNTAIN SPRINGS — A special season for a special group of players ended Thursday afternoon at Robert Wetzel Field.

Twenty-one victories. A Schuylkill League championship. And a trip to the district final.

All of those accomplishments by the Tamaqua baseball team won’t be diminished by one game, an 11-6 loss to Northwestern Lehigh in the District 11 Class 4A championship at North Schuylkill High School.

The Blue Raiders (21-2) missed an opportunity to score early, then once they fell behind, they had to battle uphill through the rest of the 2-hour, 24-minute marathon.

“Not capitalizing in the beginning hurt,” Tamaqua coach Jeff Reading said. “It’s been our trademark to get up on a team early and be able to add to it. They were the ones to score first, and it was hard to bounce back. They kept adding to it. They answered. They had good at-bats, and they did what a championship team should do.”

Tamaqua’s Mason Ligenza and Jake Yenser led off the bottom of the first inning with singles to put runners at the corners with nobody out. Winning pitcher Cole Dynda worked out of trouble by getting a shallow fly ball, a lineout to left field and a strikeout to keep Tamaqua off the board.

The Blue Raiders struck out just four times and hit a lot of balls hard, a few of them right into Northwestern Lehigh infielders’ gloves. Left fielder Brady Zimmerman and center fielder Eli Zimmerman — a pair of football stars, too — showed off their speed by tracking down line drives off Tamaqua’s bats.

“We hit some at-’em balls,” Reading said. “They made the plays.”

After the Tigers (20-5) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third inning, Tamaqua battled back in the fourth. After one run scored on an error, Landon Kamant hit a sacrifice fly to center field to trim the deficit to 4-2.

In a recurring theme, every time Tamaqua cut into Northwestern Lehigh’s lead, the Tigers went to work extending the margin to a more comfortable number.

Northwestern Lehigh scored two runs in the fifth inning, one in the sixth and four more in the seventh. Dynda finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Watson Church, who came on relief to get the final two outs, went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Aiden Freeman’s two-run triple down the right field line helped the Tigers push their lead to 6-2 in the fifth inning.

Tamaqua closed to 6-4 in the bottom of the fifth. Kane hit into a fielder’s choice to drive in a run, and Cooper Ansbach hit a sacrifice fly that Eli Zimmerman tracked down at the fence near the 350-foot mark. Just like in the first inning, though, the Blue Raiders stranded two runners on base. They couldn’t deliver the clutch hit with those runners in scoring position to put a big inning on the scoreboard.

Kane capped the scoring with a two-run home run to center field in the bottom of the seventh, but Church retired the next two batters to end the game and clinch the Tigers’ first district title since 2018. Tamaqua last won the district crown in 2017.

Northwestern Lehigh will host District 1 champion Pope John Paul II in the first round of states Monday.

Tamaqua’s three pitchers struggled throughout, working behind a lot of hitters. The trio combined to allow 11 hits, while walking eight and hitting a batter. They combined for five strikeouts.

The game marked the end of the careers of an all-time Tamaqua senior class: Ansbach, Noah Steigerwalt, Matt Vecolitis, Ligenza, Mateyak, Kane, Zach Breiner and Maximus Najarro.

“We had a great season,” Reading said. “That’s the hard part. This group has been special. These seniors are going out, since I’ve been coaching here, with the best record … loss-wise. The seniors, four of them started as freshmen. They helped build the program back up from the ground up again. I said to our underclassmen, ‘You see what needs to be done. Grow from it.’ ”

Game Summary

District 11 Class 4A Championship

At Robert Wetzel Field

NORTHWESTERN LEHIGH (11) — E. Zimmerman cf 1 2 0 1, Fitch c 4 1 1 2, Neupaier cr 0 1 0 0, Dynda p-2b 4 0 3 2, Krimmel cr 0 1 0 0, Church 1b-p 4 2 3 2, Farber ss 5 1 1 0, Fitzgerald rf 3 1 1 1, Konyak 2b 0 0 0 0, Freeman dh 4 0 1 2, Humes 3b 3 1 0 0, B. Zimmerman lf 3 1 1 0. Totals 31 11 11 10.

TAMAQUA (6) — Ligenza cf 3 2 2 0, Yenser ss-2b-p 4 0 2 0, Kane c 4 2 2 3, Ansbach p-ss 3 1 1 1, Mateyak rf-p-rf 3 0 0 0, Kamant 3b 2 0 0 1, Morgans lf 3 0 0 0, Frohnheiser 1b 0 0 0 0, Najarro dh 2 0 0 0, Steigerwalt pr 0 0 0 0, Witkowski 2b 1 0 0 0, Hess ph-rf 2 1 0 0. Totals 27 6 7 5.

NWL (20-5)               004      021   4 — 11

Tam (21-2)              000     220   2 —  6

E — NW Lehigh 3, Tamaqua 4

DP — None

LOB — NW Lehigh 9, Tamaqua 6

3B — Freeman

HR — Kane

SB — E. Zimmerman, Fitch, Church, Fitzgerald, Ligenza 2, Yenser, Kane 2, Ansbach

SAC — Mateyak

SF — E. Zimmerman, Kamant, Ansbach

NW Lehigh

                                       IP     H      R       ER    BB    K

Dynda W                6.1     6        5        2       2       4

Church                       .2     1        1         1       0       0

Tamaqua

                  IP     H      R       ER    BB    K

Ansbach L               3        4      4         3       3       2

Mateyak                 3.2    6      7         7       4       3

Yenser                    .1     1       0       0        1       0

HBP — by Mateyak (B. Zimmerman). WP — Ansbach. T — 2:24.